The Strategy Fix: Competitors
This is my updated version of The Strategy Fix, a 5 week “course” where I’ll send you weekly information and tasks to help you get closer to your ideal brand through critical thinking and strategy.
Welcome to week 3 of The Strategy Fix! This week we'll be going over your competitors and more importantly how to define and analyze them.
I’ve done a lot of competitor analysis for clients over the years. I’ve had people show me what they’ve done themselves and explain who their competitors are from their point of view. And they’re almost always wrong (sorry not sorry). The trend I’ve seen so far with my clients is they usually choose competitors whose businesses they like, whether that’s visually or they just think they’re “better off” than them. These competitors are mostly aspirations or goal posts they would love to see themselves at one day. But 9/10 these competitors aren’t the businesses my clients should be comparing themselves to because they either don’t offer the same services or attract the same target audience.
This week I want to break down the things you should actually be looking at when you do a competitor analysis, the information you should try to analyze, and the takeaways you should look for.
What Is a Competitor Analysis?
This phase gets thrown around a lot when you talk about brand strategy but to simplify it: A competitor analysis is an objective evaluation of the strengths, weaknesses, methods, and market position of businesses that are competing with yours. This is a big part of your brand strategy because it’ll help you understand where your brand stands in your current market and industry. This will also help you find gaps in the market and figure out your own positioning.
How to Identify Competitors
I like to break down competitors into 4 different sections:
Direct Competitor: These competitors offer the same product or service to the same target audience as you.
Example: Coca-Cola vs Pepsi (both soft drinks)
Why it’s important: These competitors are looking at the same audience with the same service/product so understanding their strategies and strengths with help you differentiate your brand and highlight your unique selling points.
Indirect Competitor: These competitors offer alternative solutions to the same target audience with a different product or service.
Example: Movie theaters vs streaming services (both offer entertainment)
Why it’s important: They can take up market share by appealing to the same audience in different ways. Knowing their strengths can help you expand your offers or refine your positioning.
Aspirational Competitor: Brands that operate at a higher level or in a different niche, but serve as a benchmark for where you’d like your brand to go.
Example: A boutique bakery aspiring to match Magnolia Bakery’s brand presence.
Why it’s important: They provide inspiration for branding, marketing, customer experience, or growth strategies.
Replacement Competitors: Businesses offering something that could replace your product/service entirely, usually through innovation or changing customer habits
Example: Uber and Lyft vs Taxis or Blockbuster vs Netflix
Why it’s important: These represent long term threats and help you stay adaptable to evolving marketing trends.
What to Analyze
To give you a general idea, these are some of the categories you could analyze:
Brand Positioning: Who is their target audience? What is their unique selling point?
Visual Identity: Logos, typography, color palette, and overall branding.
Tone and Messaging: How are they communicating with their audiences? Is it formal or casual? Witty or dry? etc.
Offers (Products/Services): What are they offering, what is the price, and the perceived value?
Customer Experience: What are online reviews saying? What are their response times like?
Marketing and social media: Content strategies, engagement levels, and SM channels used.
On top of these specific categories, you should be looking at what your competitors are doing well (strengths), what they aren’t doing well (weaknesses), how they could do better (opportunities), and what you do better than them (threats).
How to Apply Insights from Competitor Analysis
A competitor analysis is only as valuable as the actions you take based on your findings. Here’s how to use the insights effectively to strengthen your brand and strategy.
Identify Gaps In the Market
You can look for opportunities in the market that your competitors haven’t taken advantage of or addressed. There might be underserved audiences, unmet needs, or innovative product/service ideas you could try.
For example, if most competitors only offer long term coaching packages, you might introduce a one time intensive workshop to entice the audience needing a quicker solution.
Refine Your Brand Positioning
Use your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses to audit and sharpen your own unique selling point so that it can withstand the challenge.
Ask yourself how can your brand can offer something better, faster, or different.
Adjust your Pricing or Offers
Compare your pricing and offers to your competitors. If your price is higher make sure the value for it is clear. If you have lower prices you can highlight the affordability and quality.
Evaluate your Customer Experience
Study how competitors engage with their audience. Can you improve your onboarding, communication, or support?
Update Your Marketing
Learn from your audience’s marketing tactics. What platforms work best for them? What type of content resonates most with their audience?
In Action: A Case Study
I once worked with a website developer that didn’t know what made her special or what her unique selling point was. When we did her competitor analysis we looked over 6 or so competitors and mostly divided them up into direct and indirect competitors. These brands delivered either the exact same thing that she did or something very similar. We broke down their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats as well as analyzed their offers, pricing, brand experience, and how they positioned themselves in the market.
After this analysis, we discovered that while my client and her competitors had almost the same process and services for the same platform, no one highlighted what the process actually was. So we pivoted her entire business around having web development done in 1 week.
After finalizing her brand personality, we also took her audience’s challenges and goals to create messaging points to help reinforce that positioning on all of her social media platforms as well as her own website.
This client’s competitor analysis changed the strategy for her entire brand.
How To Get Started
If you’d like to get started on your own competitor analysis I suggest choosing 2-3 competitors at first, identifying their competitor type, choosing what you’d like to analyze, and then creating your next steps based on that analysis. I’ve included a template to help you start.
I hope these examples give you a good place to start your competitor analysis. If you have a question on the process please drop them in the comments below. If you’d like to continue the series our next emails will cover: