* The calculations use average data for Russia

Competition and competitiveness - what do these terms mean? By what indicators can one judge that one company is more competitive than another? Let's answer these questions.

What is competition? Competitiveness? Perhaps these are one of the most popular and used words in the economic lexicon. It would seem a simple question, however... if you look through the books of F. Kotler or other equally eminent luminaries in economics and marketing, you will not find clear and intelligible definitions that reveal the essence of this rather capacious topic. A topic that, to one degree or another, concerns almost all economic entities in both Russia and other countries.

If you arm yourself with dictionaries, you can find the following definitions of “competition”:

Competition- competitiveness of economic entities, when their independent actions effectively limit the ability of each of them to unilaterally influence the general conditions of circulation of goods on the corresponding product market.

Competition- in everyday understanding - rivalry economic entities behind Better conditions production, purchase and sale of goods.

Competition- in classical economic theory - an element of the market mechanism that allows you to balance supply and demand.

Competition- this is both a way of managing and a form of existence of capital in which one individual capital competes with another, being an attribute of the market.

I admit that these definitions puzzled me somewhat. What are “best production conditions”? Is it really only through competition that supply and demand can be balanced? What kind of actions are these that “effectively limit the ability of each of them to unilaterally influence the general conditions of circulation of goods on the corresponding commodity market”? Questions, questions, questions...

But perhaps most precise definition the term "competition" can be found in the Dictionary foreign words"1954 edition (State Publishing House of Foreign and National Dictionaries):

Competition - in a capitalist society - is a fierce, ongoing struggle of capitalists among themselves for a larger share of profits, for markets, for sources of raw materials, etc.

In this definition, everything falls into place. From the first words it becomes clear: who is fighting, and, strictly speaking, for what, since the main function of a commercial enterprise is to make a profit.

But, in my opinion, in Russia, the very concept of competition is perceived somewhat differently. Casually and when necessary... Why?

Firstly, we start talking about competition only when we are asked (at the bank or by our partners), who are your direct competitors?

Secondly, when something in the sales cycle begins to “fail,” revenue and profit drop sharply, which is not within the framework of “business functioning” outlined by our imagination. After all, everything should be... like Coca-Cola, but no... Something went wrong, and it doesn’t fit into the logical chain in the owner’s head...

Therefore, if we talk about competition among commercial enterprises on the Russian market, then these enterprises must, first of all, be of an equal type of activity. Here we need tact, correctness and common sense. Obviously, you cannot compare a retail stall with a large supermarket or a real estate company with an existing manufacturing enterprise.

If we talk about competition between “products,” then naturally, the products under study should have similar functionality. But since in this case we are talking about enterprises, let’s look at them in more detail: in numbers, facts and examples.

Let's say there is a certain roadway and intersection, and also:

two gas stations;

two trade stalls;

two old grandmothers selling seeds,

those. six “economic entities” “operating” in different markets. Let's try to describe each of the economic entities (situational analysis):

Gas stations (gas stations)

	Gas station "Klyaksa"	Gas station "Gluck"
Commissioning
Number of places for simultaneous refueling
Fuel brands	DT, A-92, A-95	DT, A-92, A-95
Area of gas stations and access roads, sq.m.
Is there any related service at the gas station?	Yes (vulcanization, acceptance point) and snack bar.
Number of employees, people
	5% cheaper than the Gluck gas station
Traffic flow, thousand cars/day
Availability of tire inflation

A brief situational analysis of gas stations allows us to draw the following conclusions:

The commissioning date for the Klyaksa gas station is 2013, and the Klyuk gas station was commissioned in 2011, i.e. 2 years earlier. During this time, both gas stations “accumulated” their regular customers. Is it a fact that it worked? It’s not at all a fact, it’s possible that she lost it. What does this depend on? First of all, on the quality of fuel and the level of customer service.

The technological equipment of the Klyaksa gas station is more modern than that of the Gluck gas station.

The average traffic flow at both one and the other gas stations is the same. In the morning it is larger at the Klyaksa gas station, and in the evening at the Gluck gas station.

The brands of fuel sold are identical.

Nearby gas stations (in the direction of travel) are located at the same distance from both one and another gas station.

Rentable area land plot The Klyaksa gas station has 160 sq.m. more than the Gluck gas station.

The number of employees at the Klyaksa gas station is 2 people more than at the Gluck gas station.

Main conclusion:

The Klyaksa gas station, under equal economic conditions, from a technical and technological point of view has clear advantages over the Gluck gas station.

From a marketing point of view, the Klyaksa gas station has clear advantages: the cost of fuel is lower, there are also additional services - vulcanization (acceptance point), tire inflation and a snack bar.

Trading stalls

Comparative Specifications	Trading stall No. 1	Trading stall No. 1
Commissioning, year.
Retail area, sq.m.
Warehouse area, sq.m.
Number of employees, people
Range	Almost the same
Operating mode	around the clock	around the clock
Type of outlet	stationary	stationary
Location		convenient, close to a busy highway and pedestrian road
Is there parking space available?

A brief situational analysis of the stalls allows us to draw the following conclusions:

Trading stalls were put into operation with a difference of 1 year.

Retail and warehouse areas are almost the same.

The average human flow is the same.

Prices for the main goods offered for sale are almost the same.

The main conclusion is that the two stalls are in absolutely equal economic and technological conditions.

Grandmothers selling seeds

The main conclusion about grandmothers selling seeds is both grannies are in equal economic conditions.

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This is such an interesting microeconomic “intersection analysis” that resulted. What is he telling us? First of all, the following: in no case are trade stalls, as economic entities, competitors either to grandmothers or gas stations. And this is the main point!

Hence the conclusions:

direct competitors are:

Gas stations "Blot" and "Gluck".

Two trade stalls.

Two grannies selling sunflower seeds.

No indirect competition among business entities was identified.

But how to determine which gas station is more competitive, even if they are conditionally in the “identical” conditions? The one that is technically more advanced? Which of the grandmothers, and we consider both of them as economic entities, is in the lead? The one that has been on the market for a longer period of time?

The activities of which of the six economic entities are the most competitive? What is competitiveness? What is competition, we found out at the beginning of the chapter, but what is competitiveness?

What is the competitiveness of an enterprise in the market?

I admit, I found several definitions about “competitiveness”, but they related to the problem of “product competitiveness”:

Competitiveness- the ability of a product or service to withstand comparison with similar goods and services from other manufacturers while maintaining the average market price.

Product competitiveness- criterion for the feasibility of a company entering commodity markets, which is the sum of product characteristics aimed at satisfying consumer (solvency) demand.

But I couldn’t find the definition of “enterprise competitiveness,” so I had to formulate it myself. It turned out very simple, but understandable:

The competitiveness of an enterprise (economic entity) is its ability to operate at a profit.

Then it turns out that if two equal enterprises operate with a profit, then the one with the larger profit will be the most competitive? With certain reservations, it turns out that this is so, therefore the competitiveness of an enterprise must be spoken of in terms of numbers.

Competitiveness of enterprises in the language of numbers

Which economic entities will we start with in our situation? Let's start with grandmas! Let's translate their simple financial and economic activities into the language of numbers and fill out... let's say, a table, which we'll call a profit and loss statement. Let's calculate what income and expenses our grandmothers had.

Income/Output	Quantity, pcs.	Price for 1 unit.	Grandmother selling seeds - 1	Quantity, pcs.	Price for 1 unit.	Grandmother selling seeds - 2

Glasses sold, pcs./month.
Sunflower seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Total income, rub.
Consumption
Costs of purchasing sunflower seeds
Cost of purchasing pumpkin seeds
Total cost of purchasing seeds, rub.
Broken glasses
Lost profit (number of glasses requisitioned by teaching staff)
Expenses for a janitor, rub.
Total, net profit, rub.
Profitability, %

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What interesting things catch your eye? The first is that, according to our conditions, the second granny trades several hours a day less. The consequence is lower sales revenue. The second is the fact that the second granny’s expenses for purchasing sunflower and pumpkin seeds are many times less than those of her competitor standing on the opposite side. This is explained by the fact that the second granny does not actually pay for the seeds, since her nephew brings them to her “for free”, stealing them from the neighboring collective farm fields, and she pays him with little white money.

Third, it is obvious that the sales revenue of the first granny is higher than that of the second, and the profit is less. This means that the first granny, as a subject of economic activity based on the results of financial and economic activities, is less “competitive” than her neighbor.

Fourth, the profitability of trading operations for the second granny is higher than for the first, i.e. we can say that its trading operations in the retail “seed market” are more effective (judging by the profitability of sales). Although she devotes less time to her business.

Having analyzed this situation, we can come to the conclusion that if granny No. 2 devoted a little more time to trade problems, then there is a possibility that, other things being equal, doing “business”, she has a significant reserve for increasing the main indicator - “net profit” ".

The main reason for this situation is the cost of “raw materials”, i.e. for sunflower and pumpkin seeds, it has many times less, therefore the margin of “strength” or competitiveness is much higher.

Let's move on to the stalls. We fill out a similar table and analyze the situation.

Income/Output
Revenues from sales
Total income, rub.
Consumption
Costs of purchasing goods
Gross profit
Electricity costs
Cost of renting a stall
Director's salary
Salary of an accountant
Salary for saleswomen
Household expenses
Other expenses
Expenses for regulatory government bodies
Costs for cleaning the area and removing garbage
Security alarm (button)
Telephony
Taxes on wages
Profit before tax
Imputed tax
Total, net profit, rub.
Profitability, %

The table shows that, under equal conditions, stall No. 2 is clearly inferior to stall No. 1 both in terms of financial and economic activity and in terms of profitability, despite the slight excess of the “sales revenue” indicator. This means we can state the fact that one stall is more competitive than another stall under the same conditions and using the same sales technology.

