Every day it is more important to know our competitors, since having a benchmark can substantially improve some aspects in which we were at a significant disadvantage.
Every day it is more important to know our competitors, since having a reference point can substantially improve some aspects in which we were at a significant disadvantage
Many times when undertaking a business idea, we think about how to satisfy the customer, how to sell more, how we will get resources, etc., and we leave aside a very important factor that is to determine who our competitors are, how they act and what are its characteristics.
This article, therefore, will try to determine some strategies to achieve a competitive advantage over other companies that at a certain moment may threaten ours or, why not, help it when needed.
ANALYSIS OF COMPETITION
A first stage is to analyze competing companies, since to plan competitive and effective marketing strategies, a company must find out as much as possible from those that directly compete with it. This in order to determine where they are ahead of some and where we are lagging behind others.
For this reason, when analyzing competition, it must first be identified, that is, determine who are the companies that are capable of "stealing" potential customers from the company. For Coca-Cola, Pepsi is its main rival, for Samsung, Sony is its number one enemy and for Mercedes, BMW is its eternal opponent.
Once the main competitors are known, the next step is to determine their main objectives, that is, what they are looking for in the market and what motivates their behavior. Remember that the purpose of a company is not always to maximize its profits, many times some just want to satisfy them by meeting goals set in advance, and may have had more profits using other strategies.
A next step is to identify the strategies of the competitors and the more similar they are to those of the company, the more rivalry there will be. Coca-Cola and Pepsi offer similar products, at the same price, almost always attack the same market segment and their coverage is almost identical throughout the world. The objective therefore is to study each of these strategies in detail (in terms of quality, product mix, services, prices, distribution, advertising, sales, etc.) and to collect information that will serve to develop a company's own product..
Knowing the strategies of a competitor, a company will determine if they have served or on the contrary the result has been negative. In other words, the strength and weakness of a competitor will be measured and an attack will be carried out where there is the possibility of acting or the strengths of the competition will be compared with their own and efforts will be made to improve.
The last step in analyzing competition is to decide which competitors to attack and which not to attack. By nature, it has always been easier to attack the weaker but sometimes the reward is not great, it is also necessary to focus efforts to attack the great competitors and overcoming them in some aspect where they are weak, provides much greater satisfaction.
Competition: Once a competitor's strategies are known, a company will determine if they have served or, on the contrary, the result has been negative. That is, the strength and weakness of a competitor will be measured and will be attacked where there is the possibility of acting or the strengths of the competition will be compared with their own and will try to improve
STRATEGIES FOR COMPETITION
Once the competitors are fully known and those who are going to be attacked are defined, the strategy to be used comes into play and this will be defined according to the position in the market that a company has.
When analyzing the competition, a company has an excellent sustenance to develop marketing strategies that allow it to improve its position in the market.
If a company has been identified as the market leader, it must always be constantly vigilant in the face of any existing threat since other companies will always be challenging their efforts trying to take advantage of their weaknesses. Therefore, to continue at the top, these companies can seek new consumers, seek to increase the use of the products they sell or make constant innovations.
If a company is determined to be the market challenger, it can either attack the leader to get more of it, or it can stay in the competition game and play no strategy. The risk is therefore latent if you want to challenge number 1 and your strategies must be focused on the weaknesses that the leading company presents.
Knowledge: Knowing our competitors gives us the possibility to determine what we are failing and what we are surpassing others
Finally, those companies that are followers of the market, can attack the leader or the follower but being aware that these will not stand still and will equal or improve their strategies in a minimum time. For this reason, it is best to stay behind and try to survive alongside the greats.
As we could see, knowing our competitors gives us the possibility to determine what we are failing and what we are outperforming others, therefore we should never dismiss or forget others because what we learn from them can make us better and why not, be the first.
