What’s Brand Competitor Analysis?
To understand the need for brand competitor analysis, let’s look at an example. For an emerging digital-first or brick-and-mortar business, conducting market research is a crucial first step toward success. A close second would be performing a thorough competitor analysis. This involves more than just a cursory glance at competitors’ social media and websites; it requires an in-depth understanding of the other players in the market, their marketing strategies, and their target audience. A study by Emerald found over 90% of Fortune 500 companies use competitive analysis to stay current and effective.
To begin this process, it’s essential to identify your competitors. Should you be looking at the industry giants who have been in the market for decades and have built a large customer base? Or would it be more beneficial to focus on businesses like yours catering to the same audience segment? Answering these questions early on can provide you with the right insights to drive your brand forward.
Details about your competitors, such as their past strategies, historical performance, the platforms they’re on, and their advertising efforts, as well as their closest competitors, are all data points to consider when gathering data for your business. Brand competitor analysis and brand monitoring allow you to benchmark your business against your competitors in the same segment and set ambitious goals for your business to achieve. Knowledge of their past achievements can help you emulate their successes while being mindful of their failures.
Let’s look at how it can unlock your competitor’s secrets and give you an advantage with brand competitor analysis.
Direct and Indirect Competitors
Knowing your direct and indirect competitors is crucial as they are targeting the same audience and solving similar problems. Direct competitors offer the same product or service as your brand, while indirect competitors solve the same problem as your business. To differentiate between the two, refer to this insightful article by HubSpot.
Source: HubSpot
Brand competitor analysis activities start by conducting thorough research on your competition can help identify gaps in your brand’s strategies and refine your marketing approach.
For example, let’s say your direct competitor offers a lower price point, and your indirect competitor offers a better product or service. Your brand can leverage this knowledge to develop a unique selling proposition that combines both aspects to offer a high-quality product at an effectively priced point. This can help your brand differentiate itself from the competition and attract a larger customer base.
There are several ways to perform brand competitor analysis, such as:
- Conducting a Google search using relevant keywords
- Checking industry directories and listings
- Analyzing social media pages and hashtags
- Examining customer reviews and ratings
- Using competitor analysis tools such as SEMrush and Ahrefs
SWOT Analysis for Brand Competitor Analysis
Once you’ve identified all your competitors, it’s time to perform a SWOT analysis. Usually adopted to assess your own organization, the framework is extremely effective in analyzing the competition and seeing where they stand. Knowing their Strengths (S), Weaknesses (W), Opportunities (O), and Threats (T) can be an instrumental tool in determining new or existing areas to capitalize on.
A SWOT Analysis helps with brand competitor analysis–
Identify competitor strengths
Brand perception and recognition, customer base and loyalty, and their added value or USP (Unique Selling Proposition).
- Go beyond listing “strong brand loyalty.” Analyze how it’s built. Is it driven by a cult-like community (e.g., Harley-Davidson), relentless innovation (Apple), unmatched convenience (Amazon Prime), or hyper-personalization (Spotify)? Identify the mechanism.
- Examine their Operational Advantages: Superior logistics enabling faster/cheaper delivery? Proprietary technology? Exclusive supplier relationships? Scalable infrastructure?
- Assess Resource Superiority: Massive marketing budgets? Dominant social media presence? A vast, skilled sales force? Exclusive access to key influencers or distribution channels?
- Strategic Question: Can we replicate this strength, neutralize it, or exploit the cost/resources they sink into maintaining it?
Know competitor weaknesses
Product or service gaps, bad customer experience, a below-average product, or even a limited product range.
- Look for Systemic Issues, not just one-off complaints. Are negative reviews consistently mentioning slow shipping, poor sizing info, or buggy apps? This signals operational or process flaws.
- Identify Strategic Vulnerabilities: Over-reliance on a single product line? Dependence on a volatile supplier? Geographic concentration? Outdated technology stack? High employee turnover in key roles?