What about our gas stations? There is no point in describing all the costs in detail; let’s focus on the main ones:

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And what do we see? The most interesting fact is that despite the fact that the sales revenue of "Blot" is greater than that of "Gluck", despite the fact that the price of "Blot" is less than that of "Gluck", despite the fact that " Klyaksa" has related businesses, the income and expenses of which were not taken into account in these tables, "Klyaksa" is clearly inferior to its competitor in terms of net profit.

How can this be, the surprised reader will ask, comparing the businesses of the two gas stations? After all, in almost all technical positions given in Table No. 6, “Klyaksa” is more “perfect”, more customer-oriented. And, if we touch on the area of marketing, then the price at the Klyaksa gas station is lower and the accompanying business is obvious.

And like this! By economic indicators, despite the large sales revenue, its costs are much higher than those of a competitor, and therefore the profit is less. No matter how paradoxical this may seem, in our particular case this is true.

Hence, not entirely obvious conclusions:

Paradoxical as it may seem, but:

The presence of modern technological equipment plays only an indirect role when considering the issue of the competitiveness of an enterprise.

The price of manufactured (or sold) products plays an indirect role when considering the issue of the competitiveness of an enterprise.

The most important conclusion:

3. Chief economic factor, allowing for to the fullest To judge the competitiveness of an enterprise in the market is the excess of income over expenses!

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How to write the marketing part of a business plan? Each bank has certain requirements for an investment project, but, be that as it may, in the preparation process I recommend relying on the following tips.

Some features and problems that developers of investment projects may encounter when carrying out marketing research for a specific investment project.

How you always want to start your own business faster, giving up on such a tedious preparatory stage like writing a business plan. We strongly advise you not to do this. It just seems to you that you have a clear understanding in your head of how to organize the work of the company. But once you start writing everything down on paper, you will realize how many important points you missed.

You can write a business plan. And our articles will help. In we talked about how to describe your company. In this article we will tell you how to conduct a competitive analysis and draw up marketing and production plans.

Competitive Analysis

No matter how brave you are, you should not dive headfirst into an unfamiliar river. Before opening your own business, you need to collect as much information as possible about the market in which you are going to occupy a niche, analyze the main trends of the industry and assess the prospects for its development.

Industry and Market Research

Although the concepts of “industry” and “market” are similar at first glance, there are differences between them. A market is a collection of consumers, and an industry is a collection of producers.

How detailed the research will be depends on the type of business you are starting. If you are going to sell jewelry in a small city, then it is not necessary to conduct research on the state of the all-Russian and world market. But it may happen that by conducting a more global study, you will see new interesting development prospects. However, always try to objectively assess the situation, because a business plan is not a wish list, but an extremely practical document.

First of all, you need to know the following about your industry and market segment:

Which market are you going to enter with your products: regional, national or international.
Current industry level and development trends.
Dynamics of prices and sales over the past few years and forecasts for the next 5 years.

Information sources about the market:

Internet (specialized resources, forums, social networks).
Polls on social networks and forums.
Interview with company employees. Successful sales managers know a lot about the market situation.
Interviews with representatives of the target audience.
Personal observation. If the industry is new and there are no statistical data on it yet in authoritative sources, then you can do your own research and make predictions.

Next, to study the market, we suggest you use two well-known methods: PEST analysis (or STEP analysis) and Porter's five forces analysis.

PEST analysis:

Political factors. How does the political situation in the country (world) affect the development of your industry?
Economic factors. How does the economic situation in the country (world) affect the development of your industry?
Social factors. How do social factors influence the development of your industry? Factors: demographics, changes in level and lifestyle, attitude towards religion, attitude towards the media, consumer mood.
Technological factors. How do technological factors such as new products, technology developments affect your industry?

Porter's Five Forces Analysis:

Analysis of the threat of substitute products.

How likely is it that a new product or service will put you out of business or significantly reduce your profits?

Analysis of the threat of new players.

If your chosen industry is constantly attracting a lot of new entrepreneurs, then you need to think about how you will maintain your position. A difficult industry to penetrate is already your competitive advantage.

Analysis of market power of suppliers.

How big is it? How will your company's operations be affected by, for example, setting too high prices for necessary components and raw materials?

Analysis of consumer market power.

How can consumers influence the company’s activities and what is their sensitivity to changes in prices for products or services.

Analysis of the level of competition.

This is a determining factor for many industries. Who are your competitors? What competitive tactics do they use? How much money is spent on advertising? What are the distinctive features of competitors?

Competitors

We already touched on the topic of competition in the previous analysis. In this subsection, you need to list several prominent competitors and briefly describe them. It is worth taking into account not only direct competitors - companies that are in the same niche with you in terms of products offered, turnover and prices, but also the “monsters” of your field. For example, if you decide to get into online trading, remember that there is Amazon.

What you need to know about each competitor:

annual profit;
market share;
clear competitive advantage.

To obtain more information, you can use SWOT analysis:

Strengths- force. What is their strength? Technology, brand, people, application of lean manufacturing concepts?
Weakness- weakness. What is their weakness? Weak management? Bad customer service?
Opportunities- possibilities. What external likely factors exist that provide competitors with additional opportunities?
Threats- threats. What external plausible factors exist that could hinder competitors?

Finally, once you have a complete picture of the market and your competitive landscape, you need to understand what is the value of your company? How are you different from the rest? What is your competitive advantage?

Your prices are lower than those of your competitors.
Your product or service is somehow radically and for the better different from similar ones.
Nicheness. You have occupied a very narrow market segment. Perhaps with the prospect of its further expansion.
You are offering a new product or service that is already needed.
Your product or service is much better in quality than similar ones.
You offer the opportunity to personalize a product (tailoring shoes to individual measurements, for example).
Your product has an impressive design.
You reduce risks for buyers. For example, you can return goods to your online store for free.
It’s more convenient to buy from you (faster and cheaper delivery, excellent customer service).
You have made a familiar thing simpler and more accessible.

You have completed the most important part of the business plan - research. Now, based on the information you have, you can move on to the sections that describe exactly how your business will develop.

Drawing up a business plan

Marketing plan

Let's get to know potential clients better. It is necessary to highlight target segment, answering the questions:

What age are my clients?
Where do they live?
What is their level of education?
How many such people are there in the city/country?
What do they have in common in their behavior?
How do they spend their free time?
Where do they work?
What technologies are used?
What nationality are my clients?
How much do they earn?
Where are they usually invited to work?
What are their values, world views, opinions?

You will build your marketing campaign based on this data. Using it, you need to guide the client along a path consisting of 5 steps:

Awareness – Customers know you exist, but don’t know what exactly you’re selling.
Interest—customers have heard about you, seen you, and are curious about what you offer.
Evaluation - the client decides whether to give you a chance.
Test - the customer makes a trial purchase.
Acceptance - The customer liked what you offer and will now make purchases regularly.

What channels will you use to increase brand awareness: Internet, television, radio, print magazines and newspapers, outdoor advertising, leaflets?
What other way can you get attention?
What will be your PR strategy? How will you get customers interested in your product?

At the trial purchase stage, it is important to attract the client with a quality product and, of course, first-class service:

How will you handle sales and delivery?
How will buyers be able to pay for the goods?
How can I return the product? Will you offer guarantees? Which?
Will you provide any service to customers after the purchase?

After describing the “Marketing Plan” section, you probably became even more inspired with your ideas. And now you can proceed to one of the most practical sections.

Production plan

The production plan explains how management will be organized in the company, what resources are needed at the start of a business and which ones need to be regularly renewed. How will the path of the product be built from manufacturing or purchasing to its receipt by the buyer.

Main questions:

Do you need suppliers, and if so, who exactly?
Will you rent an office or will you initially work from home?
Do you need employees now and how many? What duties will they perform? Maybe you will need employees in a month or six months?
What equipment and furniture do you need? Consider everything from computers to office chairs.
How will the product or service be delivered to the client: should he come to the office/store/salon, will you deliver it yourself or hire a third-party company for this? Does your product require special conditions delivery?
Do you need a warehouse? Will you buy it, rent it, or use a third party? Do your products require special storage conditions?
How will you provide after-sales service? How will the product return process be implemented? How will customer questions and complaints be handled? Will you provide long-term after-sales support?

Production process

If your company will be engaged in production, then you need to prepare another important subsection that explains how the product manufacturing process will occur and answers the following questions:

How long does it take to produce a unit or batch of products?
Do you currently have all the necessary equipment and resources? If something is missing, when can you buy it? Is it possible to start production now?
Describe the technological chain. Think about whether you can improve the process or make it cheaper?
What standards will you be guided by when manufacturing products, how will you check their quality at each stage of production?
What volume of products do you need to produce per day, month, year?
How will you change the product, service or customer experience when receiving feedback and complaints from customers? Will you need to rebuild the process chain? How will pricing change?
How will you cope with a large influx of orders? Will it occur randomly or can it be predicted depending on external factors (for example, seasonality)?

Financial plan

Every section of a business plan is important, and none of them can be neglected. But financial plan, perhaps, comes first. It is by this that one can judge how long it will take for the company to start making a profit, and also understand whether it is worth attracting investments into it. In addition, a financial plan is necessary to manage the ongoing financial activities of the organization.

