How to do competitor brand analysis: easy steps to follow

Branding

Have you heard of the phrase: “all things to all men”? It actually comes from the King James Bible and means you need to try and adapt so that you can relate to everyone. 

In marketing, the opposite is true. You can’t be “all things to all men”. You just can’t sell to everyone. 

The temptation is to get rather down about this. But, instead of seeing this as a bad thing, competitor brand analysis actually helps you see it as an opportunity. 

If you can’t sell to everyone, then neither can your competitors. And by looking at how they’re positioning their brand, you can determine where the gaps are. By positioning yourself within those gaps, you can connect with a whole new market. 

Such is the power and opportunity that competitor analysis presents you with. 

So, how do you do it? Before we dive in, let’s just explain why competitor analysis is important.

Why is competitor brand analysis important?

Competitor brand analysis helps you to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors’ brands so that you can make informed decisions about your own branding strategy.

By comparing and contrasting your own brand with those of your competitors, you can identify “gaps” and can suggest how you can offer different benefits that might appeal to different target audiences. You may not be the perfect brand for one type of client, but you can sure be the perfect solution for another person’s woes! Finding those gaps and capitalising on them is what competitor brand analysis is all about. 

Target audience or competitor analysis? What comes first?

This is an interesting point of discussion. And in all honesty, the simple answer is: it depends. 

But, on the other hand, if you’re not making much money, then something’s wrong. Either in your branding/offer, website or SEO/marketing efforts. Starting with competitor analysis might be really useful in this case, as you can see how other companies within your industry are positioning themselves. 

But ultimately, developing user personas, understanding your target audience/market and completing competitor brand analysis should all be completed in order to successfully build a strong brand identity. 

So now on to the steps…

Step 1: Identify your competitors

The first step in conducting a competitor brand analysis is to identify your direct and indirect competitors. Direct competitors are businesses that offer similar products or services to your target audience. Indirect competitors, on the other hand, offer alternative products or services that can fulfil the same need.

You may already know a lot about your competitors, especially if you’ve been in your industry for a long time. But, if you’re not sure, a good way to figure out who your competitors might be is to join local community groups and post a request for recommendations. This will give you an idea of the companies local people are aware of and think highly of. 

You can find indirect competitors by searching for the services that you provide on Google (other search engines are available!). Google will throw up a whole raft of shopping and organic results that you can browse at your leisure. 

We also believe that you need to identify your “search” competitors. These are the companies that are ranking well on search engines for the keywords that you would like to rank for. 

So, if you’re a cleaning company that provides office cleaning services to commercial properties in the Midlands, you might want to rank for: 

• commercial cleaning
• Birmingham cleaning company
• Office cleaning company Birmingham

And so on…

Spend time researching your industry in the area that you’re interested in serving. List down all the companies that are appearing over and over again in the top 5 results for the main keywords that are associated with your type of business. 

Step 2: Collect data on your competitors

Because we focus on helping businesses find new leads online, you’ll need to look at your competitors’ online presence for this next step.

Once you have identified your competitors, you need to collect data on how their brand comes across online. Select between 5 and 10 competitors. Try to look for some “big fish” that you may have aspirations to match (or surpass) in the future, but also look for those you see as similar in size and scale. 

For each competitor write down:

1. Their products and services

Do they offer exactly the same as you? Or do they have services you don’t? Are they full-service or specialised? 

2. Their pricing strategy

Do they just want their users to “call now” for a bespoke quote, or do they create products/packages for part of their offering? Do they offer a “basic” and “deluxe” package? How do they explain the different features that clients get with each product?

3. The “tone” of their brand

Does the website have a very formal, corporate feel, or is relaxed and friendly? Think about how the images, messaging and content on the website make you feel. What kind of “personality” can you detect from the content they’ve selected?

4. Their “value proposition”

A value proposition is the main benefit that a company is aiming to deliver to its clients. It is normally something along the lines of “faster”, “cheaper”, “simpler”, or “more accessible” – something of that sort. It might not be said directly, it could be implied, but it should be understandable. 

A well-communicated value proposition should hit you between the eyes when you first land on the website. 

5. Their marketing efforts

Do they blog? Do they have social media channels, and if so, which ones? What is the type of content they are producing? Are people responding to it? Have you seen Google Ads for them pop up? Do they offer any freebies to draw people in? Note everything down. 

6. Social proof

This concerns any “evidence” that they provide to demonstrate value or trustworthiness online. It might be Google Reviews or testimonials on their website. It could be statistics: “1000 users can’t be wrong!” That sort of thing. Maybe the website has lots of case studies? Write down all their strategies. 

Step 3: Analyse the data

With the data collected, you can now analyse it and compare your business to your competitors. This is the bit that requires some creative thinking. It’s the part that can require a lot of guidance and support from people who work building brands all the time. But to get you started…

Here are some questions to prompt your thinking:

• Is there a service that only you are providing that you can really shout about?
• What marketing channels seem to be working well for your competitors that you’re not utilising?
• What social proof do they have that you don’t?
• What tone does every competitor have, and how is yours different? Do you need to change your tone to either contrast with your competitors or sync with them?
• What content do they use to develop their brand? How can you adapt their ideas to help you?
• What benefits/value proposition can you offer that they don’t?

Want a bit of help? Let’s talk.

Step 4: Develop your brand

Now that you’ve collected data on your competitors and have time to process it, you need to move on to the stage where you develop your brand’s identity. 

Want to know how? Try our Know workshop Look here. 

Final thoughts

Competitor brand analysis is an important part of developing your brand. It allows you to position yourself against competitors, and in doing so understand your own company in more depth. It should feed into your brand identity, and help you inform your business decisions. 

Although it can help you to copy best practices in terms of marketing and website functionality, it should never be done with the intention of simply “copying” another brand. It can certainly inspire, but you can’t sell to everyone (sorry!), and instead, you should aim to be the perfect company for a well-defined target audience, rather than have a scattergun approach to marketing yourself.