Implicit competitors. Competitors, rivals and customers are three sides of the same coin. Under pressure from competition

These are the only three types of competitors that matter. This competition model is applicable to all industries and all economic entities

Three types of competition

Direct competitors

This type of competition occurs whenever there are other businesses within the same market sector that offer the same products and services as your company. You are directly competing with each other in terms of location, target audience reach and your products. In case of direct competition, your customer relationship management plays an important role in gaining market share. If a customer receives excellent service from a company, they are unlikely to switch to a competitor.

Indirect competitors

This type of competition occurs when someone from another company takes a customer away from you by offering products or services that are not in your range. For example, for cinemas, the Internet and cable television become an indirect competitor. A certain part of the target audience is given the opportunity to watch films in good quality exclusively at home. Thus, this type of competition forces the establishment of barriers to luring customers.

In the case of indirect competition, your marketing strategy should include a more extensive commercial offer, and you should conduct active promotions so that the client cannot ignore you.

Competitors are phantoms

This phenomenon occurs when, instead of buying your service or your product, the client is going to buy something completely different. This type of competition involves offerings from companies that do not exist in the typical customer mindset. For example, in the above example, instead of going to the cinema, the client, coming to the shopping center, can easily change his plans. He may get carried away with shopping or, meeting friends, spend time with them in a cafe having a friendly conversation. At this point, the client changed his plans and did not spend his money with your company.

Screening such competitors is very difficult to do because it is entirely in the minds of the customers. Marketers are aware of direct and indirect competitors, but if a product has too many phantom competitors and your offer ends up being ignored by the potential customer, then the product or service will have a very short life cycle. Against phantom competitors, more engaging promotional activities are needed.

The nature of competition in business

In a market economy, there are a number of different market systems that depend on the industry and the company within that industry. It is also important for entrepreneurs and small business owners to understand the type of market system they are operating in when making decisions about pricing and production of products. Your company's behavior in the market is determined by 5 types of competition and the corresponding market relations.

Perfect competition

This is a system characterized by the presence of a large number of different sellers and buyers. With such a large number of participants in the local market, it is almost impossible to dramatically change the prevailing market price and gain a strategic victory. If someone tries to set a dumping price, then sellers will have an infinite number of alternative options to repel the attack and bring the initiator to negative economic results.

Monopoly

The exact opposite of perfect competition. In a pure monopoly, there is only one producer of a particular good or service, and there is no reasonable substitute at all. In such a system of market relations, the monopolist is able to charge any price. The one he wants due to the lack of competition. But his total income will be limited by the ability or willingness of consumers to pay the price of the monopolist.

Oligopoly

Similar to a monopoly in many respects. The main difference is that instead of one producer of a product or service, there are several companies that make up the dominant majority of production in the market. While oligopolies do not have as much pricing power as a monopoly, it is likely that without government regulation, oligopolists will collude with each other to set prices in the same way as a monopolist.

Monopolistic (imperfect) competition

It is a type of market relations that combines elements of monopoly and perfect competition. The difference is that each participant is quite differentiated from the others. Therefore, some of them may charge higher prices than under perfect competition. Accordingly, this type of relationship allows you to extract additional profit due to visible differences.

Monopsony

Market systems can differentiate not only depending on the number of suppliers in the market. They can also be differentiated depending on the number of buyers. While a perfectly competitive market theoretically has an infinite number of buyers and sellers, in a monopsony there is only one buyer for a particular good or service. This gives significant power to the buyer in reducing the price of goods and services from producers. An example of such a relationship is the modern form of government procurement, in which a state enterprise, forming unique requirements for a government contract, becomes a monopsony in a very narrow local market.

Brief structure of market relations in economics

Fundamental and structural differences in the nature of competitors

Variety of goods and services

In perfect (pure) competition, products are standardized because they are either identical to each other or homogeneous. The buyer does not see any differences in the products offered on the market, since they are absolute substitutes for each other. For example, food at different retail outlets, automobile fuel at different gas stations.
A monopoly, by definition, means that there is one producer of a product in the market. The buyer has no choice of any other option. An important factor is government regulation and restrictions on natural monopolies in order to maintain a balance of interests of the state, producer and consumers.
Oligopoly implies the production of homogeneous products, both in pure competition, and differentiated products (as in monopolistic competition). The main problem for entrepreneurs is the barrier to entry into the market.
In monopolistic competition, products are differentiated based on product brand, shape, color, style, trademarks, quality and durability. Buyers can easily distinguish a product offered on the market from those available based on more than one criterion. However, under monopolistic competition, products in the market are close substitutes for each other. For example, cars of the same class, but from different manufacturers.
Under monopsony, conditions are created in which product differentiation is influenced by the production needs of the buyer. In this case, state-approved standards and regulatory procedures become important factors.

Market barriers

In pure competition, the number of producers is large, so that any single change in the entry or exit of any participant into the market does not have a significant impact on the total volume of goods or services offered. Market barriers are minimal and are determined by the availability of funds for the entrepreneur. In this situation, we can talk about infinite elasticity of demand. The level of profit within the local market will be distributed evenly.
The main reason monopolies exist is high barriers to entry into the market. These barriers include exclusive ownership of resources, copyrights, high initial investment and other government restrictions to maintain adequate welfare in the state.
Oligopolies seek to prevent new competitors from entering the market as this affects sales and profits. New companies cannot easily enter the market due to various legal, social and technological barriers. In this case, existing enterprises have complete control over the sales market.
The implication is that in monopolistic competition there are no restrictions placed on organizations to enter or exit the market. There may be on the market at the same time a large number of small sellers, selling differentiated but not close to substitutable products.
Monopsony implies a large number of suppliers of goods and services and low barriers to entry into the market. This creates conditions for reducing the cost of purchased products and increasing your own profits.

