Do You Know What Your Competitors are Saying? Here’s Why You Should!

Maybe your competition isn’t as fierce as the one between soft-drink rivals, Coca Cola and Pepsi (dubbed “The Cola Wars”) but the more you know about your competitors, the better you’ll be able to position yourself in the marketplace.
 
Competitor Research should be a critical part of your marketing strategy. By examining the competitions’ successes, failures, and messaging, as well as how they attract their customers and what they do to retain them, you can improve your own business performance. 

Begin with a SWOT analysis of your competitors’ products and services. (SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.)

For the sake of comparison, you should perform a SWOT analysis of your own company as well.
 
The result of your analyses will help you:

Learn what your customers want.
Researching your competitors' strengths can help you adjust your strategy to outperform them by determining what your customers are looking for.

For example, is the competition selling an expanded line of products that you don’t offer? PepsiCo, Coke’s biggest competitor, offers a diverse product portfolio, such as Frito Lay, Gatorade, Quaker, and Tropicana, while Coke has low product diversification.

Discover where you can make improvements. 
If your competitor offers a wider range of products or a line of higher quality products, you can look at your own line and determine how to make your products more competitive.

Both Coke and Pepsi brands have come under fire for contributing to health issues, namely obesity and diabetes. While Coke owns several packaged drinking water brands like Kinley, PepsiCo does not offer an alternative in an increasingly health-conscious marketplace.

Polish your Unique Selling Proposition. 
Even if you’ve already created your USP, the insight you gain from examining your competitions' marketing may help polish or tweak it to be even more effective. It’s also important to know your competitors’ USP so you’re not communicating the same messaging.

For years, Coke has used tagline variants of “It’s the Real Thing” and “America’s Real Choice” touting themselves as the first, original cola in the marketplace. Meanwhile, Pepsi’s focus on the youth market leads them to use slogans like “Live for Now” and “Every Generation Refreshes the World.” 

Establish your own best practices. 
Examining your competitors’ mistakes or successes can assist you in developing best practices that help you avoid them or incorporate them into your own business.

For example, Pepsi works in several community-based sectors, including water conservation, while Coke has faced criticism over its water consumption in regions where it is scarce.

Could you use some assistance with a SWOT, Competitor Research, or developing your USP. Contact me today! I'd love to help!