Primary Competitors

Primary Competitors: Deciding which competitors to list is an important first step. You may want to rank them, categorize them into distinctive groups, or perhaps just list the one, two or three most important. Generally I recommend that you make a distinction between those firms that you compete most directly with, versus those firms that you compete less directly with. In addition to listing the basic characteristics of your competitors such as suggested here, you may want to add characteristics that are particularly pertinent for your competitive situation.Particularly look for factors that are possible strengths or weaknesses of each firm or that may be predictive of their future plans or how they might react to your competitive moves. Try to determine and briefly summarize the strategy of each competitor particularly the differences between each firm’s strategy. If you find for example that your two main competitor’s strategy is to primarily compete on price, then you may be better off competing more on quality.It is more important to go into a lot of depth examining your most direct competitors, rather than trying to give equal time and attention to all competing products or services. Give particular attention to the market leaders and try to identify why they have been successful. [WooZoneProducts asin=”B01JORH5PM”][/WooZoneProducts]It is also often useful to identify why secondary products or services have been less successful. Go beyond the product or service itself to examine other aspects of the competitive process that may be critical. For example, does the particular sales method or advertising approach seem to be a major success factor? [WooZoneProducts asin=”B00AWKMWV8″][/WooZoneProducts]Try to determine how your competitors are positioning their products. Are they targeting a particular market niche? Do they seem to succeed in this positioning? Identify the differences, however subtle, between the positioning of competing products and services.In a perfect world you hope you are going to discover a strong consumer need not being addressed by any current competitor. This would be wonderful because it would mean, at least initially, that you would not be directly competing with any one. However in the real world these situations are rare. And all too often I find that budding entrepreneurs who really think they have `discovered` a spectacular new consumer need, either have a product or service idea that people aren’t willing to pay for, or have an idea that someone else is already using. [WooZoneProducts asin=”B0153V668U”][/WooZoneProducts]Generally you are more likely to find a path to success with an already existing product or service idea. Your degree of success will often be determined by how successfully you differentiate the same basic product or service from the competition. This is why it is important to closely examine each competitor’s target market, business strategy, and how they are positioning their products or services.