Business mobility

With pure competition there is perfect mobility of production. This helps companies regulate their own supply according to demand. This also means that resources can move freely from one industry to another.
For monopolies, there is no mobility as such. Such structures have exclusive rights to certain resources, which by their nature have limitations. These may be raw materials, or monopolies may arise due to specific knowledge about production techniques (patent law).
For oligopolies, mobility is limited or absent. In monopoly and perfect competition, enterprises do not take into account the decisions and reactions of other companies. Oligopolies are influenced by each other's decisions. These decisions include pricing issues and decisions on the volume and production of its own products, taking into account the market situation.
Monopsony does not imply mobility due to its own characteristics. Important factors in this situation are technological progress and savings through innovation.

Efficiency and business size

It is assumed that in perfect competition, buyers and sellers have perfect knowledge of the prices of the products prevailing in the market. In such a case, when sellers and buyers are fully aware of the current market price of the product, then neither of them will sell or buy at a higher rate. As a result, the market price will prevail in the market. The efficiency and size of a business is influenced primarily by demand and the organizational and economic indicators of the company itself.
The effectiveness of a monopoly is achieved through many years of experience, innovative potential, and financial strength, but is reduced due to managerial competence and accessibility to financial markets with a lower cost of borrowed capital.
Oligopolies are not uniform in size. Some businesses become very large in size, while some remain very small. Market capacity determines the size, therefore, business efficiency is determined by the monopoly model. Oligopolies tend to avoid making unconsidered price changes for their products for fear of losing market share.
In monopolistic competition, each seller's product is unique, which is a sign of a monopoly market. Thus, we can say that monopolistic competition is the integration of perfect competition and monopoly. Consequently, the efficiency and size of a business are influenced by the same factors as under pure competition as under a monopoly.
In a monopsony, the efficiency and size of the business do not depend on the market for goods and services.

Conclusion

The somewhat abstract issues described above tend to determine the major, but not all, details of the concrete market environment where buyers and sellers actually meet and transact. Competition is useful because it shows the real demand of buyers and encourages sellers to provide a sufficient level of quality of service and competitive prices. In other words, competition can combine the interests of the seller with the interests of the buyer. In the absence of perfect competition, three main approaches can be taken to solve problems associated with the control of market power.

The success of the product in the segment largely depends on which companies will become direct and indirect competitors of the company. That is why it is necessary to choose competitors correctly and with care. In this article we will talk about the main types of competitors in marketing and provide a convenient technique that will help you find and identify the main competitors for a business. The technique is a step-by-step instruction with a ready-made example of analysis.

Introduction from the author

Not all market players are your competitors. Selecting the right competitors and developing appropriate programs against them will help significantly improve the company's performance. We offer you a simple three-step method with which you can quickly and correctly identify the main competitors in the market and formulate the right strategies for working with them.

Before we begin, I would like to make a theoretical digression regarding the terms used in this article:

Competitors are the companies, products or services with which you compete for the end customer.
Competitive products are those products to which your actual and potential customers are switching or may switch.

First Step: Make a List of Possible Competitors

List a complete list of companies that your target consumer can choose between to satisfy their need or solve their problem.

From what sources can you find out information about competitors? There are quite a lot of them, here are just the main ones:

Source for collecting information about competitors	Description
Internet search	look at the websites of which companies the consumer goes to when looking for a product or service
Survey of market experts or sales managers	ask two questions - which market players do you consider to be key and list all the companies that do business in the market
Monitoring of sales points	often it is enough to look at the shelf in a store to form an idea of the number and importance of competitors
Industry reviews and analytical articles	There are often reviews or articles on the market that list the key players, and often provide additional information on competitors
Target consumer surveys	Ask market consumers three questions: What brands of goods or services do you know (within your target market)? Which brands are you choosing between? Which companies' products do you buy most often?
Thematic exhibitions, conferences and seminars	look through the archives of participants in recent events, go to such events, collect contacts

Step Two: Identify Key Competitors

From the list above, select your key competitors. Divide key competitors into direct and indirect competitors.

Let us give a brief description of the types of competitors listed above:

Key competitors are companies whose actions can significantly affect your sales (both up and down)

Direct competitors are companies that sell similar products in a similar market and work with your target audience.

Indirect competitors are companies that sell a product with different characteristics or a completely different product, but work with your target audience.

How to identify key competitors?

Very simple! Key competitors are the companies to which your consumers go and from whom they come to you; companies operating in your price segment and offering similar products, but operating in a different segment; and major players market.

Step Three: Create a Work Strategy

For each competitor, determine the principles of interaction and competitive strategy. There are only two possible directions of work with competitors: defense and attack.

Defensive strategies involve developing programs aimed at retaining the brand's current customer base.
The attack is to develop programs aimed at capturing competitors' consumers.

Analyze the list of key competitors by the following indicators: market share (business size), availability of support (any: TV, press, radio, points of sale, etc.), level of brand knowledge.

