A deep understanding of your competition is fundamental to any successful growth strategy. If your products are too similar to those of your (entrenched) competitors, then it may either prove impossible to get in the door, or else it will become a price fight leaving no (survivable) margin on the table.

At the same, it is surprising how many companies go about doing their business, thinking they know who their competitors are, whereas, in fact, the last detailed competitive analysis may date back years (if even done at all).

• Who are your competitors and what is their relative ranking (i.e. market share)?
• What products do your competitors offer, how do these products compare (e.g. specifications), and which product features are in particular important to end customers?
• Which customers do your competitors supply to? (in other words, mapping “the food chain”)
• A competitive position map, i.e. which positions do competitors occupy in the playing field consisting of market segments and product features? Main question here is to determine if there are underserved gaps in the market.
• Trends and developments that change the competitive landscape.

 
The competitive analysis is critical input to:
1. your business strategy in general
2. your product or service offering so that it is differentiated in ways that matter to your customers,
3. your positioning, whether in a sales pitch, your website, or any collateral for that matter.

7 Pennies has performed dozens of competitor analyses for many different markets. And while much of the competitor info is admittedly hard to retrieve, 7 Pennies has built up an array of methods to find just that.

The competitive analysis report will comes in the form of PowerPoint presentation with embedded documents (such as product specifications), embedded spreadsheets (e.g. product comparison) and embedded links to references and relevant websites, plus a set of strategic recommendations.