Competitor Analysis For Any Size Business With a Quick and Dirty Tool

This article is called Competitor Analysis for any size business with a quick and dirty tool. It offers our basic thoughts on how to start analysing your competitors. What is Competitor Analysis?rnCompetitor Analysis is an evaluation of your identified competitors. So you understand them and be able to compare your way of doing things to theirs. To understand current and future direction, how they do business, their strengths and weaknesses and why their customers buy from them. Collate and grouprnAnalyse competitors by collating and grouping them into how directly they compete for your customer’s cash. List each of your competitors’ products or services. Determine how profitable they are and what their revenues are. Understand their growth strategies, marketing objectives and assumptions. Find out their current and future strategy, cost, supply chain and organisational structure. And their strengths and weaknesses. Answer questionsrnAnswer questions such as: Who are your actual competitors?rnWhat do they offer their customers?rnWhat’s their market share?rnWhat are their current strategies?rnWhat are their future strategies?rnHow do they market their products? On what platforms?rnWhat’s your opinion on your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses? rnWhat potential threats do your competitors possess?rnCan you see any opportunities in what your competitors are doing? And how they are doing it?rnConduct a simple product or service comparison grid. Think about what your customers would buy if they didn’t source from you. Get your notebook outrnOn the left side of your notebook, write down five competitor products or services. At the top of the notebook, write down the main aspects of each competitor product or service. This list is pretty well up to you. What you feel (or, more importantly, what your customers think) are the most important. But include things like target market, price and customer service level. Target market segment, size, distribution and sales. Look for similarities and differences in what you do. Ask yourself what’s relevant to your current and future customers. The grid will show you how you fit in, or indeed, don’t fit in within the market place. The grid could show you what’s missing in the market and maybe even isolate something you are missing. Competitor Analysis for any size business with a quick and dirty toolrnThis article was called Competitor Analysis for any size business with a quick and dirty tool. It offered our thoughts on how to start analysing your competitors.