Competitor Analysis printable pdf download

Topic:

Competitor Analysis. . . .

Keeping Ahead Of The Game

Competitor

Analysis

A recent survey of businesses in the USA on their approach to understanding the

operations of their competitors identified two categories of company, eagles and ostriches.

Eagles analyse their rivals, and assume these rivals are doing the same; and ostriches,

Published in CAD

well, they're just content to focus on their own affairs.

Dealer Magazine

Few companies can survive without some basic knowledge of their competitors, such as

the products or services they sell and, crucially, the price they sell them at. Yet relatively

few small and medium sized enterprises invest in a thorough analysis of their rivals,

mainly due to a lack either of resources or an appreciation of how this can be carried out.

As awareness of the benefits of gathering this information grows however, more and more

businesses are investigating how to go about it.

What Is Competitor Analysis?

Competitor analysis ('CA') is the in-depth study of one or more rivals (or potential rivals) to

gather information on their structure, strategies, strengths, weaknesses and future

directions. This information is then used to make informed decisions about everything

from marketing to long term business strategies.

CA goes beyond the type of B2B research that most companies will already be engaged

in to varying degrees, such as reading trade papers or obtaining rivals' sales literature -

although the systematic gathering of information from published sources is an important

element of it. It involves extracting and piecing together the inside information your

competitors really don't want you to get your hands on. The most effective technique to

achieve this is the skilful interviewing of people connected with the company concerned -

without alerting them to your motives. It's a highly specialised discipline, and while

increasing numbers of very large companies are employing their own in-house competitor

analysis professionals, for the vast majority of businesses the most practical option is to

use specialist agencies.

CA Or CI?

Most of the literature on this topic refers to 'competitive intelligence' ('CI') - in many ways

the terms CI and CA are interchangeable. CA can be viewed as a highly specialised

subset of CI, as the latter covers a broader spectrum of activity to monitor aspects of

competitive environment including general industry, economic and regulatory trends.

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Competitor Analysis