How to do competitive product analysis? 4 elements + 6 core methodologies to teach you how to quickly master the essence of competitive product analysis
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When we get involved in competitive product analysis , the first thing that comes to mind may be: how to compete? How do I surpass my competitors? What did I learn from this competitive analysis? You may also ask yourself a contradictory question: When our products are similar to those of the other party, is it that I am doing it and others are also doing it, or is it that I want to do it but others are not, or is it that we are not doing it but others are? If you add a lot of features but they may not be very helpful, then there is not much point. Therefore, before we do a competitive product analysis, we must first have a self-awareness, that is, how to understand and position our own products. Then consider how to analyze competitors and how to make a competitive product analysis report. 1. Definition of Competitive Products First of all, let’s talk about the definition of competing products, which includes the following four points: First, we must first understand the classification of competing products. How to carry out classification and how to determine the classification? If my own product is the core, those competitors that are superior to my product will be listed as important competitors. Products that are superior and very competitive will be listed as core competitors. Products that are inferior to or worse than mine will be listed as general competitors. What is the purpose of doing this? Determine the relationship of competitive product analysis. In the subsequent competitive product analysis process, you will need to decide how much effort you need to put into researching and analyzing which modules among the core competitors, important competitors, and general competitors. In this part, if the classification of competitors is not clear enough, the subsequent analysis will be impossible to carry out. Take NetEase News and Tencent News for example, they are both core competitors and are almost equal. However, if we use a very low-level client, such as a local APP and Tencent News client to do competitive analysis, it is obvious that such analysis is not valid. Because there are two points it cannot achieve. First, the two do not constitute a competitive relationship, this is from the user's perspective. Secondly, the competitors have not had any impact on us in terms of scale or content value. So from these two points of view, my analysis of such competitors should be positioned as general competitor analysis, and there is no need to study it so thoroughly. Because it has little impact on me, and a lot of things are borrowed from me. In this case, you and your equally powerful competitors, such as NetEase News Client and Tencent News Client, will account for a very large proportion in your analysis, because a little bit of detail may convert many users into users of your competitors. Therefore, competitor classification is crucial. Second, infrastructure. The infrastructure part is mainly divided into three points. (1) Information architecture. Information architecture mainly includes: interface hierarchy and interface UI layout. From an intuitive point of view, we should use the least pop-up interface to let users know what we want to express. (2) Function. This requires a comprehensive understanding of the functions of competing products and a self-analysis of your own products. On the basis of the functions of your own products, you need some detailed and optimized functions, including some logical functions, and even some paid functions. For example, for the recharge function, there are two channels , one is IOS and the other is Android. Both of these recharge channels are included in our products. Their recharge operation behaviors are different. If they are the same, then there is no problem. If they are different, then it is worth pondering. Why would a recharge channel for Product A add or reduce this step? Why does product B retain the first step? What is the purpose of retaining this step? Is it a matter of reminding users about the safety of recharge, or is it that reminding users is an unnecessary step? It's actually the small details that make users feel that our products are considerate and easy to use, and encourage them to continue using them. (3) Interaction. Because the ultimate goal is interaction, we need to analyze the main body of the function starting from a certain functional entrance. Only after starting from the entrance can we know the shortcomings of each product. How do we understand the definition of entrance? Let’s take an example, for example, we want to register QQ mailbox and 163 mailbox. So when you register your email, you need to set up a lot of questions, some of which are optional and some are required. You will find that setting some required questions will be of great help to you; setting some optional questions will make your registration more efficient. Therefore, from the basic entrance, you will find that our products will have many differences. Changes will occur when entering and during the use process. Third, strategy analysis. The strategy analysis part can be divided into three points. (1) Product positioning. This includes product version push, version response and version introduction, etc. This part is not difficult to understand, so we will not talk about it much. (2) Operational strategy: From the perspective of marketing and operations, how can I make my brand, activities and promotions known to more users, and how much impact will my activities have on users? This influence comes from two points. The first is its benefits, and the second is whether its usage process is comfortable and the experience is good. From the perspective of activities, recharges or activity, the operational strategy is whether users