How do you use competitor profiling to anticipate and respond to competitor actions and moves?

1 What is competitor profiling?

Competitor profiling is the process of collecting, organizing, and evaluating data and information about your competitors. It involves identifying who your competitors are, what they offer, how they operate, and how they perform. It also involves assessing their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) in relation to your own. Competitor profiling can help you understand your competitive position, benchmark your performance, and identify your unique selling proposition (USP).

3 How do you conduct competitor profiling?

Competitor profiling involves four main steps. Firstly, you must define your objectives and scope, determining why you are conducting the profiling, what you want to achieve, and which aspects of your competitors you want to focus on. You also need to identify who your competitors are and how you will categorize them. Secondly, you need to collect data from various sources, such as websites, social media, annual reports, customer reviews, industry reports, media coverage etc., using both primary and secondary research methods. Thirdly, you should analyze and evaluate the data and information using tools such as SWOT analysis, Porter's five forces analysis, value chain analysis etc., comparing your competitors' goals, strategies, capabilities and performance with your own. Lastly, it's important to communicate your findings and insights with stakeholders in clear formats such as reports or charts. These insights should then be used to inform decision-making and improve planning and execution.

4 What are the benefits of competitor profiling?

Competitor profiling can offer several benefits, such as increasing your market knowledge, improving your competitive advantage and differentiation, enhancing your innovation and creativity, and reducing risks and uncertainties. With competitor profiling, you can gain a better understanding of the size, structure, dynamics, and trends of the market, as well as the needs, preferences, and behaviors of customers. Additionally, you can identify and leverage your unique selling proposition (USP), create and deliver value propositions that exceed customer expectations and competitors' offerings. Furthermore, competitor profiling can help you discover new opportunities and ideas for developing or improving products, services, processes, or business models. Most importantly, it can help you anticipate potential challenges and threats posed by competitors so that you can respond to their actions effectively and efficiently.

5 What are the challenges of competitor profiling?

Competitor profiling can also present certain challenges. For instance, obtaining accurate, timely and comprehensive data and information about competitors, especially if they are secretive or operate in different markets or regions, can be difficult. Additionally, analyzing and interpreting the data and information collected can be complex or biased if it is incomplete, inconsistent, or contradictory. Applying and updating the data and information collected can also be a challenge, particularly if it is outdated, irrelevant, or inaccurate.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?