Assess the strength of your competitor using the highlighted indicators. A strong competitor is a player with a higher market share; investing in supporting product sales higher than your company; having a higher level of knowledge.

Place all your competitors in the following table and the strategy for working with them will become obvious.

Strong competitors should be considered as a threat to the company. Against these players, the right defense strategies are needed, aimed at retaining and increasing the loyalty of current customers.

Weak competitors are sources of business growth. Consumers of these players are the most attractive potential clients. The principle of working with weak competitors: programs and actions aimed at switching customers.

Methods of fighting competitors (competitive wars), methods of researching competitors (competitor analysis), groups of competitors (types of competitors, types of competitors), competitive advantages, competitive strategies:

It is impossible to win the competition in a modern market economy! In conditions of total “commodization” (a huge number of competing goods and services that differ little from each other), management in general, and the development of an advertising campaign in particular, focuses primarily on competitors. Modern management does not imply a customer-oriented business, but an anti-competitive business! The presence of competitors is not a necessary evil, but an incentive for development, just as competition in general is the basis for the development of business and civilization as a whole. Analysis of competitors in this situation is one of the most important elements in competition in the market, and the functions of competitors are not to let themselves relax.

Ways to fight competitors (competition wars):

Competitor analysis - the process of identifying key competitors, assessing their goals, strategies, advertising, strengths and weaknesses and the range of likely responses, as well as choosing which competitors to attack or avoid.
Neutralization of competitors - this is the fight against competitors by eliminating the competitive advantages of a competitor (most often copying marketing and advertising moves).
Detachment from competitors - activities in the field of marketing and advertising aimed at making the company, its products and/or services look better in the perception of customers compared to competing offers.
Counter-advertising - direct comparison in advertising with competitors, including attacks, debunking advantages and ridicule of them.

Methods of competitor research (competitor analysis):

Collecting information about the presence of competitors through regular viewing of competitors’ websites, visiting points of sale (competitors’ products and competitors’ prices are analyzed), assessment of personnel policies (motivation methods and comparison with competitors’ salary levels), analysis of competitors’ key employees through social networks on the Internet, industrial espionage, etc. An important element of competition is monitoring and neutralizing negative reviews about your company on the Internet. Monitoring Competitors' Advertising - In any case, the messaging strategy must take into account competitors' advertising to ensure that our advertising is saying something different, and to know what competitors have already done to inform the market about their product or service.

Groups of competitors (types of competitors, types of competitors)

Direct competitors, product competitors, indirect competitors, potential competitors, main competitor, main competitors, perfect competitor:

Direct competitors – the presence of competitors who offer similar products (competitor products) to the same groups of consumers, repeat marketing and advertising offers, and are also in the same price segment (similar prices of competitors).

Product competitors - competing companies that sell similar products to different consumers.
Indirect (indirect) competitors are competing companies offering goods and services that can replace yours, for example, air carriers and railways, sellers of plastic and wooden windows, in the field of media and advertising - television and the Internet - indirect competitors.

Implicit competitors – competitor companies that offer miscellaneous goods to different buyers (moving to a different price category may make them indirect competitors). For example, a family can spend money on renovating an apartment or going on vacation. In this case, it would seem that the travel agency and the finishing materials store are not competitors, but at the same time the consumer chooses between them precisely as between competing firms.

Potential competitors – groups of competitors who are not present in the market that you intend to occupy, but can enter it at any time.

Main competitor and main competitors. Assessing competitors - identifying the strongest players in your market segment.

The perfect competitor – an interesting marketing tool – a description of an ideal, theoretical competitor (range, prices, service, advertising, etc.), comparison of your company with it and improvement in order to get closer to the perfect competitor. Perfect competitor - perfect option in a situation where there is a shortage of information about real competitors, and also helps not to catch up with competitors, but to get ahead of them.

Competitive advantages:

- comparison with competitors and assessment of competitors by type of dominance. Competitive advantages are the main factors determining commercial success in a given industry. Competitive advantages are characteristics of competitors and their advantages related to technology, production, distribution, and marketing capabilities of the organization.

Price leadership. Competitors in this group minimize the costs of production and distribution of goods in order to reduce prices for their goods and win as many consumers as possible. Competitors' prices - regular analysis and comparison of prices and discount promotions from competitors is required (requesting price lists or visiting stores) and regular adjustment of your own prices or an active attack on them (for example, “cheap - not high quality”).
Differentiation. Competitors in this group are trying to improve the quality of the product or offer products that will satisfy consumer needs as best as possible. The improvement may concern the composition of the product, the quality of packaging and other distinctive features of the product.
Concentration of effort. Competitors of this group concentrate their attention on narrow market segments; it is with these segments in mind that they develop differentiation strategies.
Innovation. Competitors are focusing on new ways of doing business.
Height. Competing firms expand production, supply the product to new markets, or launch a new product. Benchmarking is the study of methods for organizing the production and marketing of competitors' products in order to increase the efficiency of one's own company.
Alliance. Competitors of this group enter into partnerships with suppliers, distributors and other partners.
Deadlines. Competing firms concentrate on reducing the time it takes to release goods to the market or providing urgent services.
Management. Actions of competitors of this group:

8.1 Linking clients and suppliers;
8.2 Creating financial barriers to the departure of suppliers and clients;
8.3 Establishment of business processes;
8.4 Raising barriers to entry of competitors or substitute products.

