Competitor Analysis, Category Definition, and Product Platform
Competitor Analysis
Your competitor analysis assignment should consist of 3 charts and a one-page summary of your
learnings. Details are provided below.
Table 1: Competitor Strategies
Identify at least five competitors from whom you plan to take business. Do not waste time
describing competitors who sell to customers who will never buy from you! (If you do not yet
have a firm idea, identify five firms serving a market that you would like to serve.)
In your competitor strategy table, summarize the following strategy elements for each competitor.
Remember that these steps designed to provide guidance for your research while covering a wide
variety of products and services.
If particular aspects of this assignment do not directly apply to your product or service, please
feel free to modify them in appropriate ways. In addition, the following list is a wish list. You
will not be able to find all of this information for every competitor. Do the best you can.
1. Target Customer Segments: What customer segments is each competitor targeting?
2. Key Needs and Wants: What need or want is each competitor targeting? Make sure and
record the language competitors use to talk about these needs and wants. You need to
learn how to powerfully communicate the needs and wants that you are addressing. Take
the opportunity to learn from competitors who are adept at articulating the pain customers
feel from unsatisfied needs and wants.
3. Key Product Attributes: An attribute is a feature or characteristic of a product or
service, where the product or service is defined broadly to include (when relevant)
packaging, installation, training, repair, and disposal. What are the important attributes
of your selected product? Please do not use the words quality or value that can mean
different things to different customer groups. For example, when you tell us that a
customer group values quality, we don't know what you mean. You could mean:
a. Customers want a product made from the finest ingredients
b. Customers want the latest technology.
c. Customers want a product made using the most advanced production process.
d. Customers want a product that will not break.
e. Customers want a product that requires no maintenance.
f. Customers want a product that is easy to use.
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Competitor Analysis, Category Definition, and Product Platform
g. Customers want a product that performs very well on a particular performance
dimension (a car might be fast, comfortable, or get great gas mileage).
Instead of using a vague word like quality, tell us how particular each competitor defines
quality. What do your competitors mean when they use this word?
4. Key Product Benefits: A benefit is something that a customer experiences because a
product has a certain attribute. For example, an attribute of some energy-saving light
bulbs is "long life" (one long life bulb lasts as long as 7 ordinary light bulbs). A longer
life means that the customer replaces the bulb less often than a regular bulb. Fewer light
bulb replacements saves the customer time and reduces customer frustration. "Fewer
light bulb changes," "saves time," and "less frustration" are all examples of product
benefits. What are the important benefits promised by your competitors? You need to
learn how to powerfully communicate the benefits of your solution to customers. Take
the opportunity to learn from competitors who are adept at articulating the benefits
promised to customers.
5. Product Line Strategy: Do your competitors offer more than one product? Why?
What is the relationship between the products offered and the pain points targeted by
each product?
6. Prices: What prices do the competitors charge for their products? Pay attention to the
ways in which competitors justify their prices to target customers. You can use this
information to develop a rationale for your own pricing strategy.
7. Pricing Discounts: Do the competitors offer any discounts to customers? What are they
discounts? Who receives these discounts? What do they have to do to receive the
discounts?
8. Pricing Bundles: A product bundle contains 2 or more product or services that are sold
together for a single price. For example, your cable company may bundle cable, internet,
and phone service together for a single price. Do your competitors bundle any product or
services? What are the bundles and how much do they cost?
9. Distribution Channel Strategy: How does each competitor put its product or service in
the hands of customers (e.g., physical retailers, company-owned outlets, the internet,
etc.)? Which distribution channels are most important to each competitor?
10. Distribution Margin: What percentage of the price paid by consumers goes to
distribution partners (e.g., retailers, wholesalers, etc.)?
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Competitor Analysis, Category Definition, and Product Platform
11. Consumer Awareness: How does each competitor make target customers aware of its
products or services?
12. Consumer Education. How does each competitor educate its target customers about its
products or services?
13. Cost Control: What does each competitor do to control its costs?
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Competitor Analysis, Category Definition, and Product Platform
COMPETITOR STRATEGIES
Comp 1
Comp 2
Comp 3
Comp 4
Comp 5
Target Market(s)
Key Needs &
Wants
Key Product
Attributes
Key Product
Benefits
Product Line
Strategy
Prices
Pricing
Discounts?
Pricing Bundles?
Distribution
Strategy
Distribution
Margin
Consumer
Awareness
Consumer
Education
Cost Control
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Competitor Analysis, Category Definition, and Product Platform
Table 2: Competitor Numbers
In your competitor numbers table summarize the following strategy elements for each competitor.
If you find additional numerical information that will help you estimate your revenues and costs,
add additional rows and include that information in your Table.
Remember that, the following list is a wish list. You will not be able to find all of this
information for every competitor. If all of your competitors are private, you may not be able to
find much information at all. Do the best you can.
1. Number of customers, including number of first-time customers and number of repeat
customers each year.
2. Sales (in units and dollars).
3. Number of employees and dollar sales per employee. If possible, identify the number of
employees dedicated to manufacturing, customer service, marketing, and sales.