are willing to spend a long time using this competing product. It is very important for us that users identify with the brand value and the products under this brand. (3) Profit model If I want to understand my competitors and competing products, first we need to know how our competitors charge. Are they asking for money from investors , advertisers, or users? If you are a paid product and the other party is a free product, you may need to worry more about how many of the users of this paid product are worth charging for and how many are willing to be charged. Some users may think that the paid one is better, but most users are more likely to choose the free one. If it is a product that asks users for money, there cannot be too many bad pop-ups and advertisements. Also, whether my profit model is to expand the market or to increase revenue, these are things I need to know when doing competitive product analysis. Fourth, development potential. Development potential does not only refer to the development potential of your competing products. You can also use your competing products to determine how many current users your product has and how big the market is. So this is a multi-dimensional comprehensive analysis. For example, you are currently developing a product and have 2 million users. Then you may feel that no matter how hard you try, the market size is limited. But if you find that your competitors have already achieved 10 million or 20 million users, you will know that your product can still go further and compete. Because our competitors have made the plate so big, it indirectly tells us that our products can also make the plate that big. The above are the four major elements of defining competitive products. 2. Four core points of competitive product analysis First, the consumption experience that users are accustomed to. This is a module composed of two aspects. First, we need to know user habits and consumption experience. From this perspective, it is more suitable to do strategic competition analysis. What is the purpose of strategic competition? I strive to make my product better than competitors'. The core of usability is that users find it easy to use, or in other words, it stimulates the user experience at some point and makes the user feel comfortable using it. In this way, users will adapt to our behavior and naturally make emotional connections and spread our products. Second, core values. It mainly covers functional aspects, such as giving value to product A and product B in terms of their design, details and positioning. The desired effect is to make the user feel that during the use process, it is the details of the product that make him stop and ultimately retain it. This is a question of product competition. Third, functional splitting. This part is actually mainly about what functions are included in the product? Based on the original functions, how big is the difference between our product and competitors? For example, if you want to do a competitive analysis of the NetEase News and Tencent News apps, you may need to list all of its modules in a table. From registration to guidance and conversion, even every setting of the news, including color, night setting, font setting, etc. After listing these, the ultimate goal is actually to analyze whether, from a functional perspective, content accounts for a larger proportion, or payment, activity, display, and effect optimization account for a larger proportion. People tend to think that if a product is good in functionality, it doesn’t matter if the display or optimization of some small details are not good enough. However, core users often think that these small details are very important. For example, the gap in night mode with competitors may cause the product to lose some users at night, resulting in user churn. Fourth, extended services for user profitability. The extended services for user profitability are mainly reflected in two aspects. The first point is customer service, that is, how good is our customer service ultimately? Can we patiently guide users one-on-one instead of solving problems simply for the sake of solving them? The second point is what is our profit model? Are the services provided in addition to the product or are they services included in the product? 3. Who should do the competitive product analysis? Having said so much, you may feel that there is still a problem. What is it? That is to say, our boss gave me this task, but I don’t know how to do it, or whether I should do it myself or let others do it? This problem is very common. Ordinary employees may encounter the following problems: I don’t have the competitor’s data, I don’t know what to do? Or I am just an operations or marketing person, and I think this thing needs to be done by R&D or products, or the marketing department should be responsible for it. Another option is to say, I am just a junior specialist who does odd jobs, and this task needs to be done by the head of our department. Who will do it? It's just you, me and him, these three people. From this perspective, our demand will increase whether in the early, middle or after-product development. The increase in these demands comes from two aspects: one is the increase from the perspective of R&D, and the other is the increase from the perspective of operations. The increase in research and development is aimed at the inner beauty of the product. What is inner beauty? It is the content that the product actually competes with, and it is the content that users can directly see and experience. This is the inherent beauty of R&D. The increase in operations is aimed at the external beauty of the product, which includes not only the data survey of operations, but also its guidance, services and activities, as well as its monetary value and new methods of using currency. These all belong to the external beauty of operations. When both inner beauty and outer beauty increase to