Competitive Strategies

Analysis of competitors' strategies allows you to predict possible enemy moves and figure out in advance how to neutralize them:

Defensive war (for a market leader) is ahead of competitors (constantly offer better deals in the market). Positional defense- This is a strategy of competitors to create insurmountable barriers for an organization to protect its market position. For example, a company can constantly update its product range by releasing new items. Flank defense– this is covering up the weaknesses of the organization, which may be the first to be hit by competitors. Preemptive defense is the development of measures that anticipate and anticipate the actions of competitors, making their attempts to gain a leadership position impossible. Defense with counter-offensive- the leader looks for the weak point of the competitor and hits it. Often this is done by using advertising to contrast products. Mobile defense– is the conquest of new markets in order to strengthen its position as a leader. Compressive Defense- this is a position based on the fact that the leader gives away weak market territories to competitors, while he himself strengthens his penetration in strong and promising segments. Preemptive strike strategy – preemptive actions are taken in order to protect one’s position, and if carried out successfully, do not leave competitors a chance to copy them to their advantage. Creating a unique company image that has a strong emotional impact on consumers. A leader cannot win through constant victories. A leader can only win by not losing. The best defensive strategy is to attack yourself to further strengthen your position. It is necessary to make offers to customers in your advertising that make your previous advertising obsolete. Competitors are making frantic attempts to keep up with it. It protects market share - the decisive weapon in any marketing battle. The best advertising strategy is pulsation - alternating a massive advertising campaign and periods of calm. Blinking - “blinking”, i.e. advertising activity for a fairly long period with short breaks (1-2 weeks), this saves the advertising budget without loss of effectiveness, and creates a reserve that can be used if a competitor suddenly launches an all-out attack. Advertising must emphasize leadership. We trust leaders. It is leaders who are role models and models for consumption. According to J. Trout, “the first brand to stick in the consumer’s mind averages twice as much market share (over the long term) as brand #2 and four times as much as brand #3.”
Offensive war (for the closest pursuers of the leader) - ousting competitors - comparison with competitors in advertising in a favorable light. The best advertising strategy is to attack the leader - find a weak point in the leader’s strength, for example, after-sales service and attack it (“we have better service”, “meet deadlines”, etc.). In this case, differentiation from competitors is a combination of raising one image and lowering another, or positioning your PR object against the background of competitors using comparative advertising methods, or, as it is also called, comparative advertising (from the English compare - “to compare”). Carry out an attack on the narrowest possible front. Preferably with one single offer or product. Use your competitors' weaknesses and lure customers away from them. It is possible to create advertising based on the clients of those competitors who do not provide quality service (emphasizing quality, deadlines, etc. in advertising). Counter-advertising is the use of the image of competitors in advertising, including “exposures” of competitors in advertising.
Flank war (for the industry's middle peasants) is a complication of competitors' actions. A good flanking maneuver should be aimed at uncontested territory (look for what is important to customers, but what competitors are not talking about). To make a true flanking attack, you need to be the first to occupy a segment. A tactical surprise is to attract attention by changing the form and size of the advertisement that is familiar to the consumer. Capturing unoccupied spaces - placing advertisements in those media and advertising media where competitors are not located. The opposite advertising strategy is duplicating the actions of competitors. Neutralizing competitive advantages by repeating the essence of the advertising message, for example, a unique offer and using the same media and advertising media as competitors in advertising, placing it next to a competitor’s advertising. Strong moves by competitors (actions of competitors) must always be blocked!
Guerrilla warfare (for small niche players) – local exclusion of competitors. The strategy of such a company should be to find a segment that is large enough to be profitable for the partisan, but too small for the leader to encroach on it. The guerrilla tries to reduce the battlefield (narrow the target audience and reduce the amount of media) in order to achieve superiority in force on it ( larger size advertising or greater frequency of advertising). A small company can turn 180°, often changing the essence of the advertising message and the advertising media themselves. Joint advertising with companies offering related products or services or even with “friendly competitors” allows you to reduce advertising costs by half, for example, jointly releasing a calendar or double-sided leaflet; a retail chain cooperates with a water park and issues a discount coupon when purchasing a certain amount. Anti-advertising (decreasing the image of a competitor) is the formation of a negative, negative image of a competitor. Anti-advertising uses both real facts (competitor mistakes) and fictitious ones.

(c) Unified Announcement Service

“With us,” said Alice, catching her breath with difficulty, “when you run for a long time.”

as fast as you can, you will certainly end up in another place.
- What a slow country! - said the Queen - Well, here, you know,

you have to run as fast as you can just to stay in the same place!

If you want to get to another place, then you need to run at least twice as fast!
Lewis Carroll. Alice in the Wonderland

Life dictates its own laws - delay in business today is like losing. To stay in place, you need to run faster and faster. To overtake competitors, you need to run faster than them. But the question is that some are running, while others are in no hurry: “We have no competitors!” Honestly, sometimes they say exactly that. We answer: don’t be upset. Coming soon.

Economic growth spurs people's desire to spend more, which leads to the rapid growth of shopping centers and chain stores not only in megacities, but also in other cities of Russia. With the development of information technology, the concept of space and time ceases to be an obstacle to development. Therefore, retail chains can open branches in cities much easier and faster than before, which leads to a significant increase in competition.

