How to do product competitive analysis?

When we talk about competitive analysis , what are we actually talking about?

All analysis is based on goals. Analysis is the means and goals are the results. When your leader asks you to do a competitive analysis, you actually want to find ideas that can be borrowed and thus find a solution.

There are multiple levels of competitive analysis, the key lies in what our goal is?

When we start to do competitive analysis, it must be based on a certain scenario. This scenario may be brand building, new product development, new product launch, marketing communication, brand upgrading, etc.

Competitive product analysis should not be a blanket analysis, but should be conducted on a case-by-case basis.

A good competitive product analysis should be based on the logic of “phenomenon + conclusion”, and analysis is what connects the two.

I have read many so-called competitive product analysis reports, most of which are just a pile of information. After reading them, I have no idea what the other party is trying to express. When I ask my teammates to do a competitive product analysis, I usually make it clear what the core problem is that this competitive product analysis is going to solve.

Only when they first clearly understand what problem they want to solve, will they know how to filter information. Information is like an ocean and cannot be put up all at once. Be clear about what information is useful and what is not.

After clarifying the goal, you also need to be clear about the boundaries of competing products? Which are our competitors and what level are they at? Which ones should not be included in our analysis scope for the time being, so as to simplify it. The specific definition of competitors will be explained in detail below.

At the same time, after understanding the goals and boundaries, you also need to pay attention to the logic of competitive product analysis and the conclusions drawn.

When it comes to competitor analysis, I often tell my team, "What conclusion did you come to?" or "If you really can't come to a conclusion, then what is your experience, and what help do you need from me?"

From the perspective of effective career advancement, we advocate the idea that "you should give your leader a 6-point answer sheet, and the leader will build on this foundation to achieve an 8-point answer sheet. Then you will need to achieve a 10-point or even 12-point answer sheet under their guidance."

Therefore, competitive product analysis can effectively promote the thinking ability of new entrants to the workplace. Simple piling up is what machines do, and this is something AI can totally do, but the thinking behind it is what distinguishes people from each other.

Next, I will share some of my views on competitive product analysis within the team, and I hope it will be useful to everyone (mainly for FMCG products).

Words written in front:

Before starting competitive analysis, we must first understand who our competitors are. We have classified our competitors based on their relevance and reference value:

Direct competitors: similar products, brands, sizes, target groups, and investments.

Indirect competitors: The product forms are different, but the user groups and demands are the same.

Benchmark competitors: Doing better is the direction of our development.

Low-level competitors: If they don’t do well enough, they can be used as negative references; if they do well, they can be used as positive references to a certain extent.

Next, we will interpret the different types of competitive product analysis:

1. Creative communication

When we receive a campaign, we often look for some insights/creative references to find some direction or inspiration. Creative activities generally include six aspects: background, goals, strategies, creativity, execution, and effects .

Specific problems require specific analysis, and different backgrounds, goals and strategies may vary. We look at the framework of analysis to find universality, and delve into the background to see the particularities of each. Even if they are doing the same thing, the results achieved will be very different due to the different backgrounds faced by companies.

I often tell my team that “from a business perspective, when judging a creative activity, we must first look at the other party’s purpose.”

From the other party's perspective, if the logic of evaluating the success or failure of an assessment is whether the business objectives can be achieved, then we should not only see what others have done, but also why they did it.

Measures are taken to achieve goals, and they are all customized. There is no universal measure that can achieve all goals.

Strategy is the direction, it is the "temporary methodology" to solve this problem, and it is the soul of this campaign. It is the centripetal force that guides this event, it is the one that carries on the previous goals, and it is the one that inspires the subsequent creativity.

Creativity is the content and the form of expression under the strategy. Creativity is an action: who, when, where, and what does something. Explain in one sentence what was done around the strategy.

Execution is 1/2/3 of the actual action, and can be viewed from both horizontal and vertical perspectives. The vertical direction is the time logic, what was done at each time point and in what order. The horizontal aspect is the spatial logic, which is what is done on each platform/location.

The effect is evaluated based on data dimensions, such as exposure, discussion volume, PV, UV, sales volume, etc. This is to measure the effectiveness of this activity from a data perspective. The exposure and discussion volume can generally be seen directly, and PV, UV, and sales can be monitored using specific monitoring websites and plug-ins, such as Business Advisor, Xiaowangshen, Wangchaoren, etc. These data need to be cross-validated to screen out the authenticity of the data to the greatest extent possible.

