How to win over your customers through competitive analysis

To stay ahead of the pack, brands often analyze the competition’s strengths and weaknesses to devise winning strategies. This helps companies understand where they sit in their market, how their products and experiences compare, and what they might consider changing to win the minds and hearts of customers.  In conducting competitive analysis, there are a few angles you want to consider.

1. Your definition of the competition

When defining your competition, it's helpful to take an analytic approach. While understanding how your experience compares to known competitors is important, you can also gather human insights about best-in-class brands—even those outside of your industry or product category. You can also ask test participants to identify the brands that they'd turn to when attempting to complete a task or goal. You may uncover fast-moving newcomers that you may not have known about—but that you should start monitoring.

2. Who to target for actionable feedback

There are pros and cons to consider when selecting the audiences you choose to engage. Your current customers are the types of people you want to continue acquiring, so getting feedback from them is invaluable. But you may also want to open up your targeting to understand how different customer or user segments perceive your brand or products. You can conduct interviews to better understand exactly who you should be targeting—you might be surprised with what you discover. 

3. How to gather the insights you need

Select the testing method that best positions you to gather the human insights needed to propel you forward. Conducting an interview gives you the opportunity to tailor the conversation as it develops and as additional insights are uncovered. You might learn something that reframes your analysis completely.