A financial plan can consist of different documents, depending on the type and size of the enterprise. For a small business you need three:

Budget

The document describes all initial investments and estimated monthly expenses and income. Roughly speaking, from the budget you will see exactly how much you need to invest in the business and what income you can count on.

Initial Investment include all one-time expenses: purchase of equipment, website creation, registration of individual entrepreneurs and others.

Monthly expenses- this is payment for raw materials for the production of products or goods for resale, salaries to employees, rent, utility costs, taxes...

Monthly income- this is all you earn after selling goods/providing services for a month.

Subtract expenses from income, we get profit. We divide the initial investment by the profit and get the number of months in which this investment will pay off.

Gains and losses report

Based on the “Budget” data, we calculate expenses and revenue for the year (we multiply expenses by 12, and revenue by 11 months, since we can only establish sales in the second month) and calculate profit. The initial investments are also taken into account here (there is no need to multiply, they are one-time). As a result, we will receive a forecast of annual profit and will be able to understand whether the volume of future business is sufficient.

Cash flow statement

In the cash flow statement (CDS), we describe on a monthly basis all payments and receipts of funds for the period from 1 to 3 years. As a result, we will see when we reach the break-even point, how long it will take to pay off the initial investment, and predict the results of our work. Monthly data may remain the same or change. For example, you can assume an increase in sales (and costs of raw materials, respectively).

When you open your business, fill out this report every month with real data and adjust the forecast.

Registration of a business plan

With such a huge amount of information, how it is presented is crucial, so we will tell you about the main rules for drawing up a business plan.

There should be no “water” in a business plan. Write briefly and to the point. No more than 15-20 pages. Add all documents that you consider necessary as attachments.
Maintain the same style of presentation in all sections of the business plan.
Tailor your business plan to the audience you are presenting it to. For a large investor and a credit manager at a small bank, it most likely should be different. The ideal is to have a layout with basic data that you can adjust slightly depending on the situation.

What does a business plan consist of:

Title page
Content
Business Plan Summary
General description of the idea and company
Competitive Analysis
Marketing plan
Production plan
Financial plan
Covering letter

Let's take a closer look at business plan summary. Despite the fact that we talk about it at the end of the article, this small section is of fundamental importance. Its content determines whether a person will continue to read your business plan or discard it as something not worth attention.

The purpose of a resume is to intrigue, to briefly explain that you are offering a cool idea that will work and bring in money.

Business concept (what do you do)
Goals and vision
Description of the product and its fundamental difference from competitors
Description of the target audience
Brief marketing plan (how you will influence your audience)
Current financial condition companies
Projected financial condition of the company
The amount of money you are asking from the investor
Team (who is in it, why is it important for business)

If you do not present your business plan in person, but send it by mail, be sure to supplement it with a cover letter intended to a specific person from an investment fund or bank.

Before you start writing a business plan, be mentally prepared for the fact that this is a long process. You have to extract and analyze a ton of information. But having taken this difficult step, you will go faster, and the road will become easier and more exciting. We are sure you will succeed. Good luck!

P.S. We will write to real example business plan. Stay tuned.

Alina Vashurina is a PR director at Ecwid. Writes to inspire and educate readers about all things e-commerce. Loves to travel and runs marathons.

Assessing the competitiveness of goods and services, as well as the company itself - important element analysis of competition in a specific market due to the fact that it allows a realistic approach to assessing both the strengths and weaknesses of the organization and determining directions for increasing the competitiveness of the enterprise and its products. This analysis is especially relevant when a business plan is developed for “internal use,” i.e. represents a development program for the company as a whole. The scientific literature identifies the following methods for assessing the competitiveness of an enterprise:

1) score;
2) assessment from the position of comparative advantage;
3) assessment based on the theory of effective competition;
4) assessment based on quality theory;
5) matrix methods;
6) methods of the American Management Association;
7) indicator method;
8) methodology for assessing competitiveness used in marketing research.

When scoring the competitiveness of enterprises, the performance indicators of competing enterprises are numerically compared. Then the average score of these indicators is found. By its level one can judge the position of the enterprise. The scoring of individual indicators is presented in table.

Scoring of individual indicators

As can be seen from the table, the highest level of competitiveness is for enterprise A, and the lowest for enterprise B.

However, for a more accurate objective analysis of the competitiveness of enterprises, it is necessary to take into account different influence on it (the different significance) of each of the properties under consideration. In this case, the maximum score for each competitiveness indicator is taken equal to 5 points, and the sum of the weighting coefficients of the competitiveness indicators is equal to 1 point. The second condition is met quite simply by using the appropriate expert ranking technique. The results obtained are shown in table.

Assessment of competitiveness indicators taking into account weighting coefficients

Competitiveness indicator

Quality of management
Product quality
Financial condition
Resource usage
Work with personnel
Long-term capex
Ability to innovate
Responsibility to society

Legend:

Kv - weighting coefficients of competitiveness indicators, characterizing their importance in overall assessment competitiveness of these commodity producers;

Ra - assessments of the competitiveness indicators of enterprise A;

Republic of Belarus - assessments of the competitiveness indicators of enterprise B;

Rv - assessments of the competitiveness indicators of enterprise V.

The competitiveness of enterprises is determined by the formula

Thus, the competitiveness of enterprise A:

Ka = 0.68 + 0.45 + 0.56 + 0.16 + 0.3 + 0.14 + 0.68 + 0.12 = 3.09 points.

For enterprise B:

KB = 0.51 + 0.6 + 0.28 + 0.32 + 0.3 + 0.07 + 0.51 + 0.48 = 3.07 points.

For enterprise B:

Kv = 0.34 + 0.45 + 0.42 + 0.32 + 0.2 + 0.35 + 0.17 + 0.6 = 2.85 points.

Advantages of enterprise A: quality of management, stable financial condition, ability to innovate.

Advantage of enterprise B: quality of goods.

Advantages of enterprise B: long-term capital investments, increased responsibility to society.

Thus, enterprises A and B have better chances in the market. At the same time, the relative equality of competitiveness portends an intensification of competition between them.

Identification of an enterprise's comparative advantage is based on the assumption that firms specialize in the production and export of those goods that cost them relatively little. To determine the degree of competitiveness of a manufacturer, the performance of competing enterprises is compared according to an accepted criterion, for example, profit volume, sales level, market share, etc. However, it must be borne in mind that it is impossible to measure the comparative advantages of an enterprise in a complex of many indicators. Thus, if you focus only on production costs, then the quality of products and many other factors that determine the level of competitiveness and potential of the organization will not be taken into account.

In the theory of effective competition, methods for determining competitiveness are based on the assumption that an industry is considered more competitive if its member firms have strong market positions. The main method of analyzing the competitiveness of an industry is to compare the indicators of its member companies with the indicators of competing firms.

To develop a criterion for the level of competitiveness, two main approaches are used: structural and functional.

The assessment of competitiveness based on the structural approach is carried out based on an analysis of the level of monopolization of the industry in the market (concentration of production and capital, barriers to entry of new companies into the market).

In the functional approach, as a rule, the following main groups of company activity factors are compared:

1) indicators reflecting the efficiency of production and sales activities (the ratio of net profit to the net value of tangible assets, the ratio of net profit to net working capital);
2) indicators reflecting the production sphere of activity (the ratio of net sales, respectively, to the net value of tangible assets, to net working capital, to the value of inventories, to the value of tangible assets, to net working capital);
3) indicators characterizing the financial activities of enterprises: the period for paying current bills, the ratio of current debt during the year to the value of tangible assets, etc.

Indicators of labor productivity, return on investment, and profit margins are also compared. Methods for determining competitiveness based on the theory of effective competition are widely used in countries Western Europe and the USA.

Based on the theory of product quality, methods have been developed for assessing the competitiveness of a manufacturer based on a comparison of quality indicators. In a subjective assessment, product quality parameters are compared based on one’s own requirements for the product or the requirements imposed by an individual consumer; with an objective assessment - with a similar product from a competing company. If an enterprise produces heterogeneous products, then it is not possible to judge its competitiveness in a generalized form only on the basis of the qualitative characteristics of the product and a comparison of a system of indicators characterizing the economic potential of the enterprise is required.

Matrix methods are based on the idea of considering competition processes in dynamics. The theoretical basis of these methods is the concept life cycle goods and technology, which distinguishes the following stages of this cycle from the moment the product appears until its disappearance on the market: introduction, growth, saturation and decline. Matrix methods are a convenient practical tool and are widely used by American firms.

Developed in the mid-70s. XX century marketing firm Boston advisory group» matrix methodology for assessing the competitiveness of various goods is used both to analyze the characteristics of goods and to study the competitiveness of “strategic business units”: goods, individual companies, and sales activities of industries. The matrix is built on the basis of two indicators. The vertical axis indicates the growth rate of market capacity on a linear scale, and the horizontal axis indicates the relative share of the entrepreneur or company in the market. All strategic business units are located on this matrix depending on their parameters and market conditions. The most competitive are those that occupy a significant share of it. To develop a market behavior strategy, using the matrix method, they evaluate the level of competitiveness of the potential of both their enterprise and competing enterprises.

The competitiveness of an enterprise can also be determined using the methods of the American Management Association (table).