Banal in essence, but very vivid in impressions, the actions of competitors and customers affect our business. (Oh, if only the actions of them alone. After all, there are also suppliers, laws, legislation, excise stamps, rents and other invigorating state and federal events. But let’s leave them aside for now.) Let’s take a look at them.

a) Competitors

The question about the arrival of competitors (and, which is typical, they are very serious): “Will they come or not?” not worth it. The question is “When will they come? Today? Or is it tomorrow?”

Competition in the market will in a short time reach such a limit when traditional forms of work and customer service will not be able to provide an advantage. No one is surprised by the presence of discount cards and loyalty programs - rather, it turns out to be a given and is no longer seen as a “break away from competitors.” It’s simply impossible to do without this, and we’re not talking about how much it retains customers. Doesn't hold, don't worry. If in doubt, let's conduct a short survey: how many discount cards do you have in your wallet? Don't remember everyone? Do you have a card for the Groceries Around the Corner store? Don't you remember either? It seems like it was somewhere...

Cards, promotions and branded packages - these are all MUST be there. Now this is simply a necessary attribute of trade - the same as a sign, a shop window, a price tag, a seller... It’s not a matter of legislation, but the fact that the buyer expects this, although (paradoxically) this does not affect his loyalty to the store. All these things are not to attract the buyer and not to increase his loyalty. And in order not to lose this loyalty (well, at least, just a normal attitude towards the store). On the one hand, it does not attract and does not retain, on the other hand, try to remove it. Unthinkable - it sounds the same as a proposal to temporarily remove the sign from the facade as an inhumane experiment.

On the one hand, it is impossible without this, and such programs and promotions increase the barrier to entry for new competitors, on the other hand, this reduces the profitability of the business.

There are no more excess profits; profitability leaves much to be desired. What to do? There is a need to reduce costs. Reducing costs can become the very competitive advantage that will allow you to break away from competitors for some time.

One of the ways to reduce costs is to optimize the range. Stop buying what they don’t buy, get rid of surplus, sell off stock and finally start buying what customers need. And not what the supplier offers. Did we buy this lot of slippers because they would sell well or because we were offered them at a good price? If the answer is “because the price was too good” - then you are very familiar with the concept of illiquid. Illiquid assets are costs. Big costs mean a loss.

How do you know what will sell well? Research the buyer. Study his tastes and requests. Please note that the latter tend to change quickly. But we will return to the buyer and his requests a little lower.

Another way to stay ahead of competitors is to specialize. Research your competitors. If you have a competitor with a wide range of products, then most likely he will not have the opportunity to make any special offer for one group of goods, but will have a little of everything. And you can choose a specialization - for example, sell only cakes and sweets, or only tea, or only jeans. Yes, maybe you won’t become a superstore. But don’t go broke - you will have an assortment that your competitor will not be able to maintain.

b) Indirect competitors

Considering the actions of competitors, it is also necessary to remember that not only our direct competitors can strike us. It would be too easy. We are sometimes inclined to blame direct competitors in the market for the drop in sales, but the real danger does not come from them.

“...Furniture makers do not compete with each other, they compete with automobile companies, travel agencies, and grocery chains. The main task of a furniture manufacturer is to convince people to furnish their home, and not to spend money on entertainment...” (Head of Ikea in Russia Peter Parma).

Yes. For a furniture manufacturer, alternative competitors may include not only other furniture factories, but also travel agencies, car dealerships, fur stores and even jewelry stores - the buyer may decide to spend money not on a new sofa and living room, but on a trip to Turkey or buying a fur coat for wives. And it is still unknown who will win.

Who are indirect competitors fighting for?

Under pressure from competition	What is the fight for?	From which side is competition possible?
	for the client deciding where to spend his savings	Tour trip, car, computer
Household appliances and electronics	for a client who wants to improve their living conditions	Apartment renovation, furniture
Jewelry and decorations	For the client choosing status, image	Cell Phones
Computer games	for the client’s time, which he is willing to spend on other entertainment	Cinemas, internet games, slot machines
Encyclopedias and reference books	per client consuming reference information	Internet search engines
Discount stores	for a client for whom the main purchase criterion is low price	Wholesale and spontaneous markets
Bread and pasta	For a client leading a healthy lifestyle	Fitness clubs and various diets
Ice cream	for a client suffering from heat	Soft drinks, frozen juices
Cinemas	For a client who wants to watch new films and spend time	movies on DVD, cable TV
Cars	For a client investing in property	Construction and finishing materials, country communications
Restaurants and cafes	For a client who wants to have fun and relax	bowling alleys, go-karts, billiard rooms, slot machines, cinemas
Rail transportation	on short routes for a client with an average income	Air transportation and personal vehicles
Tourist trip	For a young client building a career and working hard	Additional education

based on an article by E. Karasyuk,

“Indirect threat”, Sekret Firmy, No. 24 (159)

For a store selling electronics and household appliances, it should be an alarming signal that a large shopping center is about to open outside the city, focused on family shopping and offering a wide range of goods for the home and garden. It seems, why worry? After all, computers and household appliances will not be sold there. But where will people take their money? What will they choose - buying a computer for home or a lawn mower? This is a signal to adjust the assortment and inventory, and promptly send the message to the marketing department that it is necessary to stimulate demand for home computers, and then prepare and negotiate with suppliers to increase funds for advertising digital cameras and home printers. They also want to earn money, right?

c) Buyers

Do you know your customer well? Do you consider yourself a customer-oriented company? (99% of managers at various levels answer: “Yes! Of course! That’s what it says on our website. Customer-oriented.” But only 20% of managers can immediately, immediately, without looking at the marketing department report, describe their customer - his habits, tastes, marital status, income, who he works for, what kind of apartment he has, how many children he has, what kind of dacha he has, where he goes on vacation...). A customer-oriented company is not one that says so on its website. And the one who knows of your buyer - all the details of his life. And accordingly, he does everything for him - the assortment, opening hours, prices and promotions. This is what customer focus is all about. And not in beautiful slogans.

