In order to be effective, you also need to know what your competition is up to. Therefore, a competitive analysis is helpful here. This analysis will be dependent on your research into the competitive arena. Your competitive analysis should focus on two key competitors.
For your top two primary competitors:
- Indicate why you have selected these two competitors.
- Briefly describe each company, its current market share, its product or service set offerings, its financials (e.g., revenues, profitability, etc.), current positioning within the market, target market that it seeks to reach, recent history (how is the company doing?), and how each company markets itself to the target market that you also wish to reach.
- Do a comparison of your product or service with that offered by the competition. How will you differentiate your product/service from that which is offered by the competition? Inherent in your comparison will be why your target market would likely select your offering over that of the competition. If you do not have a differentiator, your target market will not see one either.
- Describe the likely response that these two competitors will take once you begin to make waves, assuming that you are entering a market in which competition already exists. What response should you anticipate? What do you think their likely response will be to your entry into the market, and how will you respond to that?
Be sure to address substitutes. Are there any substitutes for your service or product offering?
Identify any key substitutes, discussing the strengths and weaknesses of those substitutes when compared to your offering.
For your company, perform a SWOT analysis, detailing the elements below:
- Internal – Determine the internal components (strengths and weaknesses) of the marketing environment. Make sure to consider production costs, marketing skills, financial resources, company or brand image, employee capabilities, and available technologies.
- External – Determine the external components (opportunities and threats) through an environmental scan. Make sure to consider political, economic, social, and technological events, as well as trends and expectations.
Submission, 3 pages, APA