Checklist for analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of an enterprise in competition

Each column in the table is assigned a value:

1 - better than anyone. Clear leader;
2 - above average. Economic performance indicators are quite good and stable;
3 -- average level. Stable position in the market;
4 - you should take care of improving your position in the market;
5 - the situation is truly alarming. The company found itself in a crisis situation.

sales market competitor products

This technique suggests wide range groups of indicators that allow, using a scoring system, to determine the weak point of an enterprise in comparison with competing enterprises.

The level of competitiveness of an enterprise's economic potential can be determined using the indicator method, which allows one to identify ways to increase competitiveness and develop a new strategy and management tactics. This method is based on a system of indicators with the help of which it is determined quantification competitive potential of an enterprise, company, corporation. Each indicator - a set of characteristics that formally describe the state of the parameters of the object under study - includes a number of indicators that reflect the state of individual elements of this object.

The selected indicators are compared with similar standard or actual indicators from competitors. Each level of competitiveness of an enterprise corresponds to a certain set of indicators in the form of specific indicators. They form a matrix of competitiveness of the enterprise potential, which reflects relative values selected indicators and their percentage-score expression.

To fill out the matrix at an enterprise, the creation of a data bank and the ability to receive and process external information are required. Without knowledge, study and comparison of information about the work of similar enterprises, none of the prestigious companies can count on long-term business success.

In the competitiveness matrix, the highest level of the indicator today is taken as 100% and, accordingly, 100 points. The scoring of the level of competitiveness is determined both for individual indicators and for the entire complex as a whole.

The methodology for assessing competitiveness used in marketing research is intended to:

* to assess the competitiveness of an enterprise and its products during marketing research;
* to evaluate and select optimal options for production plans (current and future) resulting from marketing programs;
* to evaluate and select optimal programs for the reconstruction of production and enterprises, developed on the basis of marketing research;
* to assess the performance of the structural divisions of the enterprise, as well as assess the results of the labor of employees to ensure the competitiveness of the enterprise;
* to assess the technical and economic level and select optimal technological processes, equipment and structural materials used for the manufacture of products, in order to ensure the same thing - the competitiveness of the enterprise.

The methodology can be used as an independent method, when it is impossible to economically evaluate the compared decision options based on the totality of costs and results or other cost indicators, and also as a complementary one, when the compared options are economically approximately equivalent, but certain non-economic characteristics (social, economic) are important. , technical), based on the totality of which the assessment and selection of optimal solutions is carried out.

To compare and evaluate various solution options and select the optimal one, a table is compiled, where each row corresponds to a specific solution option, and each column corresponds to an evaluation indicator, based on the totality of which a comparison is made and the optimal option is determined. The number of compared options, as well as the number of evaluation indicators in each of them, can be any.

If the estimated indicators have the same units of measurement and are values of the same order, then you can evaluate and select the optimal solution based on their totality by simply summing up the indicators and comparing the results obtained. In this case, for each option (i.e. for each line), the sum of the estimated indicators taken with their own signs (“+” or “-”) is calculated. The line with the maximum (minimum) value of the amount will correspond to the optimal solution; the remaining amounts will correspond to less efficient options.

Since estimated indicators, as a rule, have unequal units of measurement and are quantities of different orders (they differ from each other by 10-100 times, and therefore the summation will be incorrect), it is impossible to evaluate and select the optimal option based on their totality without additional transformation or difficult. As such a transformation, it is advisable to reduce heterogeneous indicators to a dimensionless (relative) form as follows.

1. In each column of the table, the best of the compared evaluation indicators is found (the maximum value is selected for indicators, the growth of which increases the efficiency of decisions; the minimum value is chosen for indicators, the decrease of which increases the efficiency of decisions); the best values are underlined, and indicators requiring minimization are indicated with an asterisk.
2. The best estimated indicators found in each of the columns are equal to one, and all other indicator values are expressed in fractions of one in relation to the best indicator corresponding column: if the maximum value of any indicator is selected as the best, then all other indicator values of this column are divided by it, and if the minimum value of any indicator is selected as the best, then it is divided by all other indicators of this column.
3. A new table is compiled from the obtained dimensionless (relative) values of the estimated indicators with an additional, not yet filled in column C.
4. For each of the rows of the table, consisting of dimensionless (relative) quantities, i.e. for each compared solution option, the sum of the indicators is determined, which is then divided by their number, so that the resulting result (arithmetic mean) is also expressed in fractions of unity and shows the difference between the real optimal solution option and a certain ideal one (which incorporates all the best estimated indicators) , which the unit must correspond to. The results obtained are entered in the additional column (C) of the table.
5. The line with the maximum value of the calculated arithmetic mean dimensionless (relative) indicator will correspond to the optimal solution; the remaining arithmetic average values will correspond to less effective options.

In the described method for assessing competitiveness, we proceed from the assumption of the same importance and equivalence of all evaluation indicators, on the basis of which decision options are compared. It can be used in cases where all estimated indicators are either truly equally important (equal), or when it is impossible for some reason to rank them by importance.

To take into account the unequal importance, unequal value of estimated indicators, due to various factors of a social, economic, scientific and technical nature, these indicators can be ranked and each of them can be given a numerical characteristic or coefficient, expressed in fractions of a unit and showing how many times (or by what percentage) some indicators are more important (priority) than others. In this case, it is necessary to comply with the following condition: the sum of the specified significance coefficients (importance) for all evaluation indicators must be equal to one.

The ranking of estimated indicators and assignment of significance coefficients to them should be carried out by an expert or a group of experts, who can be economists, managers, scientific and technical specialists. To increase the reliability of their estimates, you should use well-known methods for processing results using mathematical statistics or probability theory.

After ranking and assigning significance coefficients, the dimensionless (relative) values of the estimated indicators of each column are multiplied by their corresponding significance coefficients and recorded in a new table. Optimal option the solution will correspond to a line with the maximum sum of dimensionless values of evaluation indicators multiplied by their corresponding significance coefficients; the remaining amounts will correspond to less efficient options.

Competition (comes from Latin word“concurre”, which means “to collide”) is the competition of independent economic entities for their segment in the sales market and economic resources. Competitiveness, accordingly, is the opportunity and ability of enterprises, industries, goods to compete for clientele, position, place in the economic pyramid, etc. - depending on the type of economic unit. Analysis of product competitiveness makes it possible to identify the strengths and weaknesses of competing companies, and increase the competitiveness of their products by improving their quality, introducing innovative methods and technologies.

An analysis of the competitiveness of an enterprise shows that the level of its competitiveness directly depends on the degree of support that it can receive from the state in the form of loans, insurance, exemption from part of taxes, provision of subsidies, provision of up-to-date information on market conditions, etc. In conditions of government support for the manufacturer, measures to increase the competitiveness of the enterprise can be carried out on a state scale, taking into account the market situation, and in accordance with the current problems of the manufacturer.

There are such concepts as “perfect competition” and “imperfect competition”. Perfect competition represents a situation where there are many consumers and producers in the product market; sellers (manufacturers) occupy such a small part of the market that they cannot dictate terms to others. Imperfect competition implies the presence of a significant quantitative difference between consumers and producers (some are few, others are many); in this case, competition consists in suppressing other producers and ousting them.

Imperfect competition is expressed in various forms: in the form of monopoly (monopolistic competition) and oligopoly. Monopoly is a form of ownership in which the right to own something belongs exclusively to one subject (object) or group of persons: the right to produce, sell, buy any good or product. It is implemented by setting prices, either monopolistically high or low. As a rule, there are antimonopoly organizations. Oligopoly is a type of economic market when an industry of a certain type of product is dominated not by one firm, but by several (usually 3 or more participants).

The goal of any competition is to obtain the most advantageous position in the market for its products.

Analysis of the competitiveness of an enterprise is determined by the competitiveness of products, which is its ability to stand out from similar products and be exchanged for money under appropriate conditions. The competitiveness of a product is determined by such factors as the production activities of enterprises, the efficiency of the design bureau, the work of foreign economic organizations involved in the sale of goods in foreign markets, etc. It is also necessary to take into account the close relationship between the competitiveness of a product and its quality and technical level (although these concepts are not equivalent).

Each product has several stages of its existence, which are schematically expressed by the “product life cycle curve.” The first stage is introduction, one of the most costly periods in which the manufacturer must convince the consumer that the product is commercially useful. Next, the growth stage, during which the demand for the product grows rapidly. And finally, the maturity stage, when the demand for a product has reached its peak and is now gradually declining. The final period is the aging stage, when the demand for the product falls and, as a result, comes to naught. Correct calculation of the product life cycle helps to assess the competitiveness of the product over time, which allows you to draw the necessary conclusions and avoid unnecessary costs, as well as make forecasts. further development sales market

Analysis of the competitiveness of an enterprise and analysis of the competitiveness of products is a qualitative or quantitative characteristic of a product. A single criterion is considered to be a simple characteristic, for example, the price of a product. The complex criterion, in turn, is divided into group and generalized. The group criterion includes the level of quality, level of novelty, image, price of consumption, and information content of the product. The generalized criterion takes into account such factors as product ratings.

In conditions market economy An enterprise (company, firm) that has been profitable for a long period of time can be considered competitive. Analysis of the competitiveness of an enterprise in this case includes indicators that determine its competitiveness:

- share in the global and domestic market;
- the amount of net income per person employed in production;
- the total number of people employed in production;
- number of main competitors.

