How to do a competitor analysis?

So you’ve set your sights on your competition and you’re determined to find out what are their pricing strategies, market share in various countries and regions and many other details. Competitor analysis is a crucial part of an actionable market research and allows you to properly position your brands and products or set up pricing and route-to-market strategies that will increase your market share and squeeze even more revenue from your portfolio.

But it’s not easy. Proper competitor analysis is time consuming and the person in charge very often lacks the precise data he or she needs to be 100% sure of the outcome. This is true especially for some fields of business like e. g. the on-trade channel, even though the digital revolution is helping a lot. Given the fact that important business decisions will be made with said analysis in mind, the pressure for valid outcomes is substantial. 

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The basics of competitor analysis

The bread and butter of competitor analysis is to identify strengths and weaknesses of you and your competitors to define threats and opportunities. You should do this on a regular basis and ideally also after major changes, such as a new product launch (yours or your competitors'), a change in strategy or a change in management. 

This is because with every such change, the relative position of you and your competitors will change, which leads to the fact that relying on the old competitor analysis means looking at the market retrospectively and not in real time.

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GET FREE DATA FOR ON-TRADE / HORECA COMPETITOR ANALYSIS. NO REGISTRATION NEEDED.

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Competitor analysis concept 1: Competitor Array

One of the most useful competitor analysis’ concepts is called a competitor array. With this approach you must first determine the success factors of your industry (like customer satisfaction in various regions or target groups, product quality in a given category context, pricing strategies for various income groups etc.), give each of these factors a weight based on its importance and then assign each of your competitors a rank based on how well they perform in these factors. 

This way a market gap might reveal yourself to you or you might spot some threats that you were unaware of and react to them. 

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Competitor analysis concept 2: Competitor profiling

Some companies go even further and utilize something called competitor profiling. With this technique you keep an eye on your competitors all the time, update the dossier systematically and make the competitor analysis part of your company’s strategy. This allows you to react with the speed of light to unexpected changes like aggressive moves your competitors might make or exploit their weaknesses in real time. 

Competitor profiling is basically a in-depth analysis of your rivals, including information like: 

• Background: Ownership, HQ location, how digital are they etc.
• Financial situation: Growth profile, liquidity etc.
• Products: An in-depth look at their portfolio including products in development and discontinued ones, their quality control mechanisms or R&D strength etc.
• Marketing: Key segments, market share, customer base, distribution channels, pricing, activations, promotional mix, advertising themes, alliances with other subjects, sponsorships etc.
• Facilities: Their capacity, efficiency and condition, logistics etc.
• Human resources: Number of employees, their skills sets, key personnel, management strength and style, company culture etc.
• Broad strategies: Missions and visions, growth targets, acquisition plans etc.

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Competitor analysis in the on-trade / HoReCa / Hospitality sector 

If you’re in the on-trade / hospitality / HoReCa business, there is a solution for you that’s gonna make your life easier and your analysis more valuable. And it’s (partially) free so you can start using it right now.

To do a competitor analysis that will actually bring you or your company commercial results, you need to assess the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors with highly granular and surgically precise data. SharpGrid Market Meter is a tool designed to give you a total overview of the on-trade / hospitality / HoReCa channel including:

• numeric distribution
• weighted distribution
• pricing
• menu share
• and other indicators for your and your competitors’ brands and products

With Market Meter at hand, you can assess your own brands’ or products’ performance, follow trends, do a proper competitor analysis, manage your team effectively and set up better strategies. Market Meter is also updated quarterly, allowing you to never lose sight of your competition and always know exactly where they are headed next so you can overtake them and react in real time.

If you’re not in a market for a reporting tool just yet, try the free version called Free Market Report. It is based on Market Meter data, also updated quarterly and contains data on hundreds of brands and products across categories. As of July 2022 the data available are for Poland and Czech republic. Italy and Spain are next in line. 

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Competitor analysis based on precise data

The age of blind guessing in the on-trade channel is long gone. From now on, you can base your decision on precise data-driven BI tools. SharpGrid's unique concept called Performance Cells is built upon this exact premise, resulting in a conjunction of business & technology approaches designed to boost your sales, strategies and team management. All our products and services are based on this philosophy.

SharpGrid products are based on collecting, sorting & interpreting 100+ million weekly data points to achieve as much precision as possible. If you’re interested, you can find out more on Market Meter and Outlet Census product pages or contact us directly with any question you might have. Or check out our Free Market Report based on Market Meter data to see its capabilities first-hand.