In this process, there is another point that needs to be noted, that is, you need to predict the budget spent by the other party. The explosiveness of creativity is closely related to the budget. Even if the same effect is achieved, the money spent will be different and the efficiency achieved with the same unit budget will also be different.

2. Product Development

When working on product strategy for the client (fast-moving consumer goods), I often get a lot of product development briefs. When conducting competitive analysis on new products, it can be explained using "one big logic, five small links" .

The big logic is to explain the product positioning in one sentence . What position does this product want to occupy in the minds of consumers, and what needs of consumers does this product category solve? That is to say, use a concise sentence to explain the business model of this product (the connection between demand and product).

Next are five small sections, namely users, scenarios, problems, solutions, and RTB.

The origin of demand is people. Product development depends on who it is developed for. This is the starting point for competitive product analysis in product development. As Mr. Kotler said, customers are the foundation of marketing. The products will naturally be different depending on the target audience.

The scenario is the consumer's usage scenario and the product's application scenario. If consumers have 100 scenes in their daily lives, your product should occupy at least one of them. The scene is the consumer’s purchasing point and the entry point for the product.

The problem is the consumer's pain point/itch point. Consumers will only use a product if they encounter a problem. Of course, the pain point here is not a very urgent problem, it may also be some kind of itch point, that is, the problem is not so urgent, but the demand must be met.

The solution is to convert product selling points into consumer buying points. All products should solve some kind of problem, which means that products are created for consumers.

RTB (reason to believe) is a series of arguments about the thesis (product positioning). We need to see not only what our competitors say, but also why they say that. That is, how they use a series of arguments to persuade consumers to buy.

3. New product launch

When it comes to new product launches, competitive product analysis can be conducted from the dimensions of time and type. The time dimensions are the basic period, the detonation period, and the mature period. The type dimensions are on-site/off-site, online/offline, brand advertising/performance advertising.

The time dimension is a line that connects all content and is also the marketing rhythm of the entire new product launch.

As a foundation period, it is the initial stage of building awareness. In the Taobao system, it is the key stage for establishing basic sales and obtaining platform traffic.

The detonation period will consume a large amount of resources. In addition to the level of refinement in operations and marketing, it also requires investment from the basic period.

In the mature stage, you need to consider how to maintain this sales volume and how to start the second sales curve.

On-site/off-site depends on the effective operation of on-site traffic and the creation of voice/traffic guidance for off-site marketing. The purpose of off-site traffic is to attract traffic, and it is also to negotiate with the platform to increase traffic. Traffic on the site drives sales, and sales increase the site’s weight.

Online/offline, in addition to importing online sales, offline traffic is also the logic for capturing new groups of people. In the context of Taobao, this is the logic of O2O and an effective means of leveraging platform resources.

Brand advertising/performance advertising is based on the logic of long-term mind occupation and short-term sales harvesting. Only when there is sales can there be a budget for brand advertising, and only when there is mind occupation can the product generate natural traffic.

4. Brand positioning

Brand positioning has "one core logic and five basic logics". The former is to explain the positioning in one sentence, and the latter is to convince consumers to recognize this positioning.

A good one-sentence positioning is what needs it solves for which group of people.

The five basic logics of brand positioning can be expressed in five sentences: for whom, what category you belong to, what problems you solve, what effects you can achieve, and what are the reasons supporting the selling points.

For whom refers to who your target consumers are and which group of people you serve. For this group of people, what mind do you want to occupy? From a mental perspective, what category does the brand represent?

What problems does this category solve for consumers? What kind of effect can this category achieve? In order to support this effect, there are a series of reasons.

5. Brand Upgrade

There are four key points in brand upgrading: What was it like in the past? What are the problems? What does the upgrade look like? What was done during the process?

Brand upgrading is a time logic. If it was not good enough in the past, what would the performance be like and what problems would such a situation face? What is the purpose of the upgrade and what does the upgrade include?

What specific things were done during the upgrade process? For example, brand positioning level, visual level, product matrix level, etc.

Summarize:

Analysis is just a process; what is more important is the purpose of the analysis and the conclusion of the analysis.

If the analysis only stops at collecting and classifying information without analyzing it, it will have no special meaning.

Author: Strategist Zang Feng

Source: Strategist Zang Feng