You've discovered a great new product to sell, and now you're ready to take it to market. How do you know if your product will be accepted by your target audience? The answer can be found in competitive product analysis (CPA). Competitive analysis should be an essential part of your business strategy, as it helps you understand how to position your product within the marketplace. You will also want to know what your competitors are doing in marketing and sales so that you can learn from their strengths and avoid their weaknesses.
Step 1: Prepare
Get your team involved. Although you may have already had a conversation with your team about new market research, they are likely to need more information and guidance as you go through competitive product analysis. Make sure everyone on your team knows exactly what they will be doing during each step of CPA. Give them clear instructions and break down tasks into steps that everyone can understand. This will ensure that everyone is on board with your plan, keeps up with deadlines, and provides you with high-quality work at every stage of CPA. It also prevents miscommunication by ensuring that all team members can communicate clearly about their duties for each step of CPA.
Step 2: Research
The next step is learning everything about your competitive product(s). This means researching your competitive products from every angle. Look into what makes them so successful, how they appeal to their customers and more. Taking notes throughout your research will help you keep track of all of these details and ensure you don't miss any valuable information that could help you improve your product. As a general rule, try looking for at least 5 things that make your competition successful. You should look at each competitor's website, but pay close attention to other relevant marketing materials such as whitepapers, case studies, and videos.
Step 3: Create Categories
The third step in creating your competitive product analysis is to create categories. Categories are meant to group similar products together. Although at least three or four are recommended, there is no right or the wrong number of types. You can use a simple spreadsheet program, like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, to create categories and include columns for price information. Just remember that whatever you select needs to be easy for your team and any future users of your analysis to access and understand; otherwise, it defeats the purpose of having an easy-to-use competitive product analysis template. The easiest way is usually by using Google Sheets with multiple sheets.
Step 4: Create Ranking System
The fourth step in your competitive product analysis is creating a ranking system. To do so, rate each competitor on a scale of 1-10 on their value proposition, sales volume and traction. These numbers will be used later in determining which products are most suited for further analysis. The goal here is not to give them complex scores but rather to write down quick gut reactions as you conduct your research. Once you've collected some data from primary and secondary sources, look at competitors' websites again and rank them accordingly. Now it's time to compare notes from both exercises: what's changed? This allows you to tweak your initial rankings and get closer to giving actual scores based on concrete facts rather than instinct or guesswork.
Step 5: Analyze
Next, take time to really consider all aspects of your chosen product. What do customers like about it? How does it compare with other similar products? What could be improved upon or changed for a better user experience? These are questions you must answer as part of competitive product analysis and your evaluation on whether or not your product is potentially better than what is currently on offer. Remember: There is always something that needs improving, regardless of how good something may already be. Keep an open mind, and don't automatically assume you can do better! The objective here is an improvement, not a revolution.
Step 6: Give Feedback to Other Group Members
It's easy to get caught up in analysis and not think about what other people are doing. However, it's always a good idea to make sure you're all on track with your individual analyses and helping each other out when necessary. This means giving feedback, getting feedback, and taking time out of your schedule to check in with your team members. It will save you time in the long run because you won't have to re-do work that could have been avoided if one person just asked for help when they were stuck or didn't understand something.
Step 7: Review and Critique
Make notes about what you found and suggestions for how things could be improved. This is your first time looking at their product, and you may have several ideas for them in terms of marketing, usability or design. If you're using a competitive research tool, make sure that you save all of your findings in one document with organized folders or categories. Give yourself enough time to do an exhaustive search; it takes time to gather everything and organize it. Also, keep in mind that not every potential improvement will be relevant when it comes time to create your own product, so don't spend too much time on possible ideas that are irrelevant.
Step 8: Present Results
Once you've completed your analysis, it's time to share your findings with others. In most cases, your final presentation will be a formal document that discusses each area of research and what you've learned about competitors in that area. This is also an important opportunity for you and other team members (if there are any) to discuss what challenges you faced during each phase of your project and how those challenges could have been addressed differently. For example, if you had difficulty obtaining all relevant data on competitor A in Step 4 because they don't have a consumer website, asking around on discussion forums might have yielded more valuable data. Or possibly doing research through social media would be more helpful.
0 Comments