Winning the Business War with Tactical Research
Learning lessons in business is important, it’s how progress and improvements are made. When businesses commit to competitor research, they are also acquiring second-hand knowledge from those they evaluate externally. For example, when Coca-Cola launched a new formula in 1985, sales plummeted. Many viewed it as a marketing disaster; Coke lost over $34 million. Their competitor, PepsiCo, learned the value of retaining a much-loved brand and product without making the same mistake as Coke through competitor analysis. They acquired vast insight into the target audience without spending a penny.
Information on the competition and the market is your ticket to win, without it, a business cannot justify any decision taken, nor can they see clearly or understand the best strategy available.
B2B Targeted insight
In highly niche industries the market size is compacted, which forces businesses to be ruthless, turning the fight for clients into a cutthroat gladiator pit. Any advantage here is seen as vital, and competitor research is exactly that. Insight on marketing activities, client acquisition, target audience, sales, and products, all provide an excellent opportunity to improve upon their offering and win the (business) battle royale. Making it no competition in the customers’ eyes, increasing sales and diminishing the competitor’s resistance to the businesses goals of market domination.
Within a B2B business model, businesses work closely with potential clients and competitors, thus making it imperative to understand their mistakes to avoid falling down the holes themselves. Businesses must also keep an active understanding of their competitions marketing output in order to learn what their goals are and where their strategy is leading them. This helps businesses sharpen their own strategy, by comparing it against those benchmarked in the industry.
How to do it?
There are 3 types of competitors to be aware of and to commit research to understand, in order to beat them at their own game.
- Direct competitors, those who offer the same products to the same market.
- Indirect competitors, those who offer similar products to a different market.
- The most threatening of the three, however, are replacement competitors, those who offer a substitute offering to the same market.
One of the options to fully evaluate these competitors is a SWOT analysis. This complete framework identifies a businesses strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. A SWOT analysis helps businesses improve their offering by replicating successful facets, and by addressing lacking features that could help provide the greatest possible competitive advantage. Alternative frameworks to SWOT include Porters 5 Forces, Strategic Group Analysis, Growth-Share Matrix, and Perceptual Mapping. Each of them serves a purpose to identify businesses competitors and display the insight in order to action it.
To visualise the results, consider formatting the information of the competitor research into categories and listing the SWOT features in a clear and understandable manner. The value of competitor analysis lies in being able to action the insight found and make meaningful business decisions based on it. It helps you answer questions like;
- Has a competitor launched a similar product/marketing campaign?
- Are there areas of a competitor that your business could do better?
- Is the market saturated, or is there an opening your business could exploit?
Expert Analysis
Sometimes, businesses need specialist help because if you’re doing something worthwhile then it’s worth doing it right. Market research is a complicated, long, drawn-out process whereby entire industries and markets need to be surveyed in an extensive all-encompassing mapping process.
Our varied and diverse talent portfolio includes individuals with highly refined market research skills. These experts have committed countless hours for our clients delving into niche markets in far sprung corners of the world. One example is our specialised parcel delivery service, YSDS. The European-based company intended to open a new office location, and launch an arm in the far east, specifically Hong Kong. We poured hours into a report that was packed full of market research, from cover to cover it included vital insight into such market facets as; growth potential, industry breakdown, complete competitor analysis, and potential future competitor identification. This extensive piece of work highlighted competitors that the client wasn’t even aware of, it examined the feasibility of penetrating the market by demonstrating the market saturation down to a granular level.
Elevate your potential by understanding your surroundings with market research. Learn more about our vast research capabilities by getting in contact with our team.