Assessment of the product market and its competitiveness

3. Assessment of competitiveness and stage of the product life cycle
1. Stages and methods of product market research

Structure of work on comprehensive market research

Comprehensive market research:

1. Study of market conditions
- Determination of capacity and market share
- Demand research
- Demand forecasting
2. Product research
3. Analysis of competitors' activities
- Study of prices and sales volumes
4. Sales analysis and forecasting
- Study of consumer behavior
- Product promotion research

Marketing Research Process Flowchart

1. Identifying problems and formulating research goals
2. Development of a research plan and selection of sources
3. Choosing a research method
4. Collection of information
5. Analysis of collected information
6. Presentation of the results obtained to management
7. Monitoring the reliability of the results

Markets are ranked according to the following criteria:

· Market volume
· Market share
· Investment policy
· Growth rates of industries consuming goods planned for sale in these markets
· Geographical position
· Import regulation (in case of foreign economic transactions)
· Stability of the legal regime of the countries to which the goods are exported
· Intense competition
2. Determination of capacity and market share

The market capacity (E) of any product (service) is calculated by determining the volume of its consumption using the formula:

E=Vp+Vi -Ve+ S0 - SK

where Vр is the volume of production and consumption of goods in the territory of a given market (physical units or monetary units);

Vi -- volume of imports of this product (physical units or monetary units);

Ve-- volume of exports of the same product (physical units or monetary units).

S0 - inventories at the beginning of a given period;

Sк - inventories at the end of a given period

In the simplest case of directly proportional dependence on demand, when forecasting the capacity of the sales market for a product (service), you can use the following formula:

where Еt is the market capacity in the forecast period t, t=1,2,...;

Et-1 -- market capacity in the base period;

Dt-1, -- demand for a product (service) in period (t-1);

Dt is the predicted demand for a given product (service) in the period

If a product is consumed over n periods, then the degree of market saturation with this product can be characterized by the following market saturation coefficient (Ksas):

P0 -- potential need for a product at the time it enters the market (potential demand);

Pt -- change (increase, decrease) of potential demand in period t;

Rt -- volume of sales (sales) of goods in period t.

Change in potential demand for goods Rt in period t:

Rt = lt + rr + bt x mt

lt - change in need (potential demand) due to the influence of various factors (advertising, the emergence of new substitute products, socio-economic policy, etc.);

rr is the volume of goods requiring replacement (consumed or expired) in period t;

mt - change in the number of buyers;

bt is the average quantity of goods purchased by one buyer in period t.

Knowing the market capacity and sales volume of a given product allows you to determine the market share owned by the enterprise

vi -- actual or forecasted sales volume of the i-th enterprise for a certain period (for example, a year), den. units;

E - actual or projected market capacity (total sales volume in a given market for the corresponding period), den. units

Development of a business plan for the company

business plan

Competitor assessment

The third section of the business plan is devoted to competitor analysis. One should not think that in the conditions of our unsaturated market such an analysis is a waste of time, effort and money. After all, the situation can change at any moment, and business must be oriented towards the future. So it’s worth taking care of this section of the business plan. It must answer the following questions:

· Who is the competitor, the company today and what is the state of its business: stable, on the rise or declining;

· What are the differences between the company’s product (service) and similar products (services) of competitors;

· What are the chances and possibilities of the emergence of new competitors;

· In what ways does the company expect to surpass them?

The purpose of this section is to facilitate the choice of appropriate tactics and competition and to warn the company against the mistakes of others. Typical mistakes include attempts to penetrate an oversaturated market. Detailed analysis actions of competitors may force them to change their strategy and make adjustments to their current activities in order to more successfully confront their rivals. Moreover, such an analysis must be carried out constantly, if only because markets are in constant change and someone’s successful debut attracts new competitors.

It is difficult to fight on two fronts. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on those aspects of activity where there is a certain advantage of the company over competitors (high quality products and services, experienced personnel). It is recommended to compare the company's strengths with the vulnerabilities of the competitor's activities (of course, provided that they are known).

After clear answers to the questions of these three sections of the business plan, the entrepreneur should have a certain idea of the market niche that he wants to occupy by organizing his business.

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In the previous article we started doing market analysis - segmentation and demand analysis, in this article we will continue the market analysis and do an analysis of competitors. In order to conduct a competitor analysis, you must first decide for yourself whether it is really needed. If you open the only grocery store in the village, then you don’t have to think about any competitors. Or you open a cafe (hotel, gas station, car service, etc.) on a highway where there is not a soul within a radius of 50 kilometers - you don’t have to deal with your competitors.

If you think that everything is in order with your competitors and they exist, then you must first of all correctly identify them. Let's return to our example - the opening of the Selena store; in order to correctly find competitors for it, you need to determine the territory.

Classifying competitors

It is planned that the store will open in the large shopping and entertainment center "Aria" in the city of N, Moscow region (no preliminary lease agreement has been concluded). Let's walk around the shopping center and put all our competitors on the list. Since the store will sell women's dresses (holiday and casual), we immediately exclude children's and men's clothing stores from among our competitors. We consider all stores selling women's clothing to be our competitors.

Is a jeans store a competitor for us? Yes, because our potential client can buy jeans instead of a dress. What about the wedding salon? Yes, if it sells bridesmaid dresses. We will definitely add a general store with clothes, where there are dresses and trousers and jeans, as well as fur coats, to the list.

Now let's walk down the street and add to the list, based on the above criteria, all suitable nearby stores - a store with women's classics (pants, suits). Next, we will find catalogs of stores in the city of N on the Internet, since the city is quite large and there are many stores with women's clothing, we will highlight only stores with dresses and mark them in the list.

Will we consider stores in the entire region, in this case Moscow? No, there's no point in that. But outside the city N on the highway there is a huge shopping complex in which there is a dress store, that is, a direct competitor, we will also add it to the list.

Jeans store
Wedding salon
One-stop clothing store
Women's clothing store “Classics”
Shop "Dresses"

So we have compiled a list of key competitors. Key companies are those companies that can greatly influence our sales. Now let’s note the direct competitors from them - these are those that sell similar products and have the same target audience as ours, in our example these are dress stores for wealthy women 25 - 40 years old. The rest are indirect - they work with our target audience, but with a different product - for example, jeans, sports or classic clothing.

SWOT analysis of competitors

Having decided on the competitors, we move on to the analysis itself. First, we identify their strengths and weaknesses.

The strengths of competing stores include the following factors:

Promoted brand (customer recognition)
Market share (business size)
Advertising (any: media, place of sale
Great financial opportunities (large retail chain)
Qualified personnel
Positive reputation
Competent management
Huge assortment
Flexible price policy(low prices, discounts)
Customer loyalty programs (discount cards, bonuses, points).

Information is needed to identify strengths and weaknesses. Some of the information can be found on the Internet - look for customer reviews, perhaps something is or was in the news. And of course, on the official websites you can find a lot of interesting things, for example, prices for goods. If you can identify a competitor’s supplier, you can contact him and ask for the price list for their products along with all sorts of discounts and thus approximately find out the trade margin.

So, let's conduct a brief SWOT analysis of competitors; as an example, we will take only two opponents, and not all of them.

	Shop "Selena"	Shop "Dresses" (direct competitor)	Jeans store (indirect competitor)
Strengths	Loyalty programs for regular customers Attractive store design	Huge assortment Affordable prices	Promoted brand Qualified personnel
Weak sides	Small assortment Low qualified personnel Unpromoted store brand	Overstocking, a huge number of unclaimed and outdated models	High prices Cramped retail space
Possibilities	Advertising Loyalty programs for customers	Opening new retail outlets	Cost optimization
Threats	Increase in rental payments Increase in prices for goods by suppliers	Closing of the shopping center where the store is located	Increase in rental payments Decrease in income for the target audience

You should always know your main competitors. Monitor their activities, analyze, compare with your project, try to adopt the best aspects and avoid weaknesses.

Read the next article to learn how to create a sales forecast and marketing program.

Business and Accounting

predprin.ru

Assessing competitors as a section of a business plan

Key words: assessment, competitors, section, business plan

The third section of the business plan is devoted to competitor analysis. One should not think that in the conditions of our unsaturated market such an analysis is a waste of time, effort and money.

After all, the situation can change at any moment, and you are focusing your business on the future. So it’s worth taking care of this section of the business plan.

It must answer the following questions:

1. Who is your competitor today and what is the state of their business: stable, on the rise or declining?

2. What are the differences between your product (service) and similar products (services) of your competitors?

3. What, at least in general terms, are the chances and possibilities of the emergence of new competitors?

4. In what ways do you expect to surpass them?

The purpose of this section is to make it easier to choose appropriate competitive tactics and to warn your company against the mistakes of others. Typical mistakes include attempts to penetrate an oversaturated market.

A detailed analysis of competitors’ actions can force you to change your strategy and make adjustments to your current activities in order to more successfully confront your rivals.

Moreover, such an analysis must be carried out constantly, if only because markets are in constant change and someone’s successful debut attracts new competitors.

“Fighting on two fronts” is difficult. Therefore, focus on those aspects of your activity where you have a certain advantage over your competitors (high quality products and service, experienced staff - these are the main ones). Try to compare your strengths with the weak points in your opponent’s activities (provided, of course, that you know them).

If you clearly answer the questions in these three sections of the business plan, then you should have a certain idea of the market niche that you want to fill by organizing your business.

newinspire.ru

How to write a business plan? Part II: Studying the market and competitors

How you always want to start your own business faster, giving up on such a tedious preparatory stage as writing a business plan. We strongly advise you not to do this. It just seems to you that you have a clear understanding in your head of how to organize the work of the company. But once you start writing everything down on paper, you will realize how many important points you missed.

