Never underestimate your competitors.
Yes, there are plenty of important factors that go into having a successful brand -- but perhaps one of the most important of these is keeping tabs on competing businesses.
Why?
You want to be able to differentiate yourself from rival companies to assure current customers and prospects choose you as their top choice.
Conducting competitor research can help your team understand what makes your brand stand out so that consumers come to you. In turn, you can use this information in your marketing and sales materials to encourage more business to come your way.
There are many competitor research benefits -- most of which we'll discuss below.
For an in-depth look into the process, check out our Ultimate Guide to Conducting Competitor Analysis in 2022.
Keeping A Pulse On Your Competition
Competitor market research is especially helpful when conducted continuously.
When done on a recurring basis, competitor research lets you track rival brands. This can lead to a variety of insights that’ll help you boost your business.
Key insights of competitors analysis include:
- Product types
- Service variety
- Pricing
When you’re keeping tabs on these points with competitors, you’re able to strategize your own company goals.
In addition to providing strategic insight, this type of market research keeps you apprised of trends in the industry.
When a business is given trend knowledge from competitive intelligence (CI), you can watch out for potential competitor threats, rather than being surprised by them.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Competitive assessments give brands the ability to see where their competitors stand. This gives them unique insight into how to stay on-trend.
Understand Differentiators
When you know where your competitors fall short and where you stand out, that’s when the real fun happens.
Competitor market research will tell you just that. It’s likely you’ve wondered why your rivals are your rivals.
Some questions to consider:
- Does your company provide services or products that the competition does not?
- What can you attract clients with that your rivals don’t have?
- Does your company offer faster timelines than that of your competitors?
By using a competitive assessment company to conduct rival research, you’ll get answers to these key questions.
On top of this, there are many organizations that will opt to run a service or product audit for additional information. Like it sounds, this report will give you a rundown of what your competitors provide.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Competitor research benefits let you think creatively about what your company offers in contrast to your competitors. Additionally, service audits are run to provide extra information about what rivals offer.
More Tactical Sales Approach
To make a sale, you need a story.
What do your competitors use as a selling point? They need to have an appealing offer to get customers, and you need to know what that is.
By understanding these selling points, you can tweak yours to match or exceed a competitor’s offer.
Common selling points include:
- Quality product design
- Beneficial customer service
- Good prices
- Quick delivery
- Advanced technology
One of many competitor research benefits, being able to see what rival companies promote gives you a major edge.
From this, start brainstorming about what your brand already offers. How can it be better? Can you put a unique spin on it? Ask yourself these questions.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Hiring a competitor analysis company will help you understand the selling points of rival brands. When you can see the inner workings of the competition, you gain a keen perspective. This perspective can allow you to up your offerings.
Taking Advantage of Negative Customer Feedback
Competitor market research will target rival companies’ clients to see where they fall short.
According to recent research, 89% of customers will switch to a rival brand if they’re not happy with their experience.
For instance, say the rival company takes a long time to ship a product. Consumer research will be conducted and before you know it, your organization will have that information. This is usually conducted via an online survey.
Your company just so happens to ship products in record time. So, you just found you're in.
Now, you can really put the emphasis on promoting this aspect of your company. Since it’s something your rival struggles with, you know you have a better chance of attracting similar (or maybe the same) customers.
Prioritize the qualities that you have over your competitors. Promote it all over social media, your website, and other advertising efforts.
Interested in learning more ways how market research can help improve your business strategy and perhaps save you money in the long run? Watch this video.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Business competitive analysis targets your rivals’ weaknesses. Once you know what those are you can heavily promote what your brand offers. If it happens to offer what a rival is failing at, zero in on that topic.
Contact Our Competitor Analysis Research Company
If you’re interested in learning more about your competition, you’ve come to the right place. Our national market research company located in Syracuse, NY specializes in competitive research.
The team at Drive Research has years of experience conducting qualitative and quantitative studies and can design a unique research study for your business.
If you’d like to learn more about our market research services, contact us out through any of the ways below.
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Lark Allen
As a Content Marketing Specialist, Lark has a strong background and passion for creative, professional, and journalistic writing. She is also a self-proclaimed music freak and 90s enthusiast.
Learn more about Lark, here.
