Competitor Analysis To Find Strategic Opportunities
Lesson 10 from: Brand Strategy BootcampScott Lancaster
Competitor Analysis To Find Strategic Opportunities
Lesson 10 from: Brand Strategy BootcampScott Lancaster
Lesson Info
10. Competitor Analysis To Find Strategic Opportunities
Lessons
Welcome To Brand Strategy Bootcamp
01:32 2The Brand Building Framework
03:28 3Branding 101
05:17 4The 5 Laws of Brand Building
06:34 5The Successful Founder's Mindset
04:13 6The Scientific Reason Why Brands Grow
04:14 7Verifying Your Business Idea
03:05 8Understanding Brand Positioning
03:44Lesson Info
Competitor Analysis To Find Strategic Opportunities
1 (upbeat music) 2 The battlefield of business is not for the faint-hearted 3 but the beautiful thing about the internet 4 and modern-day business is there's never been a better time 5 for the small guy to beat the big guy. 6 It's not just a case of who's the biggest 7 and strongest anymore. 8 David very often beats Goliath if the strategy is right. 9 What do I mean? 10 Well, let's take a step back 11 and think about what strategy actually is. 12 So the definition of strategy is to allocate resources 13 in a very specific way to achieve 14 some sort of objective or goal. 15 And this means in the world of business in order to win 16 the war, sometimes you have to focus 17 on winning smaller battles first. 18 Take the Dollar Shave Club, for example, 19 who cut into the razor blade market, 20 pardon the pun, I know it was terrible, 21 by simply making some incredibly funny marketing 22 and also offering a subscription-based model, 23 which had never been seen before 24 in that particula...
r industry. 25 Now, the Dollar Shave Club knew that they didn't want 26 to go toe to toe with these huge corporations 27 because let's face it, they'd lose. 28 Now, there's a great quote based around war and battles 29 and competition which I'd love to share with you 30 which is super-relevant to what we're learning right now. 31 Strategy without tactics is the slowest way to victory 32 but tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. 33 In simple terms, if you try to compete 34 without an effective strategy in place first, 35 it's kind of like going into a gunfight with a spoon. 36 So how do we actually find out 37 where your brand can compete better? 38 Well, this actually comes in two simple steps. 39 The first step is to analyze your competition. 40 Now, just a quick note, I'm going to fully assess 41 a competitor myself and add this as a separate bonus lesson 42 straight after this one, so that you can see me in real time 43 with no edits go through the entire process 44 of how to assess a competitor properly. 45 This is gonna give you all the insights you need 46 to do it yourself but I'm gonna just run over the overview 47 of how to assess a competitor in this particular lesson 48 to respect your time. 49 So the first step is to understand 50 who your top competitors actually are. 51 Now, there's no magic number of how many you need to find 52 but generally I like to have around three 53 to five just to be safe. 54 Now, ultimately, the more you have the better. 55 And this is gonna become super-important later on 56 but just do how many you're comfortable with. 57 Now, the first thing to check is all the basic stuff. 58 So how big is the business, what is their revenue, 59 What geographical locations do they sell within, 60 and what do they sell? 61 And then the next step is to focus 62 on the brand's positioning. 63 Now, as we've already learned before, 64 the brand's positioning is ultimately the real estate 65 that that brand owns in the customer's mind. 66 What do they do or say to make them special? 67 Why would a customer choose them? 68 So ask yourself the question how does this particular brand 69 when you're analyzing them, how does this particular brand 70 want to be seen by us the customer? 71 This is gonna be super-important 72 because one of the key roles to positioning 73 is to make sure that we don't copy off somebody 74 who already holds a very strong position in the market. 75 We need to do something different 76 like the Dollar Shave Club for example, 77 where everybody else was being super-serious 78 and really prestige, the Dollar Shave Club 79 went in the exact opposite direction. 80 I'm sorry, that was an accident. (sharp beeping) 81 Now, once we've made some notes in regards 82 to how each of the brands are positioned 83 and we've assessed that, the next step is to really 84 get honest and understand what these brands do so well, 85 so we can learn as much as possible from them. 86 You know, this could be their logo, their color palette. 87 It could be the words that they use 88 or how they present themselves. 89 It could be their website, the usability of their website, 90 the pictures on their website, the photography, 91 you know, the way that that brand makes you feel. 92 You need to focus on what they do well so that we can take 93 as much info as possible and use it for your brand. 94 The more insights and the more points 95 that you can get, the better. 96 And you may have already guessed, the next step is to spot 97 the weaknesses of each brand. 98 So these are essentially the opportunities 99 that we can do better than them to stand out 100 and give customers a reason to choose us. 101 So maybe their logo isn't that great. 102 Maybe they aren't selling their products as well 103 as they potentially could. 