Analysis of Xiaohongshu’s competitive products!

Competitive product analysis is almost a compulsory course for all practitioners.

For many friends, competitive product analysis is not difficult. The difficult part is "how to conduct competitive product analysis systematically and effectively?" to avoid wasted time. Therefore, this article will take Xiaohongshu as an example to elaborate on "How to systematically conduct competitive product analysis on Xiaohongshu?" in order to inspire all friends to learn from it.

Contents of this article

What is Xiaohongshu competitive product analysis?

Xiaohongshu is a channel, and competing products are competing products. As the name suggests, Xiaohongshu competitive product analysis is a comparative analysis of the marketing of competitors' products on the Xiaohongshu channel.

The above explanation may be relatively simple. According to my personal understanding,

Why do we need Xiaohongshu competitive product analysis?

1. The essence of business is competition

In a sense, the essence of business is indeed competition.

Because the user base is almost constant, but competitors emerge in an endless stream, and each of them is/needs to continue to expand, so some competition is inevitable, and this competition is often "one gains while the other loses", "one kills and the other loses"...

Therefore, in addition to paying attention to the market environment, users, and themselves, brands also need to pay special attention to "competitors."

2. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles.

The so-called business world is like a battlefield.

● Knowledge is the premise and foundation of war. In war we must not be confused, reckless, or ignorant of the enemy's situation;

The process of competitive product analysis is the process of "knowing yourself and knowing your enemy".

Therefore, only by knowing yourself and knowing your enemy can you

1) Provide reference for brands to formulate relevant strategic and tactical plans;

2) When looking for niche markets, avoid strong competitors;

3) During marketing promotion, timely adjust the strategic direction and do a good job of "offense/defense";

4) When developing products, learn from each other’s strengths and make up for their weaknesses, and “copy the super money”;

5) …

How to systematically conduct competitive analysis on Xiaohongshu?

1. Clarify your purpose

Xiaohongshu's competitive product analysis (hereinafter referred to as "competitive product analysis") does not necessarily need to be comprehensive, but requires targeted analysis based on the purpose, obtaining relevant conclusions, and then achieving the purpose.

Therefore, you can clarify the purpose of competitive product analysis by answering these questions.

1) Which products require competitive product analysis?

2) What stage is this product in now?

Products at different stages focus on different issues/demands, and the purpose of competitive product analysis is also different.

Eg. In the product strategy stage, the general question is what product to make?

Therefore, the purpose of competitive product analysis at this stage is generally to find market opportunities, determine feasibility, and assist in product positioning;

During the product planning and R&D stage, the general concern is how to make the product? What will it look like?

Therefore, the purpose of competitive product analysis at this stage is generally to find product references and differentiation, and sort out product selling points;

During the product promotion phase, the general concern is how to sell the product?

Therefore, the purpose of competitive product analysis at this stage is generally to monitor competitive products, assist in planning marketing strategies, and build a moat...

3) What problems/demands does the product currently encounter?

a. The product stage determines the issues/requirements that need to be addressed;

b. List the problems/demands encountered at the current stage one by one, and then determine which ones can be solved/satisfied through competitive product analysis.

4) What is the purpose of competitive product analysis?

a. Why do we need to do competitive product analysis?

b. In addition to solving/meeting the current problems/needs, are there any other purposes?

Eg. Suppose someone asks you to do a competitive product analysis, then you need to be clear about his/her purpose and intention. What problems do you want to solve through competitive product analysis, and what aspects should you focus on?

2. Choose your competitors

1) Competitive product classification;

There are many types of competitors, so before selecting competitors for analysis, you need to classify the existing competitors to facilitate subsequent competitor selection based on your purpose and avoid "drawing water with a bamboo basket".

a. Competition

Classify from the competition level, that is, divide competing products into different types of products based on competitive relationships.

• Direct Competitor

Products with the same product form, similar user profile and product value, competing in the same market and in direct competition with each other.

Eg. Wanglaoji & Jiaduobao, Meituan & Ele.me...

• Indirect competitors

Products have different product forms but similar user profiles and product values. They are competing in the same market and are in indirect competition with each other.

