Mastering the Game: Unveiling Effective Competitive Analysis Examples for Business Success

Ever heard the phrase “Get a leg up on the competition”, “Gain a competitive advantage” or “Always stay one step ahead” ?

These are all popular sayings that involve keeping up with the competition.

In business, this means studying the competition. It lets you stay on top of industry trends and the strategies that lead to success.

We call this competitive analysis.

Doing a competitive analysis can give you the insights you need about your competitors. You can learn about their strengths, weaknesses, successes, and failures.

Here, we provide competitive analysis examples to help you make informed decisions and stay ahead in your industry.

What Is a Competitive Analysis?

The concept of competitive analysis is pretty self-explanatory. It’s the process of analyzing competition within your niche.

Doing so allows you to identify the main market players and what strategies they’re using to stay competitive.

By studying your competitors, you can learn about their products, target customers, and marketing. This helps inform your own business strategy.

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Beyond discovering the strengths of your competitors, you may also uncover weaknesses and decisions they made that may have hurt their bottom line.

As a result, you can learn from their mistakes and only use strategies that work.

Why Is Competitive Analysis Important?

Conducting a competitive analysis is critical for businesses looking to survive and thrive in a competitive market.

Every market has more than one company selling their products or services.

So, if you don’t know what your competitors are doing to win customers in your target market, it’s hard to keep up. You risk falling behind and losing your edge.

What to Include in a Competitive Analysis

So, now you know what a competitive analysis is and why you need to conduct one to stay competitive in your industry. But what should you include in yours?

• Details about your products or services compared to those of your competitors
• An analysis of marketing and social media strategy
• A list of competitors in your industry
• A description of your target market
• Market share, sales, and revenue
• Differences in customer ratings
• Pricing comparison

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At the core of every competitive intelligence strategy is data collection and analysis.

After gathering data about your company and competitors, you can make comparisons, analyze differences, and identify key trends.

Doing so helps drive decision-making. That said, it’s no surprise that data analytics help businesses make decisions 5x faster.

How to Conduct a Competitive Analysis

A well-executed competitive analysis usually follows these five steps:

1. Identify your competitors

There’s no competitive analysis without competitors. So, make sure you compile a list of companies that offer similar products or services to yours. If you’re in a really competitive industry, list at least five key competitors.

It’s also important to know the different types of competitors: direct competitors, indirect competitors, and replacement competition.

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Your direct competitors are companies that provide similar products to the same target market at a similar price point. Think Apple and Samsung.

Your indirect competitors, on the other hand, are a bit more difficult to pinpoint. They’re companies that target the same market and audience as you, but they offer different products.

Consider AMC Theaters and Netflix. One is a movie theater, and the other is a streaming service.

They both provide entertainment through movies, but they do so through different mediums. But even though they don’t offer the same product, they often compete for the same customers.

For people who want to stay in and watch a movie, a streaming service is a go-to option. On the flip side, when consumers want to socialize and go out, they may choose to go to a movie with friends or family.

Replacement competition consists of competitors who have the potential to replace your product by offering something different altogether.

For example, Uber is threatening to replace taxis. Airbnb has disrupted the hotel market.

2. Conduct a competitor SWOT analysis

Performing a SWOT analysis can help you uncover your competitors’ Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Strengths	Weaknesses
Opportunities	Threats

Contrast their weaknesses against your strengths. What opportunities are they missing? How can you capitalize on them?

Furthermore, analyze their strengths and threats to gauge the overall market conditions to see how you can best dominate them.

3. Conduct market research

Do both primary and secondary market research. The first is from your customers, such as surveys, focus groups, and interviews. The second is from available sources, like competitors’ websites and company records.

To get a full view of your industry, it can help to think creatively. Spend time looking at LinkedIn posts or podcasts by leaders in your niche.

Some of the best information is shared in thought-leadership content.

4. Compare product features and marketing

Compare your products with your competitors’ products. Consider factors like:

• Customer support
• Product quality
• Ease of use
• Price

Then, compare your marketing strategy to that of the competition. This includes social media, website copy, ads, press releases and newsletters, and product copy.

5. Use technology to keep your finger on the pulse of competitors and your industry

Collecting data is a huge part of competitive intelligence, but managing and visualizing large amounts of data can be tedious. Leverage technology to streamline data visualization and analysis.

For example, consider using a competitive analysis tool to help you track conversations surrounding your competitors and measure your performance against them.

You can also use competitive intelligence tools to track what competitors do. They help you find market opportunities and potential threats. These tools act as a compass to guide you through the competitive landscape, unveiling hidden opportunities and threats.

In your quest to gather competitor data, you are likely to visit to their website and we all know that leads to seeing thousands of ads about them later. It is always a good idea to hide your IP address when you visit competitors’ websites, so it is almost like you were never there.

7 Real-World Competitive Analysis Examples

Here are examples of competitive analyses done right.

1. Vibe by California

Vibe by California is a cannabis dispensary based in Stockton, California. Vibe aims to be a market leader in the cannabis industry. It started by making a dispensary business plan. The plan outlines its unique selling points, how it can fill market gaps, and how it’ll succeed in the dynamic cannabis market.

