Competitive and Market Analysis

How is your product or service perceived in the market? If the brand and product is similar to competitors, a brand positioning and differentiation strategy can increase your customer appeal. To be able to do this, you must have a deep understanding of the competition in the area.

Questions to answer when examining companies and products:

• Who are the top 3-4 market players and what space do they occupy in your category?
• For each company:
  • Who is their target market, and what are their products and services?
  • What have been their successes to date?
    • What are they trying to sell?
    • Has is it worked or have they changed their strategy over time?
  • What is their brand position statement?
  • What are their competitive strengths, and how will you position your company uniquely?
  • In what ways are customers satisfied with them or dissatisfied?

Questions to answer when examining brands:

• What three adjectives best describes each competitor?
• What traits are aligned with customer expectations?
• What key messages do brands convey in marketing materials? (Including website, social media, print, collateral)

I would argue we should focus on the "Job to be Done" as the primary concern. However, there are some specific demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioral traits we can understand for consumers. From a business perspective, we can focus on opportunities and advancement .

Business 2 Business (BtoB)

• Who might be interested in buying this and reselling?
• Retail Store?
• Restaurants?
• Hotels?
• Transportation?
• Other?

Business 2 Consumer (BtoC)

• Who is the "Perfect" end user?
• Age range
• Gender
• Daily Activities (what does a normal day look like?)
• What do they do for fun?
• How are they influenced? (TV, Sports, Celebrities, Friends, Parents, Religion, etc...)
• What do they do on the internet? (where do they spend their time?)
• Where do they live? (Rural or Urban? What part of the country? City or Suburbs?)
• Where do they shop? (For clothes, electronics, food, etc...)

Student Activity