HOW DO MARKETERS IDENTIFY AND ANALYZE THE COMPEITION?

DETERMING THE COMPEITIVE FRAME OF REFERENCE

The competitive frame of reference defines which other brands a brand competes with and therefore which brands should be the focus of competitive analysis.

IDENTIFYING COMPEITITORS

HOW IT GOES?

Determine ‘category membership’- the products or sets of products with which a brand competes and which function as close substitutes

PepsiCo knows Coca-Cola’s Dasani is a major bottled-water competitor for its Aquafina

brand.

Citigroup knows Bank of America is a major banking competitor

Petsmart.com knows a major online retail competitor for pet food and supplies is

Petco.com

New technologies such as iPad and Galaxy Tab are in the process of creating newer categories that are different from laptops and notebooks.

Competition from industries

Marketers classify industry according to:1.Number of sellers2.Degree of product differentiation3.Presence or absence of entry, mobility, and exit barriers4.Cost structure5.Degree of vertical integration6.Degree of globalization

ANALYZING COMPEITITORS

Company needs to gather information about each competitor’s real and perceived strengths and weaknesses

The two important questions are-

1.What is each competitor seeking in the marketplace? 2.What drives each competitor’s behavior?

RECAP

1 Determining a competitive frame of reference 2 Identifying competition 3 Identifying potential competitors 4 Competition from industry and market point of view 5 Analyzing competitors

Created by Bhaskar Bora, NIT Silchar, during an internship by Prof. Sameer

Mathur, IIM Lucknow.www.IIMInternship.com

DISCLAIMER