The importance of understanding who are your competitors
Figure out who your competitors are, is important to know against whom you
will “collide” in the market; it is equally important to know them
for planning your communication structure and decide the winning identity
for your position in the market.
Assuming that everyone has a competiror, businesses, services, organizations, NGO, People
and so on, to find out who are the competitors which look is important to start
to distinguish between those who are direct competitors and indirect competitors.
• Direct
The direct competitors are those brands that operate in our own sector
market, which cater to a target similar or identical to ours and that offer similar
Service /product. Example BMW-Mercedes, Nike-Adidas, Coca cola-
Pepsi.
• Indirect
The indirect competitors are divided into two categories:
The first includes those brands that operate in our sector of the market
while not turning to our own target (BMW- FIAT, Coke-Cola
discount). These organizations offer a different solution to our target
reference values and focus on other aspects (such as price and convenience) and meet the consumer’s needs.
As a second category, less frequent and more limited, there are brands that
They have the same target and the same market positioning, about the
cost, but they are operating in another sector trying to meet the same need
consumer (Baci Perugina-service interflora). In this case the need is
make a gift for Valentine’s Day. The two brands, while offering products and / or services
different, they can satisfy the need of the gift at a similar cost.
Obviously at the moment when it carries out the search of the competior, the list
that will follow will be long, therefore it must implement a skimming through
filters, carefully chosen according the parameters relating to the requirements, so as to
keep only those brands that are as similar as possible to us, acting as
statistical sample for all others.
But the important thing is not just to recognize our competitors, but also analyze
in terms of the brand, its message, product and communication. in
This way we will have more information to differentiate ourselves in the creation of our
identity and communication strategies for entering the market. we also
find us added value and / or a competitive advantage able to
highlight our brand.
For proper research and analysis is important to rely on professionals or companies that
dealing with brand management and communication, and that, with their team,
They are able to find and analyze your competitors in the most functional
to your goals.