So, know your buyer. But they are changing. Year after year, the buyer becomes more and more demanding and knowledgeable in technical issues regarding product quality. The information on the price tag is no longer enough for him; he wants to know more. And the cards don’t surprise anyone anymore either. Sales are a given. But the services still remain a significant advantage.

With increasing prosperity, people have a desire to pay more attention healthy eating, there is an increasing demand for the services that the store can offer (for example, cleaning fresh fish or fitting a suit). An increase in the number of young couples without children who are postponing having a child for longer late date, leads to a change in the need for the form of the product (fast food, the use of semi-finished products) and the method of selling it (home delivery of goods and ordering via Internet channels), and so on.

But it is necessary to offer only those services that customers really need - there is no point in offering ordering groceries online in a store for pensioners. Grandmothers do not use the Internet. The same goes for ATMs.

TREND	WHAT DOES IT LEAD TO?	NEW CONSUMER REQUESTS
Growing well-being of the population	Increased attention to issues of health, comfort, status and social well-being	Expanding the range of stores; services of beauty salons, hairdressing salons; additional services for packaging, cutting, cleaning food products; services for individualizing orders (fitting, special equipment for cars, tuning, etc.); additional non-core services in the store (clothes cleaning, payment for cellular communications, flowers, air tickets, etc.)
Declining role of the family	An increase in the number of single people and families without children; increasing the number of working single mothers.	Use of packaging in various formats; food delivery service; order online; creation of playgrounds and children's rooms; housekeeping and household services (nannies, housekeepers, housework).
Changing the duration and schedule of working hours	The emergence of new types of services, and as a result - the need for round-the-clock service	Opening of stores that are open longer in the evening and around the clock; express service enterprises; Internet trading; Self-service stores and supermarkets, cash&carry.
Changing traffic flows	An increase in the number of people coming to shopping by car and to remote areas. Greater mobility of people, more frequent trips and business trips	Availability of spacious and safe parking; Availability of good access roads and navigation systems; traveling long distances in search of a better purchase or targeted purchase; independent removal of large items, so as not to spend money on delivery; development of self-service and cash&carry$ format requirements for the store's assortment - materials for car enthusiasts; requirements for services and goods for travel (convenient forms of unbreakable bottles, disposable sanitary napkins, travel kits, compact means communications, etc.)
Development of IT technologies	New forms of trade and communications (e-mail, mobile communications, sms, etc.); Do people have home computers and connect them to the Internet?	The requirement to have a website with detailed content and constant updating of information about the company; Online trading as a mandatory offer of the company for the convenience of consumers; Service using electronic payment methods - various payment systems, credit cards, etc.
Increased information flows	Increasing the amount of information, forms and speed of its transmission	Availability of information about the product (place of production, composition, operation); requirements for Internet sites as a means of communication with consumers; requirement for deeper and more competent advice from sellers; requirement for speed of service through new means of communication (email invoices, online orders, etc.)
Concern for increasing life expectancy	Increased attention to health, increasing the standard of living upon retirement, popularization healthy image life	Sale of environmentally friendly products; sale of products without chemical additives and dyes, without preservatives, without genetically modified components;
Rational use of free time	Desire to spend more time outside the home, in nature	Sale of instant food products; Sale of prepared food and semi-finished products; additional non-core services in the store (clothes cleaning, payment for cellular communications, flowers, air tickets, etc.); Requirements for the store as a leisure center.

From the editor

No organization can afford to develop in an information vacuum. Such development is possible, but Ignoring market trends and competitors' actions leads to dire consequences.

How to effectively analyze competitors, what information and how to collect it, how to subsequently work with it and use it to obtain benefits in your marketing activities, for example, when developing a marketing strategy or when determining your competitive advantages? Our checklist prepared by Anna Larina, project manager of the Tekart group.

When should you conduct a competitive analysis?

When you're just planning your business. At this stage, knowledge of competitors will allow you to develop a product, determine its key product characteristics, develop a product policy, determine a price, predict a sales plan and develop a promotion strategy.
When conduct holistic marketing research. Competitive analysis is part of it. In the study, the information obtained is further used for SWOT analysis, for the subsequent selection of a competitive strategy and the marketing strategy of the company as a whole.
When competitor monitoring has become a regular event. It is important to treat competitor analysis not as a project, but as a process. In this case, you will always have at hand the answer to questions such as: “How do your competitors’ products differ from yours (product characteristics, price)?”, “From what sources does the competitor get new customers?”, “How do competitors ensure conversion and retention of existing customers? This knowledge and benchmarking (adopting best industry practices) will help optimize resources for marketing activities.

Periodicity The analysis depends on the specifics of the business; in dynamic, highly competitive markets, we usually recommend carrying out work once every three months, in calmer ones - once every six months or a year.

If you are doing work for the first time, then identify two or three main competitors and analyze them completely. Next time, update information about already known companies, add 1-3 new companies, review the list of criteria for comparison.

