Day 3 — Competition Research Strategy
So I am officially 3 days into full-time ENTREPRENEURSHIP…
Here are a few free tools and strategies I have been using over the last two days to do effective product competition research to consider…
- Alexa.com
Alexa is an awesome tool to get an idea of base demographics of a competitor’s website, identify websites with similar traffic (who are likely other competitors to investigate) and gain a basic idea of where your competitor’s main traffic comes from.
Alexa is super simple to use…
Just enter the website address you want to investigate here.
Then click ‘Find’ and that website’s demographics will pop right up.
2. Full Screen Page Capture ‘Chrome Add-In’
Full Screen Page capture is a nifty tool that automatically screenshots an entire website. Once you install it on ‘Chrome’, in the top right corner, you can now click the camera icon to take a full screenshot of any website.
Why is this useful?
- Go to your competitors product page on their website and press the camera button to snapshot the entire product page. This will be useful when doing a side by side competition analysis of the current space.
- You ideally want to list out the language your competitor uses to position and brand message their product.
What problems does your competitor think it is solving for its customers?
Who are the different customer segments that your competitor is targeting? (e.g. Male, College Football Players)
Get further ideas on who your competitor thinks is their prime customer by looking at the graphics of customers displayed. Then watching any product videos on the page and paying attention to whom appears in them. Is it obvious who the product is really for?
Facebook Audience Insights ROCKS!
It is actually my new favorite tool.
You can use it to identify trends in markets you are considering.
Just simply type in the competitors page name where I have circled below to get a full analysis on a million kinds of demographics for people who like their page.
Facebook in fact puts together a whole profile for you of people that liked their page, along with other pages they like, household income and other priceless information you can use to identify trends. You can also choose to continue filtering down data if you see a trend that looks exciting you want to delve into…
And get an understanding of what other brands your customer is into…
Now you have the tools to gauge competition, you will appreciate the strategy…
5 Criteria to Assess the Competition
- Write down a quick overview of the competition’s value proposition and their target customer segments
What are the Customer Problems&Pains/Gains/Customer Jobs that your competitor perceives to exist?
Which customer segment are they targting?
How does the competition solve the problem; create gains, solve pains, and fulfill customer jobs to create value for each customer segment?
Read up on the Value Proposition Canvas.
2. UVP
Look at the product page on the competitior website.
What attributes set this product apart from the rest of the market? What is their unique positioning?
3. Assess Competitor Pricing
What do your competitors charge for their products?
Make note of overall prices, as well as price per unit.
4. What do customer reviews/testimonials reveal about buying concerns?
Product reviews can be an invaluable source of information about what people are dissatisfied with in a competitor.
Read product reviews, especially on Amazon if possible and write down where your competitor is failing for some customers and who those customers are if possible. Now also write down what customers are super happy about.
5. Sales Channels Used?
Do some research around the internet and see if any articles have been written about your competitor and how they got started.
What is your competitor’s largest sales channel?
Does your competitor dominate the market yet, or is it still early days?
Will post next update on Friday….