- Spot Perception Gaps: Does their branding feel inauthentic or outdated? Is their customer service perceived as robotic or unhelpful? Are they failing to connect with an emerging customer segment?
- Strategic Question: Can we directly target this weakness (e.g., offer faster shipping, better sizing tools)? Can we position ourselves as the solution to the problem they create?
Recognize opportunities
Areas to increase market share by developing new product lines, adopting emerging technologies, or even keeping up with the changing demands and preferences of customers.
- Market Shifts: Are changing regulations, emerging technologies (AI, AR/VR), or sustainability trends creating openings they might exploit? Could economic changes (e.g., demand for value) play to their strengths?
- Their Unmet Needs: Are their customers consistently asking for features, products, or services the competitor isn’t providing? This is low-hanging fruit.
- Competitor Weakness = Your Opportunity: Their poor international shipping is an opportunity for you to capture overseas customers. Their limited product range opens space for your complementary offerings.
- Partnerships/Acquisitions: Could they potentially acquire a startup, form a key partnership, or enter a new channel that strengthens them?
- Strategic Question: Can we seize this opportunity before they do? Can we block their path to exploiting it?
These are stuff to think about when performing your brand competitor analysis.
Monitor threats
Keep an eye out for any new brand entering the market, possible economic downturns that may affect both your business and your competitors; any operational changes your competitors may make to attract more customers or even steal your existing ones.
- Competitive Moves: Are they likely to slash prices, launch a premium line, expand geographically, or invest heavily in performance marketing based on their strengths and recent activity?
- External Risks to Them (That Could Impact You): Are their key suppliers facing instability? Are they vulnerable to new tariffs? Is negative press or a scandal brewing?
- Market-Wide Threats: Economic downturns, disruptive new entrants (not just direct competitors), changing platform algorithms (e.g., Google, Meta, Amazon), or shifts in consumer privacy regulations.
- Strategic Question: How would this threat impact us? Can we mitigate our own risk? Can we position ourselves as a safer alternative if the threat materializes for them?
Gathering Data for a Robust Competitor SWOT:
Don’t rely on guesswork. Leverage diverse sources for your brand competitor analysis:
- Customer Intelligence: Analyze competitor reviews (Sitejabber, Trustpilot, Amazon), social media sentiment (Brandwatch, Sprout Social), community forums (Reddit), and Q&A sites.
- Digital Footprint: Audit their website UX, content strategy, SEO performance (Ahrefs, SEMrush), paid ad strategies (Adbeat, Pathmatics), and app store reviews.
- Market Research: Industry reports (Statista, eMarketer), financial analysis (public company reports), news monitoring (Google Alerts), patent filings, and job postings (revealing new initiatives).
- Direct Observation: Mystery shopping, analyzing their sales/promotions, tracking product launches/updates, and monitoring their PR activity.
Source: Venngage
Turning SWOT into Action: The Crucial Next Step in Brand Competitor Analysis
A SWOT grid is just the starting point for a brand competitor analysis. The real power comes in synthesis and strategy formulation:
- Cross-Match Quadrants:
- S-O Strategies: How can we exploit their strengths to capture emerging opportunities? (Rare, but possible through partnerships or differentiation).
- S-T Strategies: How can we use their strengths to mitigate threats to us? (e.g., If their scale threatens pricing, focus on niche quality/service).
- W-O Strategies (Most Common & Powerful): How can we capitalize on their weaknesses to seize opportunities? (e.g., Target customers frustrated by their slow shipping with your superior fulfillment).
- W-T Strategies: How can we minimize our own vulnerabilities exposed by their weaknesses amidst external threats? (e.g., Shore up customer service if a recession makes customers more sensitive to support quality, especially if competitors are weak here).
- Prioritize & Resource: Not all findings are equal. Prioritize actions based on potential impact, feasibility, and alignment with your core strategy. Allocate resources accordingly.
