Competitive Analysis – Gathering Marketing Data

The last component I’ll discuss of the competitive analysis process is culling marketing and sales collateral from your list of identified competitors.

Why do this?

You want to be acquainted with what they are putting out there. It should give you a sense of how their products are being positioned (however poorly or not). In turn, that should give you a sense of a) how strong your own positioning is and b) positioning around that competitor as a result.

These materials can also be used as a quick way to give others in your organization an idea of the lay of the land. It’s better for your sales guys to go in to a discussion about why your product is better as prepared as they can be, instead of not really knowing how the competitor’s wares are being sold. By sharing these materials cross-functionally, you setup the chance everyone knows what a prospect has already hard and/or read so points can be more easily communicated and/or refuted if need be.

So sure, it’s a study in MarCom. But all in all, that’s not a bad thing, due to the core messaging via those materials.

The process doesn’t require a lot of explanation – collect what you can, study it, decide what is important and why, and discard the rest.

Tagged as: competition, competitive analysis, market data