You can write a business plan. And our articles will help. In the first part we talked about how to describe your company. In this article we will tell you how to conduct a competitive analysis and draw up marketing and production plans.

Competitive Analysis

Industry and Market Research

Although the concepts of “industry” and “market” are similar at first glance, there are differences between them. The market is a collection of consumers, and the industry is a collection of producers.

First of all, you need to know the following about your industry and market segment:

Which market are you going to enter with your products: regional, national or international.
Market volume.
Current industry level and development trends.
Dynamics of prices and sales over the past few years and forecasts for the next 5 years.

Sources of market information:

Internet (specialized resources, forums, social networks).
Polls on social networks and forums.
Interview with company employees. Successful sales managers know a lot about the market situation.
Interviews with representatives of the target audience.
Personal observation. If the industry is new and there are no statistical data on it yet in authoritative sources, then you can do your own research and make predictions.

Illustration from Strategic Management Insight website

PEST analysis:

Political factors. How does the political situation in the country (world) affect the development of your industry?
Economic factors. How does the economic situation in the country (world) affect the development of your industry?
Social factors. How do social factors influence the development of your industry? Factors: demographics, changes in level and lifestyle, attitude towards religion, attitude towards the media, consumer mood.
Technological factors. How do technological factors such as new products, technology developments affect your industry?

Illustration from the site PowerBranding.ru

Porter's Five Forces Analysis:

Analysis of the threat of substitute products.

How likely is it that a new product or service will put you out of business or significantly reduce your profits?

Analysis of the threat of new players.

Analysis of market power of suppliers.

How big is it? How will your company's operations be affected by, for example, setting too high prices for necessary components and raw materials?

Analysis of consumer market power.

How can consumers influence the company’s activities and what is their sensitivity to changes in prices for products or services.

Analysis of the level of competition.

Competitors

What you need to know about each competitor:

annual profit;
market share;
clear competitive advantage.

Illustration from Administradores.com.br

To obtain more information, you can use a SWOT analysis:

Strengths - strength. What is their strength? Technology, brand, people, application of lean manufacturing concepts?
Weakness - weakness. What is their weakness? Weak management? Bad customer service?
Opportunities - opportunities. What external likely factors exist that provide competitors with additional opportunities?
Threats - threats. What external plausible factors exist that could hinder competitors?

Your prices are lower than those of your competitors.
Your product or service is somehow radically and for the better different from similar ones.
Nicheness. You have occupied a very narrow market segment. Perhaps with the prospect of its further expansion.
You are offering a new product or service that is already needed.
Your product or service is much better in quality than similar ones.
You offer the opportunity to personalize a product (tailoring shoes to individual measurements, for example).
Your product has an impressive design.
You reduce risks for buyers. For example, you can return goods to your online store for free.
It’s more convenient to buy from you (faster and cheaper delivery, excellent customer service).
You have made a familiar thing simpler and more accessible.

Drawing up a business plan

Marketing plan

Let's get to know potential clients better. It is necessary to identify the target segment by answering the questions:

What age are my clients?
Where do they live?
What is their level of education?
How many such people are there in the city/country?
What do they have in common in their behavior?
How do they spend their free time?
Where do they work?
What technologies are used?
What nationality are my clients?
How much do they earn?
Where are they usually invited to work?
What are their values, world views, opinions?

You will build your marketing campaign based on this data. Using it, you need to guide the client along a path consisting of 5 steps:

Awareness - customers know you exist, but don't know what exactly you're selling.
Interest - customers have heard about you, seen you and are curious about what you offer.
Evaluation - the client decides whether to give you a chance.
Test - the client makes a trial purchase.
Acceptance - The customer liked what you offer and will now make purchases regularly.

What channels will you use to increase brand awareness: Internet, television, radio, print magazines and newspapers, outdoor advertising, leaflets?
What other way can you get attention?
What will be your PR strategy? How will you get customers interested in your product?

At the trial purchase stage, it is important to attract the client with a quality product and, of course, first-class service:

How will you handle sales and delivery?
How will buyers be able to pay for the goods?
How can I return the product? Will you offer guarantees? Which?
Will you provide any service to customers after the purchase?

After describing the “Marketing Plan” section, you probably became even more inspired with your ideas. And now you can proceed to one of the most practical sections.

Production plan

Main questions:

Do you need suppliers, and if so, who exactly?
Will you rent an office or will you initially work from home?
Do you need employees now and how many? What duties will they perform? Maybe you will need employees in a month or six months?
What equipment and furniture do you need? Consider everything from computers to office chairs.
How will the product or service be delivered to the client: should he come to the office/store/salon, will you deliver it yourself or hire a third-party company for this? Do your products require special delivery conditions?
Do you need a warehouse? Will you buy it, rent it, or use a third party? Do your products require special storage conditions?
How will you provide after-sales service? How will the product return process be implemented? How will customer questions and complaints be handled? Will you provide long-term after-sales support?

Production process

How long does it take to produce a unit or batch of products?
Do you currently have all the necessary equipment and resources? If something is missing, when can you buy it? Is it possible to start production now?
Describe the technological chain. Think about whether you can improve the process or make it cheaper?
What standards will you be guided by when manufacturing products, how will you check their quality at each stage of production?
What volume of products do you need to produce per day, month, year?
How will you change the product, service or customer experience when receiving feedback and complaints from customers? Will you need to rebuild the process chain? How will pricing change?
How will you cope with a large influx of orders? Will it occur randomly or can it be predicted depending on external factors (for example, seasonality)?

Financial plan

Every section of a business plan is important, and none of them can be neglected. But the financial plan, perhaps, comes first. It is by this that one can judge how long it will take for the company to start making a profit, and also understand whether it is worth attracting investments into it. In addition, a financial plan is necessary to manage the ongoing financial activities of the organization.

A financial plan can consist of different documents, depending on the type and size of the enterprise. For a small business you need three:

Budget

The initial investment includes all one-time expenses: purchasing equipment, creating a website, registering an individual entrepreneur and others.

Monthly expenses include payment for raw materials for the production of products or goods for resale, employee salaries, rent, utility costs, taxes...

Monthly income is everything you earn after selling goods/providing services for a month.

We subtract expenses from income and get profit. We divide the initial investment by the profit and get the number of months in which this investment will pay off.

Gains and losses report

Cash flow statement

When you open your business, fill out this report every month with real data and adjust the forecast.

Registration of a business plan

With such a huge amount of information, how it is presented is crucial, so we will tell you about the main rules for drawing up a business plan.

There should be no “water” in a business plan. Write briefly and to the point. No more than 15-20 pages. Add all documents that you consider necessary as attachments.
Maintain the same style of presentation in all sections of the business plan.
Tailor your business plan to the audience you are presenting it to. For a large investor and a credit manager at a small bank, it most likely should be different. The ideal is to have a layout with basic data that you can slightly adjust depending on the situation.

What does a business plan consist of:

Title page
Content
Business Plan Summary
General description of the idea and company
Competitive Analysis
Marketing plan
Production plan
Financial plan
Covering letter

Let's take a closer look at the summary of the business plan. Despite the fact that we talk about it at the end of the article, this small section is of fundamental importance. Its content determines whether a person will continue to read your business plan or discard it as something not worth attention.

The purpose of a resume is to intrigue, to briefly explain that you are offering a cool idea that will work and bring in money.

Business concept (what do you do)
Goals and vision
Description of the product and its fundamental difference from competitors
Description of the target audience
Brief marketing plan (how you will influence your audience)
Current financial condition of the company
Projected financial condition of the company
The amount of money you are asking from the investor
Team (who is in it, why is it important for business)

If you do not present your business plan in person, but send it by mail, be sure to supplement it with a cover letter intended for a specific person from the investment fund or bank.

P.S. In the third part we will write a real example of a business plan. Stay tuned.

Alina Vashurina is a PR director at Ecwid. Writes to inspire and educate readers about all things e-commerce. Loves to travel and runs marathons.

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Competition Analysis |

Every company always has competitors. But many people new to business, overexcited by their business ideas, often do not perform adequate competitive analysis, which always leads to disastrous results.

Competition analysis is a mandatory section of a business plan. You need to know your competitors by sight!

The statement that a company has no competitors is most often a grave mistake. Your investor will simply put such a business plan away. It will become clear to him that you are not at all oriented in market realities.

You shouldn’t be afraid of your rivals, but you shouldn’t ignore them either. The assessment of competitors must be objective. There is no need to overreact either to your own successes or to the temporary successes of your opponents.

Qualitative assessment competitors will give you the opportunity to better evaluate the quality of your product or service and convey to potential investors a sense of confidence in your superiority.

Don't be shy to learn from your competitors. The main principle of competition is a quick and adequate response to consumer demands. Studying your rivals will help you act as intelligently as possible in a competitive environment.

When conducting a competitive analysis, keep in mind that you only need to evaluate competitors that target your target market. If you have a Japanese restaurant in the center of Moscow, then you can ignore the nearby McDonald's. You have different target clients.

When performing a competitive analysis, you need to focus on the following key points:

Who are your main competitors? The basis of your rivalry. What are the main differences between your company and its competitors? Who is able to compete with you in the future. What prevents new players from entering the market.

Competitive positions

Competition analysis in business planning: take the highest positions!