- Monitor Dynamically: Competitor landscapes shift constantly. Treat SWOT as a living document, updating it quarterly or with significant market events for a thorough brand competitor analysis. Timely e-commerce data feeds (like price monitoring, review aggregation, ad tracking) are essential for this ongoing vigilance.
Competitive Advantage with Brand Competitor Analysis
With the above knowledge of all your competitors and their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, your brand competitor analysis is close to done and you can establish a unique advantage over other businesses in the sector. This brand competitor analysis exercise goes hand in hand with analyzing your competitors’ set of advantages so that your business can succeed despite market challenges.
A few common types are –
Cost advantage
Pricing your product lower than competitors can be an effective strategy to attract price-sensitive customers and increase sales. However, it is important to ensure that the lower price point does not compromise the quality of your product or negatively impact your profit margins.
Differentiation advantage
Creating a product that stands out from what competitors are offering can give you a distinct advantage. It can differentiate your brand from the competition, attract new customers, and build a loyal following.
Technological advantage
By offering innovative products or services that incorporate cutting-edge technology or superior performance, your business can gain a competitive edge and attract customers who value forward-thinking and quality giving you an edge over the competition.
Customer service advantage
To distinguish your business and foster customer loyalty. It is essential to provide a unique and seamless buying experience across all touchpoints. Additionally, maintaining excellent customer service even after the purchase can significantly impact customer satisfaction and retention.
Conclusion on Brand Competitor Analysis
Brand competitor analysis is a crucial aspect for any business operating in today’s marketplace. An e-commerce analytics tool such as 42Signals can reduce the headache of individually performing all these time-consuming exercises. By providing comprehensive data about your brand and your competitors 42Signals solves many problems.
The platform can also help you accurately monitor your competitor’s pricing strategies across marketplaces. It even provides in-depth data on the performance and customer sentiments on individual products.
To know more about our product, contact our team at sales@42signals.com
Frequently Asked Questions on Brand Competitor Analysis
What are the 4 P’s of competitor analysis?
The 4 P’s of competitor analysis refer to Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. These factors help businesses understand how rivals position themselves in the market.
- Product: What features, quality, and benefits competitors offer.
- Price: Their pricing strategies and how they compare to yours.
- Place: The distribution channels they use, such as online marketplaces, retail stores, or direct-to-consumer models.
- Promotion: Their advertising, branding, and communication strategies.
Evaluating these areas gives a clear picture of a competitor’s overall market approach.
What are the 5 competitive analysis?
The five main areas often covered in a competitive analysis are:
- Market Share Analysis – Understanding how much of the market a competitor controls.
- Product/Service Comparison – Looking at features, quality, and differentiation.
- Pricing Strategy Review – Assessing cost structures and positioning.
- Marketing & Branding Evaluation – Studying brand strength, campaigns, and customer engagement.
- Strengths and Weaknesses Assessment – Identifying areas where competitors outperform or lag behind.
Together, these provide a framework for spotting opportunities and risks in your own strategy.
What are the 4 types of competitors?
Competitors can be divided into four broad types:
- Direct competitors: Companies offering the same product or service to the same target audience.
- Indirect competitors: Businesses solving the same problem but with a different product or service.
- Replacement competitors: Alternatives that customers may use instead of your product (e.g., public transport vs. car ownership).
- Potential competitors: New entrants or startups that could disrupt the market in the future.
Recognizing these categories helps companies prepare for both current and emerging threats.
What are the 5 steps of a competitive analysis?
A structured competitor analysis usually involves these five steps:
- Identify competitors – List direct, indirect, and potential players in your space.
- Gather data – Collect information on their products, pricing, marketing, and distribution.
- Analyze strengths and weaknesses – Use tools like SWOT to understand positioning.
- Benchmark performance – Compare their strategies against your own key metrics.
- Apply insights – Use findings to refine your pricing, marketing, product roadmap, or go-to-market approach.
This process transforms raw research into actionable business intelligence.
