Brand Marketing Competitive Product Research

Marketing is like a war. Only when you know yourself and your enemy can you win every battle!

Competitor research is the investigation and study of specific aspects of competitors within and outside the category for a specific purpose.

(1) Why do we need to conduct competitor research?

Sun Tzu's Art of War says "Know thy enemy and know thyself, and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat." Knowing the enemy comes before knowing thyself. This "other" can be understood as competitors, competitors outside the category and competitors within the category.

(2) How to conduct competitor research?

Depending on the research objects, it can be divided into "in-category competitor research" and "out-category competitor research". More than 99% of brands do not need to conduct out-category competitor research.

Because more than 99% of brands are just followers or guerrillas in the industry, their primary task is to survive the competition within the category, and they do not need to consider competitors outside the category.

Therefore, this section focuses on competition research within the category.

1) Before analyzing your opponent, you must first find your opponent.

① First find competitors in the category

② Find competitors outside of your category

① First find competitors in the category

It is a brand that produces the same product as yours. For example, if you make herbal tea, it also makes herbal tea; if you make sofas, it also makes sofas.

First of all, if you want to find it accurately, you must first find it completely.

Through the comprehensive use of several research methods, we can find as many peers as possible in this industry and understand the entire competitive landscape of the industry. This way, you can develop a holistic perspective and selectively learn from your competitors' strengths.

The comprehensive use of several research methods, such as "Baidu Keyword Planner + Taobao Business Advisor + Industry Report + Customer Recommendation (peers that customers think are doing well)", can draw an overall picture of the industry's competition.

Secondly, after finding everything, you can find it accurately.

After understanding the overall competitive landscape, you need to accurately identify the competitors that you need to benchmark or learn from.

There are two common methods, as follows:

One is the positioning assessment method

It means evaluating and selecting competing products that are similar to your positioning based on the brand positioning you have established.

For example, after analysis, you find that there is a market opportunity for "American sofas". You position your brand as "focusing on American sofas", design your main product as "American fabric sofa series", and target the young people born in the 1980s and 1990s in first-, second- and third-tier cities.

Then you can choose products with similar positioning to yours from the list of competitors to learn from or benchmark against.

Another is the price adjustment screening method

It is through price adjustment that you can select your own alternative brands.

If the price is raised by 15%, some customers will be lost. Who will these customers choose?

If the price is reduced by 15%, some customers will be lost. Who will these customers choose next?

② Find competitors outside of your category

Competitors outside the category are other types of products that can meet the same needs of consumers.

For example, in a hot pot restaurant, when consumers want to drink beverages, in addition to herbal tea, there are also cola, beer, juice, milk... and many other choices. At this time, Wanglaoji faces competition from herbal tea brands within the category, such as Jiaduobao, Heqizheng, Shunpai..., as well as competitors outside the category, such as Coca-Cola, Huiyuan Juice...

Since Wanglaoji is the leader in the herbal tea category, it has established a cognitive advantage in the herbal tea category and holds a dominant position in the market share. There is not much room for improvement in the herbal tea category.

Its strategic focus at this time is to target other strong beverage categories in the catering channel and convert customers and market share from other categories. For example, grabbing the market share of cola and coconut juice.

2) How to conduct competition research within a category?

The research on competitors in the same category mainly focuses on five aspects: "corporate background information, brand core information, product core information, channel layout information, and communication and promotion information."

① Research the company background of competitors

The different nature of the other party’s corporate background may even play a decisive role in its development. See whether it has a state-owned enterprise background or a private enterprise background, and see whether its investors are well-known investors in the industry.

For example, Internet companies invested by BAT generally have greater development potential.

How to conduct research? There are three types, one of which is to use the "Enterprise Information Research Platform". For example, Tianyancha, Qichacha, the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System... and so on.

Above you can see the company's shareholder structure, founding time, official website, litigation disputes...

The second way is to look at the official introduction on the company’s website;

The third method is to search for the company on Baidu to read related reports;

② Research brand information of competitors

The so-called brand information mainly refers to the "brand name, brand positioning, brand appeal, brand story, and trust endorsement" at the brand concept level. Some brands may not have or have unclear brand positioning and stories, so just record them truthfully.