Then, Vibe identified its direct competitors. They are other dispensaries in the Central Valley of California.

The dispensary analyzed factors such as product offerings, pricing, customer demographics, marketing strategies, and online customer reviews to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor.

This analysis helped Vibe find ways to differentiate its products and offerings from those of its competitors.

For example, Vibe sells company merch to build brand awareness and foster customer loyalty.

Vibe also offers a rewards program that allows loyal customers to save on purchases and get early access to new products,

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2. Remote

Remote is a company that offers human resource information systems (HRIS) software. HRIS software allows businesses to manage information on their employees, automate workflows, and streamline HR processes.

Its main competitors are Deel, Gusto, and Rippling.

To identify opportunities in the HR technology market, Remote conducted a competitive analysis. It found that its target market prefers to try a solution before they commit to purchasing the full version.

Remote realized that its competitors offered this option. So, it started letting potential customers create a free account to try the software.

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The HR tech company also analyzed its competitors’ pricing strategies. For example, for its Employer of Record (EOR) product, Deel charges $599 per month. To stay competitive in the industry, Remote charges the same price per month for its EOR offering.

3. Wyoming LLC Attorney

An LLC asset protection lawyer can conduct a competitive analysis by identifying other law firms and legal service providers that specialize in asset protection services.

They’d gather info about their competitors. This would include their range of services, prices, reputation, client testimonials, and marketing.

A trust and LLC attorney would also assess the qualifications and expertise of the lawyers and staff working at these competing firms.

Let’s take Wyoming LLC Attorney as an example. This law firm has gained a competitive advantage in the asset protection legal space by analyzing its competitors and identifying opportunities for differentiation.

This includes examining how other law firms strategically incorporate limited liability structures into their operations.

The goal was to explore the subtle strategies of integrating LLCs. It offered a full understanding of how these limited-liability structures become key.

They are key in safeguarding assets and skillfully navigating legal challenges. This approach helps ‌law firms protect against legal risks and mistakes.

For example, the Wyoming LLC attorney saw that its competitors didn’t offer different resources for people who weren’t yet ready for a consultation.

So, the founder created resources on the Wyoming LLC Attorney website. It includes a blog, a guide on how to get an employer ID number (EIN), and a page about the benefits of a Wyoming LLC.

This also helps the law firm’s SEO strategy. Offering site visitors relevant content that includes industry keywords allows Wyoming LLC Attorney to rank in search results.

As you can see in the screenshot, when you search “asset protection lawyer Wyoming”, Wyoming LLC Attorney shows up at the top both in organic and paid search results.

4. Delta Airlines

Delta Airlines conducted a competitive analysis to inform its pricing strategy.

This is crucial for airlines because they’re in a dynamic market where flight tickets change every day based on external factors.

For example, if a competitor of Delta Airlines increased pricing for a particular route, it’d quickly do the same. This is also true when prices drop.

Delta also uses customer information in its pricing adjustments. For example, using tracking technology on its website and app helps Delta monitor the search behavior of individual users.

When a customer repeatedly searches for the same flight details, it means that they may be interested in booking that particular flight.

As demand for a particular flight rises, the airline will raise its prices. It won’t be the most expensive option. It will be in the middle from a price perspective. This is to win over target customers.

5. Wendy’s

Wendy’s consistently analyzes its competitors to stay ahead in the fast food industry.

For example, it uses a social listening tool to monitor what people are saying about the company. But they don’t stop there. They also use it to watch what their competition is doing.

In fact, Wendy’s is known for its snarky tweets about its competitors.

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Using social listening tools allows it to monitor its competitors’ accounts so that it doesn’t miss out on opportunities to take a humorous jab at their weaknesses.

6. Amazon

Amazon increases retail sales with real-time price monitoring. This allows the online retail giant to adjust prices in real time to match or beat competitor pricing (also known as dynamic pricing).

If you’ve ever used Amazon, you’ve likely seen this strategy in action.

For example, say that you added an item to your cart and left it for a few days. You might get a message from Amazon saying that the price has increased or decreased.

The strategy allows Amazon to stay ahead of the competition in the fast-paced e-commerce landscape.

7. Coca-Cola

Here’s another competitive analysis example. Coca-Cola is a company that regularly conducts competitive analysis to maintain its dominance in the beverage industry.

By doing market research and using competitive intelligence tools, Coca-Cola noticed that its competitors were offering healthier beverage options due to the target audience’s concerns about consuming sugary drinks.

As a result, Coca-Cola began expanding its product line. It offered bottled water, flavored water, and zero-sugar sodas like Coke Zero and Diet Coke. They’ve also dabbled in healthier acquisitions such as Fairlife (ultrafiltered milk) and Vitaminwater.

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Use Competitive Analysis To Drive Business Success

As a business owner looking to stay relevant in your industry, competitive analysis should always be a top priority.

Analyzing your competitors can be the difference between a brand that’s surviving and a force that’s dominating your market.

How often you conduct your competitive analysis will depend on your industry, market dynamics, and business goals.

Regardless of the frequency, the key is to create a reliable system and a ‌competitive analysis tool to ensure your insights are timely, relevant, and actionable for driving business success in a dynamic and competitive market.