Ongoing Competitive Analysis a Must
Good competitive analysis is essential. And that applies to large AND small firms. This post covers addressing competitive analysis questions. But first, let us begin with three observations by us.
- Detailed, accurate information helps firms make better decisions. And firms then enact better tactics. Yet, getting comprehensive, targeted data is not always simple. (1)
- In the competitive global marketplace, marketers face a tough balancing act. On one hand, they must promote their products as superior to other offerings. But, customers may become unhappy because they buy something not meeting expectations. Then, they may be lost to the firm that over-promises forever. (2)
- Entrepreneurship can be both exhilarating and scary. It gives a person a chance to carry out a vision for a business. However, it may also entail risk. Motivation and an innovative business concept are great building blocks. Yet, they are not sufficient to prosper in a competitive market. Success as an entrepreneur — and growing over a long horizon — requires diverse skills and a solid approach. After starting up, entrepreneurs may look back and ask “what if”? What if I picked a different opportunity? And what if I listened to advice I got? Also, what if I better planned my cash flow? etc. etc. (3)
Addressing Competitive Analysis Questions
With the preceding in mind, ask competitive analysis questions. And address them.
As Christine White reports for HubSpot:
“When was the last time you ran a competitive analysis? If you’re not sure, or if the last ‘analysis’ you ran was brief, you are missing important intelligence. And it could help you grow. Yes, each firm can benefit from regular competitor analysis. By performing a competitor analysis, you’ll be able to: (1) Identify gaps in the market. (2) Develop new goods and services. (3) Uncover market trends. (4) Market and sell more effectively. By learning any of these four skills, you will go down the path of achievement. But don’t get too excited to start. We need to nail down a few important basics.”
White offers 57 different questions to consider in a competitive analysis.
And by clicking the image, you can access a FREE competitive analysis toolkit: “HubSpot and Alexa.com teamed up to give you our competitive analysis campaign kit. Don’t know where to start? We have a guide to walk you through it. Ready to dive in? Check out the template.”
From the download link, save the zip file. Then open it in the folder where it is saved. You will find two resources: a guide and an interactive toolkit template.
Surely, it is complicated and not easy for marketers. It is key to understand that you can not hype a product too much that it does not reach customers’ expectations. But, marketers must appeal and convince the market that their product is better than others in that market. It is not an easy job to do.
Know your competition! If a customer is not going to you for a product or service that means they are going to some one else. Find out why. It is important to not just emulate what your competition is doing but to out do them in it. Be bigger and better than what the other guys bring to the table, that will secure your spot in the market. Most people want the best of the best, so find your niche, find out what other companies are doing to get customers and do it better.
Really nice post! I learnt a lot after reading this post. As a matter of fact, it is really important for one to know him or herself because that`s how people or businesses know how they are doing or what the others are thinking about.
There are lots of tips that we could learn to addressing competitive analysis questions above. They are very useful for today’s company in the more competitive market. Addressing competitive analysis questions that is the most important thing for the company to take advantage than other. It is the best way the know their competitors and themselves. Knowing each competitive strategy, then recover the questions, research, analysis to find the way to solve and get improve.
A competitive analysis is incredibly important in today’s world. You need to know what other people are doing and how you can differeniciate yourself from the competition. It may also uncover what you are doing incorrectly. I would like to add, however that the source you use does make an incredible difference. For example, if your analysis consists of surveys that were generated electronically, I would be incredibly skeptical of the results as compared to looking at certain demographic groups on Facebook, for example. There is an incredible difference between ethnographic research and survey. Ethnographic research looks at what people do. Survey looks at what people think that they think. And these can lead to incredibly different results. Many times people don’t say or act as they think that they act. In fact, sometimes they act in the complete opposite ways. An excellent example of this was the predictions of who would win the Trump, Clinton election. Surveys sought a clear win for Clinton. Clearly, some were silent about their decision for Trump. Another example where this applies is in people are asked about their driving ability, and they usually overestimate their driving ability when compared to objective fact. I realize that a competitive analysis is the analysis of competition, yet I would still argue that this principle applies: it does matter where your statistics are from and you should proportion your level of belief accordingly. Of course, this adds to the confusion for marketers as discussed in this blog post.
Entrepreneurs today are faced with more competition than ever before in history. Digital technology has connected consumers with a global marketplace of goods to choose from, which means that companies have to do extensive competitive analysis on an even larger scale. Research and innovation is the key to surviving in the global market.
Competitive analyses are crucial to success in flexible markets like those we experience today. The internet and technological advances introduce new opportunities on a regular basis, and if firms are not completing a competitive analysis, the firm could potentially lose out on ventures on which other firms could be capitalizing.
Knowing who you are competing against as a firm is extremely important today especially, because there are so many companies selling similar ideas and products. Having the the internet today makes everything ten times worse also. Differentiating who you are and what you are selling from similar firms is a must. By analyzing competitors you can learn a lot about your business as well. It is important to not ignore these issues that may seem small, and dig deeper into the reasons consumers are choosing to go where they do.
This post is really helpful. In my opinion, finding out customer’s needs and recommend for them useful products is important and difficult for a marketer and a company.So, addressing competitive analysis questions is useful and helpful for companies. Besides, marketers also need to provide their products are better than others.
I really like this post, I certainly think that this is a good article that can help me a lot. A successful enterprise must make an analysis of its competitors.
And then make a better strategy for the firm based on the analysis to target the market. Also, another important thing is, they also have to investigate the customer’s needs.
This is an extremely successful post in reminding us the truth about competition. As technology advances, finding a competitive advantage is only becoming tougher. It makes the occupation of an entrepreneur more of a challenge. That being said, however, it ensure that successful companies are ones with products and services that are truly inventive and desired by today’s market.
What I got from this is the feeling of when you are a company or a marketer and you feel good and safe check yourself and never feel that way again. I don’t know but that is the feeling I got. You should always be doing competitive analysis’s to see what is going right and what is going wrong. mostly what is going wrong.