Competitive Position and Sources of Advantage - Competitor intelligence

8 important questions on Competitive Position and Sources of Advantage - Competitor intelligence

To understand the degree to which a business has a position of competitive advantage, we need to engage in a detailed analysis of competitors. What is an important question you should ask yourself when doing a detailed analysis of competitors?

"Which competitors should a business analyse?"

How to identify the benchmark competitors (competitor intelligence)?

Perceptual mapping, which is a technique that is used to capture customer perceptions of competing products/services.

How does perceptual mapping work (competitor intelligence)?

  • Without specifying criteria for evaluating competing products, customers are simply asked to rate the degree to which they perceive two competing product to be different from one another.
  • The more similar two competitors are from a customer perspective, the more likely customers are to switch from one to another (and vice versa).
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After the benchmark competitors are established, what should a company do?

Conduct a more detailed analysis.

How to obtain competitor intelligence?

  • By having a strong market orientation.
A market-based business gathers competitor intelligence all the time; therefore continuously evolves competitors profiles from which to evaluate its own competitiveness and competitive advantage.

If a company does not have a strong market orientation, how can it obtain competitor intelligence?

By public information from dealers, trade press, business press, industry consultants, trade shows, financial reports etc.

What is competitive benchmarking (competitor intelligence)?

A process to improve its competitive position relative to key competitors. Competition benchmarking is something different.

What are the three steps of competitive benchmarking (competitor intelligence)?

  1. Identify a key area of competitive weakness that affects customers satisfaction and/or profitability.
  2. Identify a benchmark company, which are the best in the world.
  3. Track the benchmark company's process advantage.

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