Companies’ need competitors analysis. Today’s market is very volatile, nothing is constant anymore. Customers buy from you and tomorrow they change their mind and turn to your competitor. So, it is vital to fight for your customers. Business constantly needs to innovate how to keep them also not forgetting to attract the new ones.
There are very few virgin customers on the market, those that have never bought from you nor from your competitor. Their percentage is so minimal after all that they do not deserve so much attention, especially if your reputation speaks for your quality and is thus attract sufficiently new buyers. It is a huge mistake to disregard a huge amount of customers that could be yours. Yes, those that are buying from your competitor.
Businesses must stay original and keep on learning. It is vital to upkeep constant excellence in performance. And where best to learn than from the competitor?
If you will understand your competitors, you will better understand the customers that you don’t have. Knowing your competitor is key to understanding your customers and their behaviour – why do they buy from you? Why don’t they buy from you?
Best market strategies are to offence and defence. You need to surprise your competitors and overwhelm your customers.
What shall I look for?
First of all, understand the market size. Who are the most important players and how important they are to your customers? There are different kind of competitors: direct and indirect. Understanding both of them will unseal the market potential and will give you a sight of the whole market horizon.
Next things are the pricing, positioning and customer service of your competitors. All of these are important factors that deserve your attention.
So what are the tools to learn from a competitor?
- Visit your competitor. Explore their store, visit the office, send them an email, call their customer service, act as their customer.
- Talk to your customer. It is amazing how much your customers know more about your competitor than you do. Find out if your customers previously have used the services of your competitor and how did that go.
- Take a look at social media and the internet. Read reviews, look at the new products and services launch, see their blogs and company press. There is so much information available online.
- Follow up yearly the progress. Document the data and benchmark yourself to see yearly trends.
In conclusion, finding out the competitor’s strength and their weaknesses will definitely give you a new perspective. It will give you fresh ideas on how to develop yourself in the eyes of your customers. You will have tools to understand your market potential and customers deeper than ever before and re-evaluate your market position. In the end, this is the key for better business.
Katrium offers its customers a set of tools to perform a reliable competitor analysis on a yearly basis. Read more about our research services here.