Hello all. I have to do a detailed competitive analysis for one of our biggest competitors. Can you guys share some templates that you refer to while doing competitive analysis.
Your suggestions would be highly appreciated.
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Competitive analysis is a process of evaluating and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, as well as their strategies and tactics in the market. The purpose of a competitive analysis is to gather and analyze information about your competitors to gain a deeper understanding of their capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses relative to your own, as well as identify opportunities and threats that can impact your business. This information can then be used to inform decision-making, such as developing a marketing strategy, improving products and services, and adjusting business operations to stay ahead in the market. Competitive analysis can be applied to a range of industries and markets and can include a wide range of data sources, such as market research, financial reports, and publicly available information about the competitor’s business. There is no general template for conducting a competitive analysis as each product or business might have different needs and may vary accordingly. If you could throw some more light about your company and product, maybe we can come up with a strategy or template that you are looking for.
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I don’t really have a template; however, a key thing to keep in mind is: what’s the end goal of this competitive analysis? What question are you trying to answer? Is it to get an overview of the company? Is it to size a new market opportunity? Is it to determine what you need to “win” in the space?
What you’ll have in the analysis will vary based on the goal. That said, here are typical things I’d expect to see:
- Feature gap analysis (what do they have vs. what we have)
- Strengths and weaknesses of the competitor (you can extend this to be a full SWOT analysis, so also add opportunities and threats)
- Revenue and growth of the competitor (if available)
- Market share
- Background on the competitor (e.g., how did they get started)
- Company/Product positioning (e.g., how do they position themselves in the market)
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I couldn’t agree more with @FergusXavier, it is really important that you understand the goal of the presentation. Also, who originally asked for this and who will it be presented to?
The higher the level in the org, most likely the more simple and data driven you will want it to be.
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Thank you so much for your responses. These are incredibly helpful, and I appreciate you reminding me to concentrate on the questions I need to respond to.
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Have a look in the book “value proposition design” there are some nice tools in it. There is one where you map out the different parameters for your product and your competitors (price, quality, ease of use, onboarding costs, etc.). I forgot what that mode is called.
You may also have a look at PESTEL or PORTERS FIVE FORCES. SWAT I think a bit too simple.
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@BinaCampos, the tool you’re referring to is likely a Value Proposition Canvas. It’s a tool from the book “Value Proposition Design” by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur. The Value Proposition Canvas is a visual tool used to map out the value proposition of a product or service, including both the customer and the competitor. It helps to understand the key factors that drive value for customers, such as price, quality, ease of use, and onboarding costs. By comparing your product’s value proposition with that of your competitors, you can identify gaps and opportunities for differentiation and improvement. The Value Proposition Canvas can be a useful tool in competitive analysis, helping you to understand the value proposition of your competitors and how to effectively position your product in the market.
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Written from a Dir. of PM perspective: For a new APM, I’d expect you to pull together an excel sheet? Word doc? (I don’t care much on the format, I want the contents) listing the competition, their key selling points, any gaps vs. other key players (probably with a focus on our products so egos don’t get bruised), market share, and whatever pricing you can get your hands on. If your industry has a focus on B2C, also would want whatever details you could sleuth on the customer experience.
From there I’d pull together a couple of stakeholders (sales and whoever else is “core”) for a joint SWOT exercise, lead by you (APM). I’d expect you to have a strong POV on who/what is where, but also want input from sales, especially in terms of win/loss reviews (I realize these are mythically uncommon).
Re: “only 1 competitor” - it’s rare this is actually the case. Obviously follow the directions you’ve been given, but make sure you think about: “are there other ways to solve this problem?” (e.g. hire 3 staff and make sure they do it in excel), because home-baked/manual solutions are also competition.
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One important stakeholder I forgot to mention are the customers.
@JaneWinfred should definitely talk or have someone talk with (potential) customers to make sure the analysis has its priorities straight. It’s no use fretting over a feature of a competing product if in reality no customer uses it.
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Part of your challenge with what templates to use depends on focus. That is, what’s the point of the analysis in the first place? Some folks are looking generally at whole markets, others at particular products, and then there’s varying degrees of financial and marketplace data. For example, if you need share of voice in particular media or store sales and share of segment, you may need to pay for some syndicated data.
I’ve used some templates nicely provided by a couple of folks…
Personally, I’m a fan of the good ole’ SWOT…
but to figure out what goes in there and not just randomly brainstorm, consider looking up the PESTLE model as well.
These lenses to consider your product or whole business position can help inform the line items that might go into the SWOT. Some people sit around looking at a SWOT chart and just try to brainstorm. But I think it’s more insightful to consider each quadrant through the different categories of PESTLE, and maybe more industry specific criteria like distribution or whatever.
You maybe already know about Five Forces Analysis, that’s a great one to look up. At the product/feature level, I also like Radar Charts where you can choose your own criteria. This helps maybe find a hole in the marketplace you can fill.
For financial data though, (and maybe also any depth of social media analysis, or digital marketing analysis from PPC to other ad buys), again… that’s something for which you may need to go to your marketing department or your manager and get budget to buy data. Whether that’s from Nielsen or IRI or anyone of a dozens of sources will of course depend on your industry. I’m sorry, but I can’t offer you much here in terms of templates as it could be anything depending on what you’re trying to figure out.
I came across this as well:
This is good if you can get hold of market share/revenue/growth data.
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It depends on how this will be used.
Will this be a brief, one page PP for a meeting? Then use a simple table, product A/B as columns, and descending rows as general features, with a “net winner” column at the far right per feature category. Summarize everything in a post bullet.
Is this a full product comparison for R&D? Then break each product into similar functional feature sets, create a full word doc, and list out Feature 1, Product A vs B. Use screenshots, functional workflow, and summarize everything at the beginning and end.
Is this a user marketing comparison? Then follow a similar format as the presentation, but only focus on the competitive benefits of your own product in measurable but understandable ways.
BTW Awesome response @PriyaVarma.
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Forget the template, just let your thoughts flow. I’d start by asking why am I doing this analysis, why am I doing it now, what do I have to fear - competitor eating up my customers, competitor solved a problem I couldn’t, how are they managing costs. How are their CX better, who are their partners. There are a ton of templates and all of them are basically aimed at stimulating thoughts. So why don’t u directly start from there. It’s questions like these that makes your competitor what they are. As far as the financials, features go they’re just a consequence of what they’re doing right and the problem they’re trying to solve.
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