Any business that wants to do well should always be looking at and analysing its competition. This is how you find trends and other changes in the industry. One big thing that can completely change your market is the threat of new competitors. However, it can be useful to watch these companies and how they launch their products to give you an idea of what to do yourself. Read on to find out more.
Get A Better Understanding Of Customer Expectations
Knowing what your target audience is expecting from you can be achieved via careful analysis of the competition. Your rivals may be selling the same product at a cheaper price or providing a better service without increasing prices. You can cut prices or concentrate on service upgrades while still keeping tabs on such data. If you’re aware of what the competition is providing, you can adjust your service to meet customers’ needs.
Get A Better Understanding Of Your Flaws
The most significant benefit of analysing your competition is learning where you stand in comparison. Your rival may have an edge in customer relations or be offering a superior product. You can improve your product or service by fixing the problems that you find while doing an analysis. It’s crucial to get input from customers on how to enhance your goods. Social media, phone calls, and live chat are just some of the methods that may be used to gather customer opinions and comments.
You Can Improve Your USP
You can sharpen your USPs by studying the competition and especially how they launch their products. You can come up with other unique selling features like an online shop, monthly discounts, having a webcast platform, and offering new arrivals every week. You can find out through analysing your competition what other companies are selling and how. Similarly, learning about the competition can help you develop unique selling propositions for your product. Because of this, you need to investigate the unique selling points (USPs) of similar products before releasing your own, and perhaps the best way to do this is to pay attention to your competitions.
You Can Minimise Risk
Part of being successful in business is also being able to find and deal with risks. Part of reducing risk is knowing who else has a piece of the market. It doesn’t make sense to enter a market as an unknown brand with a bad product that doesn’t have a good way to get to customers. This is especially true if the space is already occupied by a huge company with a great product and lots of marketing resources.
By looking at your competitors first, you can see right away if there is a need in the market and a chance to get in. If the barriers to entry are too high, you can change the direction of your business or try to change your product or service. But if you know in advance, you can make these changes before you launch.
How will you know if the barriers are high or low? Watch others launch products, see how that goes, get inspiration, and move forward with your own plans.
Ingrid Maldine is a business writer, editor and management consultant with extensive experience writing and consulting for both start-ups and long established companies. She has ten years management and leadership experience gained at BSkyB in London and Viva Travel Guides in Quito, Ecuador, giving her a depth of insight into innovation in international business. With an MBA from the University of Hull and many years of experience running her own business consultancy, Ingrid’s background allows her to connect with a diverse range of clients, including cutting edge technology and web-based start-ups but also multinationals in need of assistance. Ingrid has played a defining role in shaping organizational strategy for a wide range of different organizations, including for-profit, NGOs and charities. Ingrid has also served on the Board of Directors for the South American Explorers Club in Quito, Ecuador.
