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Easy 6 Step Simple Competitive Analysis

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You’ve got a new product or idea. Now,

it’s time to do a competitive analysis. This

type of exercise will show you where and

how your product fits into the marketplace.

Even doing a simple competitive analysis

will put you ahead of most small

businesses and start-ups, and it will help

you define your competitive strategy for

your business.

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Start with WHY Buy Anything

STEP 1. Imagine your ideal customer is looking to buy a product. I don’t want to write ‘your’ product because they are looking to buy ‘a’ product that’s a solution to their problem or a fulfilment of their want. The same holds true of services.

Start by answering the questions: Why is my customer buying any product? What is their motivation? What does the customer hope to achieve? What results are they expecting?

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Move onto WHAT to Buy

STEP 2: Without much doubt, your customer is going to do online search. People usually search on a specific type of product, a product name, or a statement of the problem.

Narrow Down the WHAT to Buy

STEP 3: Once you know the keywords and search yourself, you’ll find specific product names popping up in the search. You need to list the alternatives to your product or service. The most important competitor is the one most likely to be chosen by your customer.

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Get down to the Nitty-Gritty of WHY Buy Something

STEP 4: Do a feature comparison of the products. You need to determine which features are most important. Go and find your competitors’ ads and their marketing brochures (online pages or offline paper).

Determine Your Competitors’ Weaknesses

STEP 5: There are numerous websites where customers give reviews of your competitors’ products. Read through the reviews and focus on the 5-star, 2-star, and 1-star reviews.

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Get to Know Your Competitor Personally

STEP 6: Become your competitor’s customer. Go through the buying process with your competitors. Be the fence sitting, indecisive, objection slinging customer. How do your competitors react and respond. Once you go through this process, you start to realize how they gain customers and what their business model is.

This is a simple 6 step process that should take long to complete and it will provide you will valuable information.

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