Eg. Whale Cloud & Dyson, Yuanqi Forest & Heytea...

• Potential Competitors

Products have different forms but similar product values ​​in specific scenarios, compete in the same market, and have potential competitive relationships.

Unlike indirect competitors, the competitive relationship between potential competitors and products is generally reflected in specific scenarios, such as holiday gift giving. Various products with gift attributes (such as watches, bags, clothes, mobile phones, computers, etc.) are all in a competitive relationship in this scenario, but apart from this scenario, they are not...

Secondly, all products compete for the user's

• time

  money

So in a sense, all products are competitors.

• Benchmarking Competitive Products

Because all products are competitors, benchmark competitors do not necessarily refer to direct competitors or indirect competitors... but rather products that are good in some aspect (eg. packaging design, service, marketing strategy...) and are worth benchmarking and learning from.

E.g. Luckin Coffee’s marketing fission, Durex’s copywriting creativity…

• Low-end competitors

Some direct/indirect/potential competitors that perform relatively poorly have the value of clearing mines and avoiding pitfalls, and can be used as negative references to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

b. Market level

Classify from the market level, that is, divide competing products into different types of products according to their market share and market growth rate.

「Image source: Baidu Encyclopedia」

• Star Products

High growth and high market share.

• Taurus Products

Low growth rate, high market share.

• Problem product

High growth, low market share.

• Skinny Dog Products

Low growth and low market share.

2) How to choose competing products?

a. The purpose of competitive product analysis and product positioning determine the characteristics of the selected competitive products;

b. Prioritize the selection of competing products of the same period (competing products launched no more than 3-6 months before or after the product) to avoid other external factors such as market environment affecting the judgment;

c. Addition first, then subtraction;

First, find as many relevant competing products as possible to enhance your understanding of the market; then delete them based on actual needs and focus on key/high-quality competing products.

Tips: How to find as many relevant competitors as possible?

Search for relevant keywords on the e-commerce platform, e.g. category words, product words, demand words... or filter by category.

Secondly, you can search through “Business Advisor” – “Market/Competition”.

d. You don’t need to analyze too many competitive products. It is recommended to select 2-3 key/high-quality competitive products, and pay close attention to the remaining more prominent competitive products.

3. Determine the analysis dimensions

1) The purpose of competitive product analysis determines the analysis dimensions;

2) Detailed explanation of the dimensions of competitive product analysis.

Putting aside the basic dimensions of competitive product analysis, such as market/industry analysis and brand analysis, Xiaohongshu’s competitive product analysis dimensions include the following:

a. Products;

• Material/composition;
• price;
• Function/Efficacy;

• Matching;

• Visual (not limited to packaging, etc.);

• Seasonal attributes (seasonality);

• Weather & Region;

• Serve;

• social concepts;

• Brand sense;
• …

b. Blogger;

• Fan level;

• Vertical fields;

• Blogger style;
• …

c. Content;

• Content direction;

• Content format (text/video);

• Content type (single product/collection);

• Interaction data;
• …

d. Professional number;

• Update frequency;

• Content direction;

• Content format;

• Account data;
• …

e. Reporting notes;

• Number of reports;

• Content direction;

• Content format;

• Interaction data;
• …

f. Performance advertising;

g. Marketing events;

h. Live broadcast;

i. Refined operations;

• Comment maintenance;

• Keyword optimization;
• …

j. Effect;

• Community;

• E-commerce;
• …

k. …

4. Collect relevant information

The dimensions of competitive product analysis determine what information to collect, and targeted collection can be carried out based on the dimensions.

1) Products;

a. Official introduction PPT

fYou can ask some service providers, or pretend to be a job applicant to get it...

b. E-commerce side;

• Product details page;
• Evaluation area;
• Ask everyone;

You can use relevant tools to obtain and export the evaluation area of ​​competitors' e-commerce products and ask everyone about the relevant information/data.

• Price and sales volume.

Relevant tools can be used to obtain price changes of competing products and actual sales volume.

c. Xiaohongshu client;

• Xiaohongshu blogger notes and comments;

Search for competitor (brand) names in notes and obtain and export Xiaohongshu note content related to competitors.

d. Real usage experience of typical users;

You can find typical users among your relatives and friends to experience the usage.