It is convenient to conduct the analysis in a spreadsheet. In this file, we put the names of competing companies on one axis, and the comparison criteria on the other. Using such a table, it is convenient to compare data and track dynamics and general industry trends.

Direct and indirect competitors

Competitors can be direct or indirect. You need to watch both of them.

Direct competitors- these are companies whose activity characteristics (product, geography) largely coincide with the characteristics of your business. Such companies are usually well-known, and their activity is monitored at an informal level.

First of all, you need to decide on the geography of the analysis. If you have a veterinary clinic, then the geography will be limited to your area of the city or town with adjacent territories. If you work on a federal scale, then for each priority region you need to consider both your federal colleagues and regional players.

Indirect competitors- This:

Foreign companies, from which you can often adopt non-standard marketing moves, of course, at a discount for the national characteristics of your consumers.
Indirect competitors are companies operating in a different price segment or producing alternative goods and services. For example, for a beauty salon, indirect competitors will be stores professional cosmetics.
Potential competitors are companies that may become direct competitors if certain conditions occur. Such a condition could be optimization of unique selling proposition (USP), changes in the economic situation and any other events that make a competitor's product relevant to your customer.

How to find competitors?

Through search engines based on queries from your semantic core or using new queries specific to indirect competitors.
If we are talking about products - on product aggregators Yandex.Market, [email protected]; on marketplaces TIU, Wikimart, etc.
Among the organizers and participants of industry exhibitions, seminars, and events.
From open analytical sources of information that name market leaders, newcomers, and outsiders.
From business directories Yandex, Google, 2GIS, etc., especially when it comes to regional businesses like dentistry or food retail.
Through review sites: irecommend.ru, otzovik.com, otzovy.ru and others.
Through discount sites: Biglion, Groupon, etc.

At the same time, it is always advisable to monitor not only the names of competing companies, but also mentions of the brands they promote.

The following sections present groups of criteria for analyzing competitor marketing. It is advisable to display each of the criteria on a separate tab in the spreadsheet.

Comparison criteria

General marketing analysis

Once the list of companies and products has been compiled, we need to determine in what areas we will analyze them.

First you need to get general marketing data about your competitors. If a company monitors its image and reputation, this information can be easily obtained on its website.

I will note two points:

prices are usually on the website, otherwise they can be requested during the project (although in the case of complex B2B products they are very difficult to obtain);
The degree of popularity of a company and product can be assessed using the Yandex.Wordstat service. For example, by entering the phrase “ toothpaste", you will quickly find out which is more popular - Splat or Lacalut.

Site analysis

To evaluate in terms of usability, you can use method of characters and scenarios- imagine ourselves as a consumer of the company’s product/service and evaluate how quickly and easily the target action can be completed on the website.

If the target audience often uses gadgets, the site should display well on mobile devices. It is advisable to evaluate what triggers are used to stimulate purchases.

Reviews play an important role in customers making purchasing decisions, so you need to look at whether they are posted on the site cases, recommendations, portfolio, photographs of completed projects.

For topics with a wide range of products, it is useful to look at how a competitor presents the catalog, which ones they use filters and segments. For example, on the website of an online store of children's goods, there are filters by gender, age, height, by brand, by season of the year (winter, spring, summer, autumn).

The next criterion is the use feedback forms: online consultant, Skype, Viber, Whatsapp. Perhaps the site uses non-standard services, convenient calculators, Personal Area, which makes user interaction with the site more convenient.

SEO

It is advisable to start analyzing the marketing activities of competitors with SEO analysis. Of course, a complex technical usability audit is the domain of specialists, but you can quickly assess the degree of attention to SEO by two parameters - positions in search engines, which are checked manually or using automatic services, and traffic.

Of course, everyone's counters are now closed, but attendance can be estimated in the following ways:

if Liveinternet, Mail.Ru or Rambler counters are installed, then you can use them to see the place in the ranking and daily traffic;
if the site is relatively popular, traffic can be estimated with a certain error using the SimilarWeb service;
You can estimate attendance by indirect signs:
by the number of views of videos posted on the site;
by the number of views of the material, which is displayed in some modes, mainly on news sites;
by the difference in order identification numbers, which are automatically assigned when filling out feedback forms and are sent in written notification to the author of the application.

Events

Information that a company is organizing an event or participating in it can be found either in its news feed or on thematic resources.

Competitors may also hold unusual events, the experience of using which is sometimes advisable to adopt. For example, home Internet provider Dom.ru organized children's parties in courtyards last summer. There was music, animators worked, and upon completion, parents were asked to fill out forms to connect.

Industry Resources

When analyzing the work of competitors with industry resources, it is necessary to evaluate what resources the company uses, what content it posts and with what frequency, whether it works with paid resources and discount services.

Email Marketing

To evaluate a company's email marketing, you need to subscribe to the newsletter. Criteria for analysis:

Do emails actually arrive after subscribing to the newsletter?
Is it possible to unsubscribe from the mailing list?
Is there a segmentation of the target audience? This becomes clear at the time of subscription, when the author of the newsletter asks to clarify your interest in products or your socio-demographic characteristics.
What algorithm does the competitor use in terms of email sequence logic? For example, is there a welcome email chain; trigger emails accompanying conversion, etc.
What content does the newsletter contain and how interesting and useful is it for customers?
Is the mailing addressed (in the body of the letter you are addressed by name)?
Does the newsletter offer unique bonuses and discounts that cannot be found in other company information channels?
What mailing service does your competitor use?
How does the company collect customer addresses, how are the forms placed on the website, and what bonuses does the company promise if you subscribe?