a certain level, your product will definitely encounter many competitors, or similar or identical competitors. The product content will not be targeted due to unclear analysis. Then there will be some blind periods where you won’t know where to start or what to do. We have divided the above into two parts: what needs to be done in R&D and operations. Besides knowing what to do, what should you do next? Practical: 6 methods to teach you how to do competitive product analysis 1. Master the resources This can be done from three aspects: As mentioned before, some of the core data we need to perform competitive analysis may not be accessible to ordinary employees. First, you should take the initiative to collect some information about competing products. This information is not necessarily used when it is necessary to do competitive product analysis. In our daily work, we can record any information about competing products that we occasionally see. Second, expand your network. In daily work or private friendships, make more friends in the industry. During this process, if I cannot obtain some competitor data directly, I can ask my friends to inquire for me. The data obtained in this way is more convincing than the data I collected behind closed doors. Third, pay attention to the company’s daily operations. Pay attention to the daily conditions of competing companies. The daily conditions of competing companies are partly obtained through their portals, WeChat platforms, and user feedback. A larger part comes from the forum. Many people now think that forums are meaningless, but in fact, forums are the most reliable way to interact with users. In this process, you can find out how many users are actually settled and how much help they can provide to you. You can also find out which users can be used by you and do some user surveys. 2. Grasp of resources If you don’t quite understand the value of this resource, or the resources cannot be mobilized, at this time, you need to go back and communicate with the person who owns the resources, and ask him to help you coordinate and integrate the fragmented resources. 3. Market operation research Market operations research includes these six points: First, we need to know the marketing methods of our competitors. Second, conduct traffic analysis on competing products. There may be two types of traffic analysis: the first is its bandwidth cost; the second is its UV and PV. Third, analyze the user costs of competing products. User costs are nothing more than two points. The first point is how much does it cost to register or to become an active user? The second point is the ratio of free users to paying users. Fourth, estimate the revenue of competing products. If we don't have a way to directly see its product data flow, we can understand it based on data reports from some industry media and industry data websites. Of course, this requires long-term accumulation. Fifth, analyze the profit model of competitors. Of course, you may not analyze the profit model too comprehensively, but you can still experience it from the user's perspective and analyze it from the operation perspective. Sixth, check the market share of competitors. Market share must be based entirely on industry reports. Market share and investor share can both be obtained through industry reports. There will also be some investment introductions on the official website of competitors, so you can know what the competitor company is doing recently and what its investment direction is. 4. Product research of competitors First, we need to study the dynamics of the product. Includes previous and current releases as well as previews of upcoming releases. Second, we also need to study the positioning of the object. What are its representative functions and how do its functional modules work? Third, I would like to emphasize that I really hope everyone can play the role of a user and consume. Only when you actually play the role of a user can you know what it does better than me and what is worth my consumption. Fourth, study its functional distribution. In this regard, you can check the logs, check some of the functional features of previous discontinued products and past versions, and compare them with your existing and historical versions to see how big the difference is. Fifth, UI layout habits. Study the user's usage habits and respect the user's previous usage experience. Making something more alternative will affect the user's usage habits. Sixth, the technical points of competing products. When you do a competitive product analysis, you need to look at its product architecture, avoid the problems they encounter from a technical perspective, and study how to innovate in the current situation. It is also possible to make some optimizations and innovations to address certain bugs left over from the system and provide a good solution to the problems encountered by users. 5. User orientation First, we can conduct word-of-mouth surveys. We can go to the forums and WeChat of competitors, search for its keywords, and check its official media. We can even pretend to be a user and chat with their users to see what their users are giving us feedback. Second, analyze its behavioral trends. You can directly use the Google or Baidu index currently available on the market. Various APP tools and search software are free, we just need to use them reasonably. Through these tools we can obtain a lot of user experimental data to help us do some reasonable analysis. 