Competitive analysis

How is its own market structured: At the beginning, a company should be clear about how its own market is structured and which competitors can be found on the market. Equally important: How likely is forward integration from suppliers or business expansion from current customers? In addition, substitutes should also be taken into account when considering the future. Tip: A good basis for this is the “Porter Five Forces” analysis. This offers a solid starting point for a competitor analysis.

Where and how information is generated: As in all disciplines of market research, there are many ways to obtain information in competitor analysis: internal or external research, primary or secondary data, qualitative interviews or quantitative surveys. Possible sources: Press releases, paid and free market and industry studies, the Federal Gazette, annual reports, credit agencies, etc. or surveys of customers and sales employees can serve as a source of information relevant to competition. Quality and validity: Unfortunately, these sources have limits in their availability and informative value. It is usually difficult to check the validity of the information. Tip: When carrying out a reliable competitor analysis, it is advisable to benchmark the internally generated information through external interviews. Competitively relevant information in particular can often only be generated through interviews, which cannot be carried out by the company itself. This can be done, for example, by a professional market research company.

Processing all information: Competitor and competition analyzes always resemble a puzzle because they are made up of different sources and information modules. Now it is important to filter out the crucial information and make it available to the relevant authorities. As a rule, the results of a competition analysis must be prepared in such a way that they correspond to the operational activities of the respective departments or data users. Tip: In the past, we noticed a deficit in the use of the knowledge gained here. Results were often only made available to a small group of users and not to all those who would really benefit from the results of a competitor and competition analysis.