104 Maybe their images on their website are pixelated 105 so it doesn't look very professional. 106 There are tons of different things and opportunities there. 107 Trust me, there's been lots and lots of huge brands 108 that do make mistakes and get a little bit 109 big for their boots so to speak, so they feel like 110 they are doing everything right where in a lot of cases 111 they aren't quite maximizing their potential. 112 Now, once you have all the information, the strengths, 113 the weaknesses, the brand positioning, 114 and the basic info in regards to each brand, 115 it's now time to create your action plan. 116 This is where we take all that information 117 and see what we can learn and what we can action 118 to build a brand which is going to be able 119 to compete effectively within the marketplace. 120 This is what I meant by picking your battle strategically. 121 Instead of just running in there and just hoping 122 for the best, we're taking a step back 123 and we are strategically planning how we are gonna compete 124 with each competitor so that we can ultimately 125 win the war over the long term. 126 Now, it's likely that you have less resources, 127 less people, and less money than your competition, 128 so we have to attack our competition where they are weak. 129 So how do we create the best action plan 130 based on these opportunities 131 which we've just highlighted from our research? 132 Now, one of the best ways that I love to spot opportunities 133 like this is to look at the company's website 134 and review specifically to see what people actually think 135 of the brand and the experience that they provide. 136 For example, one client a couple of years ago 137 that I was working with directly 138 found an amazing opportunity with us in regards to packaging 139 where we essentially researched all of their competition 140 and there wasn't a single competitor 141 that didn't have reviews that were complaining 142 essentially about how poor the packaging was in regards 143 to quality and presentation. 144 There were customers that were actually saying 145 that they had bought the jewelry from the brand 146 but then they had to go out and actually buy a separate box 147 or separate packaging to present the jewelry 148 to the loved one that they were gifting it to. 149 This was a massive opportunity that we spotted 150 and we ended up implementing on that and creating 151 some incredible bespoke packaging for the brand, 152 which ultimately allowed them to sell out 153 their entire collection in just a few days. 154 So be sure to check out reviews, all social media platforms 155 for each of the brands, and also at Amazon reviews as well. 156 They're generally the most honest 157 because Amazon is a third party, 158 so people are generally pretty brutal on there. 159 So take some time to really dig in 160 and get as much information as possible. 161 For example, are you in a similar position 162 to the Dollar Shave Club where all the brands 163 that you are actually competing with 164 are super-serious and super-professional? 165 This could be a huge opportunity for you to stand out. 166 And by following this framework step by step, 167 you're going to be able to spot the best opportunities, 168 then prioritize them in regards to how you should allocate 169 your resources when you are going 170 into battle with your competitors. 171 This is gonna allow you to essentially 172 acquire customers more easily, grow quicker, 173 and ultimately become more profitable. 174 And this is also going to allow you to actually 175 serve customers in a far more effective way 176 which the other competitors cannot compete with. 177 Remember, if you do need some extra support, 178 I am going to be arranging an additional bonus lesson, 179 which is going to dive into every single step 180 that I go into when assessing a brand in real time 181 so that you can see how I do it for my personal clients. 182 But now, if we take a step back, 183 we're actually in a super-strong position. 184 We understand who our target audience is. 185 We understand who our competitors are. 186 We also understand where their strengths are, 187 so where not to do battle with them. 188 And we also know where their weaknesses are, 189 so where are the opportunities for us to beat them. 190 And now we have all that information, 191 we are in the best position possible 192 to move on to choose our brand archetype. 193 And this stage is where we actually start to create 194 and craft our internal branding. 195 And I cannot wait to get started with you. 196 So I will see you in the next lesson.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials
Ratings and Reviews
Derek Williams
I was actually astounded how practical and easy this course was to implement into my own brand and put into action. Most other 'strategy' and branding courses are all theory. This course helped me go from nothing to a brand strategy in less than a few hours. Incredible and will be checking out more of their courses in future.
Josh Macphee
Concise and relevant. You can follow along with your own brand template (it is a powerpoint file FYI). Information is all very actionable and doesn't fluff on too much. The video editing can be a bit offputting at times, and the moments of humour may not be for everyone but i think the information and the structure is all on point.
Student Work
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