6. Some easily overlooked parts First, we may have done a lot of content and development before, but we should also pay attention that we definitely need to do everything that big companies do. There is definitely nothing wrong with what big companies do, this is one aspect. Second, everything that is in line with future trends must be done. There are two kinds of trends, one is certain and risk-free; the other is very risky. Therefore, before doing anything, you need certain data support to determine whether the so-called trend is an illusion. Third, we must also have the functions that our competitors have. However, some functions may not be accepted by users, because our users are not exactly the same as those of our competitors. Therefore, we also need to subdivide this area and not do it blindly. Fourth, if you determine that this is what I need, then you have to do it. Of course, making such a decision requires research coordinated with operations, otherwise the direction is likely to deviate. These four points are often overlooked. How to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of competitors? 1. How to identify the strengths and weaknesses of competitors? (1) Create an Excel table In addition, we also need to know the strengths and weaknesses of our competing products. How do we define their strengths and weaknesses? In fact, you can use the simplest method. We can create an Excel table and record the first-level, second-level and third-level functions step by step. After recording, we only need to mark right or wrong in it. We will put a check mark on the functions that our competitors have, and a cross on the functions that our competitors do not have. By doing this, you can see directly from the list how big the difference is between us and competing products. (2) What does our version release include? This version may involve new activities, new resources, new pictures, as well as some new gameplay, new introductions, and new content. How often do our competitors release new versions of their products, and how do their releases compare to ours? This is the gap between the two sides that can be seen directly from the content published. (3) Take a screenshot of the functional diagram. In fact, we do not need to make a flowchart to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of competitors, because flowcharts are really not direct and obvious. On the contrary, our more stupid method is to take screenshots of each functional diagram, then explain the functions of the screenshots, and then put the functions of the two comparison products together. It is easy to see how big the difference is between the two. Why aren't flowcharts recommended? Logically speaking, there is no problem, but what users see is not the logical problem, but the function of the performance. Functional performance and logic are two different things. 2. Your strengths and weaknesses After learning so much, we will find out the advantages and disadvantages of our products and competing products, as well as which one has more disadvantages and which one has more advantages. At the same time, we also need to do a self-examination. What is the purpose of self-examination? We analyze our strengths and weaknesses to find out how big the differences are between our target population, user positioning, interaction methods, and core functions and those of our competitors. After completing self-examination from a product perspective, we also need to examine the architecture of our product from a development perspective. Including our information architecture, communication protocols and operational strategies, what are the similarities and differences between us and our competitors? At this point, the advantages and disadvantages of both parties' products have been fully displayed. At this time, we can analyze our users and their needs, the advantages and disadvantages of our products, what we are missing, and how to change it. During the modification process, we also discovered a big problem, which is that there are a large number of gaps and their functions. What does the gap here mean? The gap here can be used to meet certain needs, or can be used for certain functions and realize certain psychological values. Because we cannot guarantee that every product design is full, 100% rich and perfect, there will definitely be some flaws. Therefore, we have the opportunity to add new features or adjust existing features. This is a theory of gap demand, which we have summarized in our work. I think it is very useful and you can learn from it. 3. Accurately restore competing products The last step is to restore our competing products. We may not be able to clearly describe the strategic positioning of competitors. But the other three points must be restored completely and with high precision. That is, product competition, users/profits, and product coverage. Only in this way can you know the advantages of competing products through data and analysis. However, there is still a big problem in the end. When our resources, optimization and analysis methods are different, our purposes and analysis focuses are different, and we do not flexibly analyze the strengths and weaknesses of our competitors and ourselves, we just randomly give a conclusion. Such an analysis report is absolutely unacceptable. We would rather not write this competitive product report than draw a wrong conclusion. This is a basic principle. Because when you make a wrong conclusion, it will affect your product, and even your company may be gone because of such a thing. So, when you are not sure, don't jump to conclusions. You can add your own personal subjective consciousness, but your personal subjective consciousness must be based on your understanding of competing products. If everyone jumps to the conclusion, no company would dare to hire you. Even if you write this report now, the company will still have doubts about your character. Therefore, it is better to have no conclusion than to guess a conclusion, which is very taboo. The above is my sharing on competitive product analysis. I hope everyone can make excellent competitive product analysis and make better products. Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising The author of this article @赵毅 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting! |
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