Businessmen often analyze competition based on the quality of a service or product. If your company’s product is significantly superior in quality to the products of competitors, then it is quite logical to assume that buyers will give preference to it by voting with rubles.

But the marketing success of a product depends not only on its consumer properties, but also on many other factors. For example, the popularity of the brand. Or the price. Or a developed distribution system. Sometimes even the quality and color of the packaging can play a decisive role in making a purchasing decision.

The most important task of competitive analysis is to study the strengths and weaknesses of competitors. Most often, the most dangerous competitors are companies with a good reputation in the market, large financial resources, highly paid qualified personnel and many others. important qualities.

Comprehensive assessment of competitors

In order to comprehensively assess competitors, it is advisable to fill out a competition analysis form.

Before entering into battle with competitors, you need to perform an analysis of the competition and competitors!

In this form, each of the important competitive factors, depending on their importance, is assigned a certain “weight”. When filling out the form, assign each factor the maximum possible number of points from 1 to 10. A score of “1” indicates that this factor is of minimal importance for your target market, and “10” is the maximum. These values are recorded in the “Maximum Score” column.

Let's look at the form "Competition Analysis: Factors of Consumer Perception". Let's assume that your target buyer is very sensitive to the price of goods and is able to travel long distances for the sake of inexpensive purchases. In this case, you give the “purchase price” factor the maximum possible meaning(10), and give the location factor approximately 2 points.

At the end of this assessment, you will see that such weighting factors help you clearly compare the real advantages of your competitors and your strengths.

Factors of consumer perception

When performing a competitive analysis, the following key consumer perception factors need to be taken into account:

Characteristics of the product/service. List the main properties of the product or service; if necessary, describe their key features.

Indirect costs. List other additional costs, such as the purchase and installation of additional equipment, etc.

Product quality. List the main advantages of the product or service at the time of its purchase.

Product durability. Quality of support

Image. Perceived value. Style. Describe the added value of the product that comes from packaging, design, and other intangible assets.

Relationships with consumers. Availability of a consumer base and the real level of loyalty of your customers; how relationships between staff and consumers are built.

Social responsibility. How does the company approach security? environment, what are the priorities and civic position, etc.

Internal competitive factors

Below we list some internal competitive factors.

Financial resources. They ensure the company's ability to quickly resolve possible financial difficulties.
Marketing events. They include the quantity and quality of advertising influences with the aim of actively promoting a product.
Volume savings. Implies the ability to reduce costs per unit of production with an increase in output.
Operational efficiency. The use of cost-effective production or supply methods that make it possible to reduce the cost of products (services).
Product range. The more, the better, so that your customers can find from you all the necessary basic and related products (services) in your field of activity.
Strategic partnership. Establishing cooperation with other companies in order to improve production and services, including organizing advertising events and selling goods (services).
Moral climate in the team. It largely depends on motivation, level of pay, working conditions, and the productivity of employees largely depends on it.

Constantly monitor the actions of competitors; evaluate their work style, strategy and personnel. Write a short study about the best competitors, indicating all their pros and cons, so that you can take all the best into your arsenal.

Additional competitive factors

Make the first move

Competition analysis: Strike first, take the first step, take the first throw and you will be first :)

In fundamentally new market segments, the company that manages to be the first to conquer an interesting niche will receive a serious competitive advantage. Presence on the market as the sole leader for any period of time allows the pioneer company to set its own standards, establish partnerships, form a product range, and attract consumers. But you should never relax so as not to be quickly eaten up by dynamic competitors.

Formed consumer base

If at the time being studied, most of the market uses a similar product as your new product, consumers may initially have a negative attitude towards your product with a lower price than competitors - due to distrust. Such situations are common in the markets of electronics and high-tech goods. Very often, even low-priced products of the highest quality struggle to make their way into the market.

Internet

The rapid development of Internet technologies has led to a sharp reduction in barriers to entry into a variety of industries. Sometimes competitors deliberately work with minimal margins. The Internet also enables consumers to obtain complete information about goods and services around the world, including wholesale prices. Nowadays, companies that previously competed in specific geographic areas are facing fierce competition on a global scale.

Inertia of thinking

Consumers don't always do what you think is best for them. Often they do what they want to do. It is not enough for the consumer to know that he needs your product. He must sincerely believe that your product is the best and it is better to buy it from you for many reasons. But such faith does not come soon.

Market share distribution

The weight of competitors for a company is determined mainly by the size of their market shares. Companies with large market segments do not always offer customers the best products or services at the most attractive prices. However, they are the ones who dictate the rules of the game.

You need to thoroughly analyze the work of such monster companies, because... They:

Determine the main characteristics of a product or service; have a significant impact on the process of perception of a product or service by consumers; spend huge amounts of money to maintain maximum market shares.

It is necessary to understand the logic of behavior of the companies dominating the market in order to differ for the better. Naturally, if your company is already successful and controls the market, you already have an advantage in determining the characteristics of the product. But in this case a serious danger arises - narcissism. Don't stop there, plan to conquer new heights.

How to take a significant market share

Competitive Analysis: Even Having Reached excellent results, don't relax. The wheel of business takes forever to spin!

Let's say you want to create a new business. In a market where there are many small and medium-sized competitors, you will be more comfortable than in a market where there are several large players who have divided their spheres of influence. In this case, in the marketing section of the business plan, it will be necessary to clearly show potential investors exactly how your company plans to gain its market share.

The form “Distribution of Market Shares” makes it possible to describe in general terms the distribution of market shares between the main players, taking into account sales volumes in physical and monetary terms.

Competition in the future

Among other things, competitor analysis requires you to be able to predict the future, making predictions about the state of competition in a few months and years. The market is dynamic, new competitors are constantly appearing on it, and some of the old ones are retiring :). A competitive forecast for the next 5 years, based on logical conclusions, will create a sense of long-term potential for your project among potential investors.

One of the most important competitive factors that you must analyze when preparing a business plan is barriers to entry. Barriers to Entry

Below we consider the most popular barriers that novice competitors face:

Patents for goods and technical processes. High start-up capital, preventing small competitors from entering the market. The need for highly qualified personnel, complex production technologies. Market saturation with a product (service), making it difficult to enter the market.

Barriers to entry are not always durable, especially in new industries.

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Competitor Analysis: A Practical Guide

“Tell me and report the whole truth: Am I the sweetest in the world?” - in modern world Few businesses doubt their ideality. By default, most people believe that competition is for weaklings, or as women say: “Are you jealous?!” It means I’m not confident in myself.” But seriously, competitor analysis covers all the most important things, because after all, we are fighting for the same clients. Therefore, you need to know everything about the activity of competitors in order to do better.

Know by sight

You have already come to terms with the idea that analyzing competition in the market is good. Now the next step is to find those very “enemies of the people.” And as practice shows, many companies set their accents incorrectly, and as a result enter into a race with companies that will never stand next to them.

In order to truly understand who your competitors are, you need to start by identifying groups of target audiences. You need to find people with potential for you. Then you determine which companies these customers choose between. And only then will you truly see which companies are fighting for the same clients as you. These will be your key competitors.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that if you are not a federal company of the M-Video or Ozon level (our blog is rarely read), then you should NOT set yourself the goal of defeating all-Russian monsters. I don’t want to offend you, but most likely your entire advertising budget (like ours) for federal companies is a miscalculation. You need to be smarter and target your client, and not try to fight with them for the same market.

In addition to key competitors, you have direct and indirect ones. For you, direct ones are just federal networks and other companies for which you are too tough. Indirect - those companies that may, by coincidence of circumstances in the world, become your direct competitors, or those businesses that compete for one of your client’s budgets, but at the same time operate in a different area (for example, you are a restaurant, and your indirect competitor is a cinema ).

Important! The frequency of analysis is determined based on market dynamics. The more and more often changes occur in your field, the more often you will have to evaluate the situation of competing businesses.

Systems approach

“I know everything about them” is the most common phrase we hear when collecting information about competitors in marketing consulting or marketing analysis. In this case, we have dozens of questions that will solve the client like bullets, and show that he is not immortal and his excessive self-confidence only harms him.

Competitor benchmarking is not a game of “I know - I don’t know.” This is a systematic approach consisting of techniques, tools and a huge number of tables and graphs. Therefore, we throw the school approach into the corner and talk about analysis like adults. And to do this, we need to separate the two concepts that we will use in the process.

The subject of study is part of the business being analyzed.
Study method is an approach to analyzing a part of a business.

To put it roughly, you must separate the concepts among yourself - “What are we analyzing?” and “How do we analyze (competitor evaluation criteria)?” To complete the picture, we will consider both. Therefore, get ready for a huge number of boring-interesting (yes, yes) words and sentences. And we will start with the subject of analysis, since the method is formed on the basis of it.

Subject of study

Depending on the goal of analyzing the competitive environment, you will have different assessment zones. It is quite possible that literally one subject of study from the entire list will be useful to you, but for sure, if you study more, it will not be superfluous. Of course, no one will pat you on the head, but you will have more money.

1. Basic information

At the beginning of the analysis, everything is like in the army: “Weight, height, year of birth?” We study the introductory information to form general idea about the players on the battlefield. Most likely, you already know all the information if you have been working for more than a year, but we recommend removing these thoughts, since the world is changing, just as competitors are changing.