For example, a kitchen appliance brand collects information about competing brands, including:

Competitor 1,

Brand Name: FOTILE

Brand positioning: high-end kitchen appliance expert

Brand appeal: China's high-end kitchen appliance expert and leader

Brand story: The range hood that sells better in China is not the range hood, but FOTILE. Because FOTILE is more professional, an expert and leader in high-end kitchen appliances in China.

Trust endorsement:

2012 National "Industrial Brand Cultivation Demonstration Enterprise" title

2012 Best Corporate Brand Image Award, 2012 Ningbo Top 100 Brands;

In 2013, it was awarded the title of "Industrial Brand Cultivation Demonstration Enterprise" by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology;

Strategic partner of Vanke Pavilion at the 2015 Milan World Expo;

The only company in the industry to host the "Eleventh Five-Year" National Science and Technology Support Plan;

Ranked first in kitchen appliance market share in the "China Corporate Brand Survey" for eight consecutive years;

③ Research product information of competitors

Mainly look at the product line layout of competitors, product prices, product selling points, product packaging...

The product line layout can be viewed in this way: by listing all the products of competitors and sorting them by price, the price distribution and product layout of competitors can be obtained. As shown in Figure 2-32.

Figure 2-32 Competitive product layout analysis

By extracting the selling points promoted by each product separately, you can clearly understand the product line layout and design ideas of competitors.

The following is part of a survey conducted on the product line layout and pricing information of a key competitor of a well-known knife brand. As shown in Figures 2-33 and 2-34.

Figure 2-33 Analysis of the product line layout of a certain tool brand

Figure 2-34 Price analysis of a certain knife brand product

The collection of product information can be achieved through methods such as competitor official websites, e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, Tmall, and JD.com, offline stores, and on-site inspections of supermarket shelves.

④ Research channel information of competitors

It means understanding through which channels competitors' products are sold, which can serve as a reference for us to choose channels.

For example, when I was conducting research on competitive channels in the integrated stove industry, I found that a certain brand was currently only operating franchise stores and not other channels.

Even so, the sales volume is already quite large. If the channels are expanded in the future, the volume will increase very quickly, so this brand is listed as a key focus. As shown in Figure 2-35.

Figure 2-35 Channel layout of integrated stove category

How to conduct research?

① First list the general channel layout of the industry. For example, the picture above is the general channel layout of the kitchen appliance industry.

② Verify one by one. Through competitor's official website, e-commerce platform search (in addition to Taobao, Tmall, and JD.com, you should also search and confirm on vertical platforms), offline field investigation, and interviews with customer experts (customers generally have a better understanding of the main competitors in the industry)

⑤ Research the dissemination information of competing products

By looking at what competitors are doing in terms of communication and publicity, you can deduce their recent marketing focus and publicity strategies.

A. Use Baidu Index to see the key communication nodes of competitors

For example, looking at the fluctuations of the Martian Baidu Index, we see that it rose significantly on October 19. We need to look at what Martian has done in terms of communication and marketing activities in the recent period. As shown in Figure 2-36.

Figure 2-36 Baidu Index of Martians

B. Use Baidu News and Meihua.com to search for your competitors and see what they have done recently. As shown in Figures 2-37 and 2-38.

Figure 2-37 Using Meihua.com to monitor competitor data

Figure 2-38 Martian monitoring data

C. Check what the competitor’s official Weibo is promoting in September and October. I found that Martians have been focusing on using TikTok to spread their messages and improve the skills of their team of installation masters. As shown in Figures 2-39 and 2-40.

Figure 2-39 Marsman Integrated Stove Official Weibo

Figure 2-40 Marsman Integrated Stove Official Weibo

D. See what the competitor’s official WeChat account is promoting in October. You will find that Martian is currently running a buy-one-get-one-free promotion for New Year’s Day and Christmas. As shown in Figure 2-41.

Figure 2-41 Sogou WeChat search to find the Marsman integrated stove public account