Blogs and social networks

Questions for analyzing blogs and activity on a competitor’s social networks:

What networks does the company use? Are they traditional networks like VKontakte and Facebook or specialized networks for special content - Slideshare for presentations, professional network Linkedin, Instagram for photo, Youtube- for video, etc.
Is the target audience segmented on social networks?
What is the focus of the content on each network?
What is the quality of the content and how often is it posted?
What are the quantitative performance indicators: number of subscribers, likes, how often do users share company posts?
To what extent does the company strive to engage subscribers in communication? How does he respond to comments? Does it offer competitions and conduct surveys?
How does it work with negativity and how is it neutralized?
Does the company use non-standard capabilities? social networks, such as creating custom menus in Facebook and product displays on VKontakte.

Advertising

It is advisable to evaluate contextual advertising using services that show queries for which a competitor is advertising; they will give, with a certain error, estimates of the budget and traffic volume: Serpstat, SEMrush, ADVSE.RU, SpyWords. Doing such a check manually is problematic, since the campaign may have targeting set up that excludes you as the target audience.

Media campaigns and special projects are likely to automatically come to your attention when reviewing thematic resources.

Non-standard activities

Other non-standard activities of competitors that are worth noting:

viral videos;
signs of guerrilla marketing;
black PR;
owning your own thematic portals and resources, which are positioned as independent, but at the same time promote the products or services of a competitor;
product placement.

Reputation analysis

You can understand the reputation of a competitor, its products and services based on online reviews. They can be found:

simple search or using a pre-compiled semantic core;
Product aggregators usually have the opportunity to leave a review about the company and brand;
by subscribing to notifications about new mentions in the service Google Alerts; as a mention, in addition to the company name and brand, e-mail, phone number, names of managers (if not too common) can be used;
if the competitor is a fairly well-known company, it makes sense to monitor news aggregators such as Yandex.News;
on sites with reviews about employers.

If there are a lot of reviews and it is difficult to monitor them, you can use special services that will find them automatically and sort them into positive, negative and neutral. Examples of services are YouScan, IQBuzz.

In addition to the fact that after this work, a general impression of the competitor’s reputation will be created, you will be able to record its weaknesses, so that you can then use them to optimize the USP and create scenarios for sales managers to convince customers.

Sales department audit

A sales department audit is usually performed using the mystery shopper method. To do this, it is necessary to develop purchasing legends and run them through all forms of contact: call, request from the website, dialogue with a consultant, etc. Next, you need to record the speed of response to the request, whether the stated condition on the site corresponds to real conditions, how the manager communicated with you: was he polite, interested, was there a desire to sell, was he not too intrusive.

Other criteria:

quality of design of commercial materials and their effectiveness; individual approach to registration of commercial proposals in case of complex procurement;
discipline and compliance with the work schedule by managers: check by calling 5 minutes before the end of the working day and five minutes after the start.

Analysis and use of results

After information on competitors has been collected, you need to honestly evaluate your company and products using the same criteria.

What conclusions can and should be drawn based on the analysis performed?

Operational actions

Firstly, it is necessary to assess the feasibility of adopting certain marketing moves of competitors: add something to the functionality of the site, consider new channels and types of activities, review and refine the content. For example, if the warranty period for your product is 1 year, all competitors indicate it, but you do not have this indication on your website, then it is worth adding this information.

To eliminate such “blind spots”, you can develop a calendar plan of events.

Secondly, the information received makes it possible to competently create a script for working with objections for sales managers in order to respond to customer remarks like “I can buy similar products from a competitor for 10% cheaper.” Managers must be prepared for such situations, must be able to describe the advantages of their products and, conversely, competently neutralize the advantages of competitors' offers.

SWOT analysis

Information about competitors can be used to conduct a SWOT analysis, that is, a situational analysis that evaluates the current and current competitiveness of the company's products based on external and internal factors. Internal factors are the strengths and weaknesses of your company and product relative to competitors, external factors are the opportunities and threats that the market prepares.

Factors are entered into a table of four quadrants and arranged in descending order of importance, that is, the degree of influence on business KPIs. SWOT analysis allows you to:

identify or develop the main competitive advantage of a product based on strengths;
describe ways to develop a business by using strengths;
find ways to transform weaknesses into strengths, threats into opportunities; if this is not possible, come up with ways to minimize weaknesses and threats;
make the advantages obvious to the consumer and hide the weaknesses;
realize opportunities and neutralize threats.

Competitive strategy and marketing strategy

SWOT analysis provides insight into the position relative to competitors in the market. After this, in classical marketing it is necessary to decide on a competitive strategy. You can use the classic approach of Michael Porter, who proposed three types of struggle:

minimizing costs - all other things being equal, the company is more profitable due to the fact that it minimizes costs;
differentiation - the company offers conditions that are non-standard for the market, differentiates itself from competitors, creating its own unique selling proposition, which should distinguish it favorably from its competitors;
focusing - the company works with a narrow target audience, fully satisfying its needs.

A competitive strategy is an important part of the overall marketing strategy of a company or a separate area, that is, a long-term plan for achieving business goals through marketing tools.

Anna's presentation for a report at a seminar for Tekart clients.