Competitor analysis is an integral part of your business growth. Apart from helping you grow your business and keeping you ahead of your competitors, it has many benefits. But it is very important to do it in the right way.
In that case, we have 5 fantastic frameworks for the competitive analysis that you can use for your company’s growth. And this blog post explains them all in detail.
1. SWOT Analysis
This is the first of 5 five frameworks of competitive analysis. It is the easiest and most used framework for competitive analysis. It can be used by small, medium as well as large companies.
When to perform SWOT analysis?
- Before developing a new strategy
- During the making of quarterly performance reports
- While making the business plan for the next quarter/ year
- While calculating your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and risks
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How to perform a SWOT analysis?
- Divide your document into 4 parts and put Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats in each section.
- On the topmost of the document, in the title bar, add the parameter for which you’re performing a SWOT analysis. For eg: If you want to perform a SWOT for marketing, put marketing in the title bar. By doing so, you perform this analysis with complete clarity.
- In the section for the strength, note down all your strengths.
- In the section on weaknesses, note down all your weaknesses.
- In the section on opportunities, note down all your opportunities.
- In the section on threats, note down all your threats.
- Do the same for all your competitors.
- Analyze your business against theirs in all areas.
Benefits of performing a SWOT analysis
- You get a clear idea about the market position of your business.
- You can use this technique to develop and know your USPs
- You come to know where exactly is your business lacking
- This technique can help you come up with new groundbreaking strategies
- You know where your competitors are lagging behind you. So, you can leverage those parts to move ahead.
2. Porter’s Five Forces
The second in the line for the 5 frameworks of a competitive analysis is Porter’s Five Forces. It helps you to identify your power place in the business environment. This can help you understand the strength of an organization’s current and upcoming competitive position.
When to perform Porter’s Five Forces?
- When you want to keep a close watch on your rivals.
- When you want to maximize your profitability.
- For a complete knowledge of the environment and industry.
- To make new business strategies.
- To understand whether new products or services are potentially profitable.
- To find out and improve weaknesses and to avoid mistakes.
How to perform Porter’s Five Forces?
- Draw a circle in the center. Along with that, put four arrows coming out of that circle.
- Put your rival’s company name and details in the center.
- Now, put the four categories at the arrows coming out of it. These categories are the threat of the new entry, the threat of substitution, the supplier power, and the buyer power respectively.
- Add the details for the comparison
- Analyze
Terminology:
- Competitive Rivalry: Your competition
- Bargaining Power of Suppliers: The ability of suppliers to drive up the prices of your inputs.
- Bargaining Power of Buyers: The strength of your customers to drive down your prices.
- The Threat of New Entry: The ease with which new competitors can enter the market if they see that you are making good profits and driving your prices down.
- The Threat of New Substitution: The extent to which different products and services can be used in place of your own.
Benefits of Porter’s Five Forces
- Helps you in adjusting the ongoing business strategies
- You can pay attention to the all-around development of your business.
3. Strategic Group Analysis
Strategic Group Analysis looks at players’ positions in a competitive environment. Along with that, it also looks after the underlying factors that affect a company’s profitability and the competitive dynamics of the industry.
These dimensions differentiate players into strategic groups and must be chosen with respect to industry structure, profitability factors, and the project issues being addressed.
When to use Strategic Group Analysis?
- This framework is usually used to analyze sales and marketing strategies.
- Apart from that, it is also used in analyzing your target audience.
- You can also use this technique when you want to compare your profit margin to theirs.
How to perform Strategic Group Analysis?
- Establish your value proportion
- Define your target market
- Define your key indicators
- Verify your revenue streams
- Accordingly, find your competition
- Be rigid and realistic
- Analyze
Benefits of strategic group analysis
- It helps you in making long-term strategic decisions.
- It helps you to stay in line with the companies that implement the same business strategies as you.
- It easily helps you eliminate the competitors that are not on your radar.
4. Growth-Share Matrix
The growth-share matrix is an analysis framework that you can use to manage portfolios.
By assigning each business to one of these four categories, executives could then decide where to focus their resources and capital to generate the most value, as well as where to cut their losses.
When to use Growth-Share Matrix?
- It helps you to prioritize your action plan with respect to your current position and market situation.
- You can decide how to make the best use of your capital and resources.
- When you want to have a detailed idea of your and your competitors’ strength and weaknesses.
How to perform Growth-Share Matrix?
- Divide your document into four quadrants.
- Put one symbol in each quadrant. Quadrant one: Pet, Quadrant two: ($) for cash flow, Quadrant three: Star, Quadrant four: Question Mark
- Put the details in the graphs.
- Pick your competitors’ data and prepare a similar portfolio
- Analyze
Benefits of Growth-Share Matrix
- It gives you a birds-eye view of your product/service performance, opportunities, and threats.
- You know the right allocation of your resources.
- You know your strengths and weakness and can easily get ahead of your competitors.
5. Perceptual Mapping
In this framework of competitor analysis, you can figure out where your brand, product, and services stand among competitors. This framework is also known as positional mapping.
It generally consists of two attributes (i.e. price and quality). And this method requires input from the customer/client.
When to Perceptual Mapping?
- When you want to understand your product/service from the customer’s point of view.
How to Perceptual Mapping?
- Figure out any two attributes you want to compare (i.e. price and quality)
- Look out for your customers’/clients’ feedback on those attributes
- Find the competition who is in the same line as you in your industry
- Look out for their customers’/clients’ feedback on their product/services
- Compare the data and analyze
Benefits of Perceptual Mapping
- You understand your customer’s expectations from you and hence know to serve right.
- You get to know about your market position from your customer’s point of view.
So these very the 5 competitive analysis frameworks. For the best results, you need to be flexible and implement what works for you. In that case, be open to experimenting and trying all the frameworks from time to time.
Also, know that competitive analysis is a lengthy and ongoing process. So, be always prepared to remain in action, implement, analyze, and improvise.