4. Identify variable (direct) product costs. How much does it cost to make one additional
unit of the competitor’s product or service one additional customer with service?
5. Identify the amount of money your competitors spend on manufacturing, customer
service (including service delivery), marketing, and sales.
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Competitor Analysis, Category Definition, and Product Platform
COMPETITOR NUMBERS
Comp 1
Comp 2
Comp 3
Comp 4
Comp 5
Number of
Customers
Sales
Number of
Employees
Sales per
Employee
Manufacturing
Employees
Customer Service
Employees
Marketing
Employees
Salesforce
Employees
Product Costs
Customer Service
Costs
Marketing Costs
Salesforce Costs
Profits
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Competitor Analysis, Category Definition, and Product Platform
Table 3: Gap Analysis
Create a chart that summarizes the differences between your product or service and those of your
key competitors. Each row should be an attribute or benefit and each column should represent a
product. Put an “x” in the chart to indicate when a product has an attribute. By looking at your
chart, the reader should be able to tell the attributes and benefits provided by each product in
your chart. The chart should have the following format:
COMPETITOR GAP ANALYSIS
Attribute/Benefit
Your
Product
Competitor
1
Competitor
2
Competitor
3
Competitor
4
Competitor
5
Attribute/Benefit 1
Attribute/Benefit 2
Attribute/Benefit 3
Attribute/Benefit 4
Attribute/Benefit 5
Use as many rows and columns as you need to explain the important differences (i.e., the
differences that matter to customers) between your product and competitive products). For
examples of Gap Analysis charts, please see the slides from the competitor analysis lecture.
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Competitor Analysis, Category Definition, and Product Platform
One to Two Page Summary
Based on your analysis, summarize:
1.
Competitor Strengths: What advantages do the competitors you have identified have?
2.
Must-Haves (threshold requirements): What do you have to match to ensure that customers do not
refuse to buy your product?
3.
Weaknesses & Opportunities: Where are competitors vulnerable? How will you take advantage of these
vulnerabilities? The whole point of this exercise is to make a compelling argument that competitors are
not satisfying a key customer need or want. What is the need or want that competitors are not satisfying?
4.
Threats: What can competitors do to hurt you when you try to take advantage of the opportunity you have
identified? Copy your product or service? Spend more money on marketing? Underprice you?
5.
Durable Advantage: What is your durable advantage over competitors? What will make it hard for them
hurt you?
6.
Category Definition: Based on your competitor analysis and your current assets, how will you define the
business category in which you will compete?
7.
8.
a.
Describe the category as you would to another to established business professional or venture
capital firm.
b.
Use no more than five words.
c.
If possible, try to create a category definition that is different from the category definitions used by
the existing competing products you have analyzed. (use examples from Workshop I as stimulus)
d.
For example, I want to be in healthy deserts and bakery business or the Asian healthy dessert
business or want to be in the Asian healthy foods business, which allows me to start with desserts,
then baked goods, then sandwiches and soups etc.
Product Platform: Given that you want to have a growth plan, it will require a longer term product
portfolio or Platform.
a.
What other products (or services) that could provide a Platform for your business category?
b.
Describe how these other products (or services) are meaningfully different and not just
cosmetically different (e.g., changes in size, color, or flavor) from your first product.
c.
How do these additional products support your category definition?
Category Definition and Platform Rationale:
a.
How do your category definition and product portfolio differentiate your venture from
competition? Why will this category definition and product portfolio grab the attention of
customers?
b.
You will have the opportunity to revise your category definition and product platform, but it is
important to start thinking about these decisions at the initiation of the marketing process.
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Competitor Analysis, Category Definition, and Product Platform
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2014 Competitor Analysis
OPTIONAL TOOLKIT: LANDSCAPE FORMAT COMPETITOR ANALYSIS TABLES
Table 1: Competitor Strategies
Comp 1
Comp 2
Comp 3
Comp 4
Comp 5
Target Market(s)
Key Needs & Wants
Key Product Attributes
Key Product Benefits
Product Line Strategy
Prices
Pricing Discounts?
Pricing Bundles?
Distribution Strategy
Distribution Margin
Consumer Awareness
Consumer Education
Cost Control
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2014 Competitor Analysis
Table 2: Competitor Numbers
Comp 1
Comp 2
Comp 3
Comp 4
Comp 5
Number of Customers
Sales
Number of Employees
Sales per Employee
Manufacturing
Employees
Customer Service
Employees
Marketing Employees
Salesforce Employees
Product Costs
Customer Service
Costs
Marketing Costs
Salesforce Costs
Profits
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2014 Competitor Analysis
Table 3 : Competitor Gap Analysis
Attribute/Benefit
Your Product
Competitor 1
Competitor 2
Competitor 3
Competitor 4
Competitor 5
Attribute/Benefit 1
Attribute/Benefit 2
Attribute/Benefit 3
Attribute/Benefit 4
Attribute/Benefit 5
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