Thursday, October 4, 2012

Strategic Brand Analysis: Competitor Recon (Recon Thursday/Process)



Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy for Once a Day Marketing™.  It’s Recon Thursday and this is part two in our series using David Akers strategic brand analysis model.  Today we are discussing how to determine the best positioning for your brand to compete in the marketplace.

In my previous installment I talked about consumer analysis.  Today we are going to be looking at two components of competitor analysis; brand image/positioning and brand strengths/vulnerabilities.

It’s important to know where your competitors stand today and where you think they will be in the near future.  Begin the analysis by researching your competitors brand image and positioning.  It is very easy to use social media to find out what customers are saying about your competition.   Whether the comments are positive or negative, you can certainly glean great information from them.

Also determine how your competitors are advertising.  Where and what are they advertising?  What is there message?  Which consumers are they targeting?  This is important knowledge to have when you build your strategic brand in the future.

Next, it’s up to you to determine what you feel their strengths and weaknesses are.  As you are developing strategy, you may want to avoid areas where a competitor is very strong.  An aspect where they are weaker may provide an opportunity for you to exploit.

Performing competitive analysis is a great tool to use.  You can’t develop strategy to defend against what your competition is doing if you don’t know what they are doing.  As you continue to learn about your competitors, groupings will begin to emerge, brandscapes is the term often used.  You will be able to spot where other companies are aligned in the marketplace and perhaps identify a space that no one else is reaching.  That would be a great area for you to pursue in future marketing efforts.

That concludes Recon Thursday.  Join us tomorrow for Digital Friday.  To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™ and we’ll see you next time.

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