Why is it worth analyzing your competition?

As we know, a competitive analysis can be defined as identification of competitors of a given brand to get to know their strengths and weaknesses, plans and objectives. Such a study is of key importance for the development of a good strategy for your company and necessary to running your business. How can you prepare for an efficient competitive analysis?

DO NOT LOSE SIGHT OF YOUR MARKET RIVALS!

Check the communication of competitive brands on an everyday basis. It is a great source of information for your company which makes it possible for you to find out:

• which topics are addressed by competitive entities, what language they speak and what keywords they use
• whom they reach with their communication and what kind of reception their content generates
• what media materials are published about them and in what context they are featured
• whether they ever experienced crisis situations
• what projects they get involved in and what kind of returns they get from such involvement
• whether they cooperate with experts, celebrities or focus on influencer marketing

WHY IS MARKET MONITORING SO IMPORTANT?

Thanks to competitive analysis you can also get to know the specifics of the sector, check market tendencies and current trends. You also get an opportunity to find areas in which you can stand out.

Comparing yourself with your competitors is also extremely important if you want to get the full picture of the effects of your communication. It is only the combination of all the indicators that can fully reflect your communication effects.

Example:

Brand X was featured in 967 publications during a month while brand Y was featured in 121 of them. The difference is enormous. But is it to the benefit of brand X? Is the number of 967 publications sufficient to announce a media victory? Of course not. Why is that? Based on such data, we do not know virtually anything about the structure of the communication.

• What was the share of those publications in separate media types and how many of those publications were featured in the Internet, social media, radio, TV and press?
• What was the share of the brand in separate publications? Was the material entirely devoted to the given brand or perhaps it was only mentioned there? The impact of such publications have on the audience is definitely different.
• How many of those publications had negative or positive sentiment and how many were neutral?
• What is the reach and influence of the sources in which the brand was featured?
• What impact was generated by the information about brand X and Y?
• On what area was the information distributed and is it in line with the promotional strategy?
• What is the profile of the media reporting about the brand/issue in question?

It is easy to imagine a situation where publications about brand Y were included only in the local press, insignificant internet services or blogs.

Meanwhile, brand Y had a 20 per cent share on radio and TV. They were thematic stations whose audience is the same as the target group of the brand. Internet publications were featured on industry websites of high impact and a publication on page 3 of a prestigious magazine was devoted to the product. 38 per cent of the materials had a positive sentiment while the remaining ones were neutral. The information about the brand generated discussions on several industry fanpages of high reach.

HOW TO ANALYZE COMPETITION?

Obviously, you can do it yourself or order such a service from one of the professional companies on the market. Media monitoring is one of the solutions which provides a wealth of information about your competitors on an ongoing basis.

Ongoing media monitoring will allow you to keep abreast of communication and answer the following questions:

1. Are your activities effective?
2. How do you compare to your competitors?
3. Do you meet your objectives and reach audiences who are most valuable to your brand?
4. Which communications draw the attention of your target group and engage it?
5. Did you choose the media and sources properly?
6. Did you reach your objectives?
7. What elements should be changed or modified?

Not using the “I monitor on my own” service yet? Add your first project and see how simple it is!

It is also worth pointing out that when building your image and relations with your audience, you continuously remind them about the presence of your brand and its readiness to provide solutions which address their needs better than competitive products and services. Such activities translate directly onto generating leads through social selling.

Thanks to media monitoring, your brand will be able to interact with potential clients who look for a given product or service. At the moment, most purchasing decisions are based on the opinions of others, therefore, effective communication and building durable positive relations allow you to be able to sell, stand out on the market among competitive entities and attract brand ambassadors.

Media reports also provide valuable support with that respect as they use methods of comparative analysis of services, products, companies or processes with competition and market leaders.

TIDBIT:
You can use media monitoring in a lot of areas, for instance, to develop your strategy, verify your communication activities on an ongoing basis, monitor your competition, respond to and prevent crisis situations, attract brand ambassadors or generate leads.