Ps: Why typical users?

Because atypical users cannot clearly get the value of the product, but may make certain misjudgments; so it is necessary to find typical users to experience the product. Only in this way can it be real and objective and worthy of reference.

e. Other evaluation/e-commerce platforms;

f. Related research reports.

2) Blogger;

3) Content;

4) Professional number;

Search for the name of the competitor's professional account and obtain relevant data about the competitor's professional account.

5) Reporting notes;

6) Performance advertising;

Currently, there is no way to better collect relevant information about the effectiveness of competitors' advertising, but we can use the interactive data in the competitor's reporting notes and industry benchmarks to estimate how much money competitors have spent on information flow?

However, this part can only roughly estimate information flow advertising, but cannot estimate search advertising.

7) Marketing events;

Just check the content of professional accounts and topics related to competing products.

8) Live broadcast;

Currently, there is no way to better collect relevant information through live broadcast.

However, you can confirm the live broadcast blogger by looking for live broadcast preview notes in the Xiaohongshu notes related to competitors, and then use "Entertainment Star Number" - "Live Broadcast Expert" to search for the blogger's name to obtain information related to the competitor's live broadcast.

9) Refined operations;

a. Export the Xiaohongshu notes information related to competing products and check the comments;

b. Sort out relevant keywords and check the ranking of competitor's notes under different keywords;

c. …

10) Effect;

a. Xiaohongshu client;

• The rate of explosive articles;
• interactive;
• Sov;

Sort out relevant keywords and check the ranking of competitor's notes under different keywords;

Sort out relevant keywords and check whether the long-tail words and related words presented when searching for different keywords are related to competing products;

Sort out relevant keywords and use the "Keyword Planning Tool" in the backend of Xiaohongshu's performance advertising to check whether the upstream and downstream words of the relevant keywords are related to competing products;

Search volume. Use the “Keyword Planning Tool” in the backend of Xiaohongshu’s performance advertising to view the recent search volume of competitor-related brand words/product words.

b. E-commerce side;

• Keyword search;

Use relevant tools to check whether the corresponding keywords have a corresponding growth trend change with the interaction volume of Xiaohongshu during the same period.

• Product transformation;

Use relevant tools to view the sales and add-to-cart changes of products after users searched and entered the store during the same period.

5. Information collation and analysis

After collecting relevant information, you need to organize and analyze the relevant information in a targeted manner based on the purpose and dimensions of the competitive product analysis.

1) Products

• What are the primary and secondary selling points of competing products on Xiaohongshu at this stage? What are the corresponding usage scenarios?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of your product compared to competing products?
• What selling points of the product have the opportunity to stand out in the future (what others have but I have, what others don’t)?
• Application scenarios of the product and related content directions;
• …

2) Blogger

3) Content

4) Reporting notes

• The market quotation and CPE cost of Xiaohongshu bloggers can be obtained using the "Experts' Market" function.

• The number of notes published by each type of blogger on Xiaohongshu with the corresponding fan level quotation of each type of blogger (it is recommended to look at the median for more accuracy) ≈ the cost of seeding by competing bloggers; the number of interactions of each type of blogger on Xiaohongshu with the corresponding fan level of each blogger ≈ the cost of seeding by competing bloggers...
• Blogger planting model;

• There are areas in the content that are worth learning from and avoiding pitfalls, such as content direction, title, cover, keywords...
• …

5) Professional Number

6) Effect

6. Draw conclusions

1) Review the purpose of competitive product analysis and draw conclusions based on the purpose;

2) The conclusion must be well-founded and not too subjective, and objective reasons must be analyzed;

3) Strategy and the like are not necessarily the key. The key lies in the purpose of the competitor and the actual implementation content, so ask yourself more often "why".

Most of the time, competitive product analysis is only an auxiliary process. After the analysis, the key is to combine the conclusions with the current problems/demands, clarify how to solve the problems/meet the needs, or what to do next, and then implement them.

Author: Yien Star

Source: EN Star