The more intense the competition, the more background information you must collect, since every detail can become a path to differentiation. To make it easier for you to understand what I'm talking about now, check out the list of recommended basic information to collect:

Year of foundation;
Region;
Management;
Number;
Market share;
Working money;
Key clients;

I would like to draw your attention to the company’s strategy as a separate point. When analyzing, we need to look beyond the “now.” Of course, it’s more important for everyone to get money right now. But we must not forget that business is not a sprint race, it is a marathon, where the winner is determined after a long journey. And if you don’t foresee this, then maybe everything will be fine for you now, but in a few years it will go down the drain.

2. Product matrix

The first thing you need to start studying is the company's product, since everything grows from it. Not marketing, not sales, but the product. People go for services and goods, and only then go to the company. Having studied their proposal, we will be able to understand how competitive the foundation of your company is.

2.1. Product

You must study the product from all sides, paying attention even to details. This will help you find your unique differences not only on a global level, but also in the smallest details. If you make a basic list of areas that you should pay attention to, it will look like this:

Range;
Size;
Appearance;
Package;
Characteristics;
Warranty support;
Color;
Implementation format;
Term;
Degree of fame.

Moreover, it is necessary to evaluate not only the main category of products, but the entire product matrix. You need to understand what are the main products, upsells, driver products, premium products, and so on. You study everything you can get your hands on. After all, if you have conducted ABC and XYZ analysis, you know that there are situations when the main profit is made by products from which you do not expect it.

To make the analysis of competitors' products and services more effective, it is recommended to format this whole thing in a table or graph. But again, everything is at your discretion, because how it will be framed in the end does not matter. You do everything for yourself, and not for your thesis (remember the institute, right?).

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2.2. Pricing

Each product has its own cost. Of course, it consists not only of cost, as is commonly believed. How larger company, the more other expenses are included there, including overpayment for the brand. Therefore, first of all, you need to find out what is included in their cost and what is the profit.

Then you need to go to the client’s side and evaluate the very fact of the final cost, because the cost is not important for the consumer, he sees the final value and already determines from it - yes or no. Most likely, you analyze competitors’ output prices quite often, since for many this is an analysis of competition in the market.

It is recommended to analyze the discount policy as a separate point. If you have successfully completed the stage of studying their cost (even approximately), then you will already be able to understand where they get such discounts or, conversely, why they don’t exist. If it is not possible to fight with cost, try to surpass them with other differences, or use one of the strategies described in our article “Fighting dumping or in war, all means are fair.”

3. Marketing

Marketing is a huge topic to analyze. You definitely won’t study it 100%. This is due to the fact that you never know exactly where the budget from a competitor’s media plan is currently directed. However, marketing is Entrance door business, and whether the client will come to you or to them depends on how correctly it is packaged and formed.

3.1. Basic Marketing

The first marketing analysis of competitors should begin with examining the fundamentals of their approach. You need to understand how they present themselves and “what they breathe.” In other words, you analyze the company's brand. Even if it doesn’t exist at first glance, you still need to understand at least where they are going. After all, we must remember that analysis provides not only a tactical, but also a strategic vision.

Pay particular attention to positioning, target audiences, pitch, proposition and unique selling proposition. These are the 5 aspects that we pay attention to first after competitors' strategies. Provided that your competitors are major players, also be sure to look at their corporate identity and company mission.

There is no point in continuing on the remaining points, since the topic is obvious and does not require disclosure. But if I’m wrong, then you can write a comment under this article and we will help you in identifying basic marketing issues for your competitors. And all this is completely free, because we don’t charge money for small tips. This is our investment in you for the future.

3.2. Attracting clients

We had a client whose competitor was stealing customers right from under his nose. He did not surpass it in budget, he bypassed it in mind. Namely, he was always one step above our client. If this is contextual advertising, then the competitor was one position higher. If it was a promoter, then he was standing a few meters closer to the traffic. And so on, right down to the fact that he placed a banner right at the main turn towards us.

If you don’t want to end up in our client’s shoes (of course, things are different now), then you need to be more knowledgeable than your opponent. You need to always be one step ahead. To do this, you need to constantly be on the move, based on what other players in the market are doing. Therefore, analysis of a competitor’s advertising is simply vital.

In order to qualitatively determine a competitor’s advertising, you need to find all of its advertising materials and separately evaluate each one for effectiveness. We have a full article on this topic, so be sure to read it after this one. Here is the link “Analysis of competitors’ advertising: all methods offline and online.”

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Promotion strategy

Differences from competitors

Types of clients and their selection criteria

Market dynamics and trends

and a huge amount of other information

Find out more

3.3. Customer retention, monetization and return

The most favorite part of business for all entrepreneurs is attracting clients. In 7 out of 10 cases, during consultations we hear the question: “Where to get new clients?” It feels like the light has converged on them like a wedge. And this erroneous opinion wanders from year to year. But in vain, you can increase the company’s capitalization without attracting clients. To do this, you just need to work correctly with your customer base.

And most likely your competitors do not miss this opportunity and use everything to the fullest. Therefore, you need to study all possible additional actions in the field of marketing of your colleagues in the shop. As usual, I provide you with a basic list of zones for analysis:

Email Marketing
Sales funnel
Price list
Commercial offer
Merchandising and POS materials
SMS sending
Marketing kit
Master classes
Additional gifts

This point should be the most voluminous for you, since it includes all marketing activities that are aimed at customers. And since marketing includes more than 5,000 tools among them, I admit that you won’t be able to find everything. However, you need to go through all the key touchpoints and isolate what's good about their marketing.

4. Sales

Marketing is just a tool to attract customers and increase their desire to buy. Everything else in classic business is done by people and sales tools. Therefore, you need to know everything about sales in a competitor’s company. Moreover, like marketing, this part is roughly divided into several parts.

4.1 People

It is very bad for business when customers deal with people rather than with the company. But from the point of view of analysis, you need to approach it from this side in order to really see what it is about employees that makes consumers work with them, and not just with us. Here the list of analyzed points may be as follows:

Positions;
Regalia;
Personal qualities;
Appearance;
Communication style;
Education.

You need to learn everything about their team. It is quite possible that their entire business rests on people. For example, because they employ specialists with very famous names. This means for you that if you do not strengthen yourself at least famous people, then you will have to sweat in the fight for a place in the sun.

4.2 Sales tools

In paragraph 3.3, we looked at tools that also help sell to employees. But here we will talk about something else. In marketing, these are tools that directly contact clients, but in this case we are talking about actions and materials that function only within the company and the client does not see them.

In simple terms I will call this a “sales department audit”, in the most classic sense of the phrase. You learn everything that makes their sales managers as effective and motivated as possible. I recommend starting with the following points:

Motivational scheme;
CRM system;
Reports;
Sales scripts;
Planners.

Only sales scripts can be evaluated without problems. It is practically impossible to study the rest without a sent Cossack, a Trojan horse or other cunning ways of infiltrating behind enemy lines. You will simply not be allowed inside the company, and the answer to the question - “Why?” is quite obvious - “Because”. But if you really want it, you can fly into space and get this information. I proudly say that it has been tested on our clients.

5. Terms and business processes

When you know everything about the product, marketing and sales, then you are literally missing the last piece of the puzzle, these are their terms and business processes. You will receive part of this information when studying the previous parts of the business, but here you again (or again) need to look at this whole matter from a different perspective.

Study their logistics, study their production, study their ability to provide deferments, installment plans, and products for sale. You need to study all their working conditions from needle to rope. Granted, some of them are not so important for the client, but if a company does it (especially one that is better than us), then it means it understands why it needs it.

The most obvious way to study conditions and business processes is to go through the entire customer journey from A to Z, from call to purchase, and even better, to return/rejection of the product, if possible. And you must be the most meticulous client so that you are fully served and you see all parts of the business.

This way you can understand how to improve your working conditions. For example, you will introduce faster delivery than theirs, or introduce interest-free installments for 24 months when everyone has 12. And you will also be able to improve your business processes to differentiate yourself from them (this is one of the ways to differentiate), or increase efficiency , or reduce costs.

Study method

In the modern world, there are dozens of methods to conduct competitive market analysis. There are even those that last several months. We will study the simplest, and at the same time the most effective, methods of competitor analysis for ordinary classic business. Leave complex and voluminous processes to us, because we also need to learn this. It is very difficult to do this in one article, and without a mentor.

Bad news. Within the framework of this article, we will not be able to consider in detail all methods of analyzing the competitor market, since each of them will take more than one thousand words. Therefore, we will analyze the concept, and if you are interested in one of them, then read more in other articles.

1. Comparative analysis

The simplest and largest (in terms of page volume) way of analyzing the competitive environment. You define evaluation criteria (and based on the text above, you realized that there are hundreds of them) and use them to compare yourself with each competitor in the form of a table or graph. You can rate according to the principle “Yes/No”, “Yes/No” or in a numerical value from 1 to 10. I prefer the second option, as it is more transparent.

The main disadvantage of this method is that some business aspects cannot be objectively assessed using categorical or numerical criteria. Also, you can only evaluate the present situation at the moment, and not see what can happen next, what threats and risks there may be. And you also need to know this, since you obviously plan to work for more than one year.

Comparative competitive analysis can be carried out both within the entire company and within a specific tool in order to obtain the most reliable information. But this will take several times more time, perhaps even tens of times, so set your priorities correctly.

2. SWOT analysis

The most popular method of analyzing the market and main competitors. A classic of the genre among analyzes that is still taught in institutes. Its meaning is that you compare yourself with a certain competitor in 4 parts: strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. These four parts are divided into external and internal. This method already sees a bigger picture for the future.

I like this approach, but it also has disadvantages, since there is no numerical assessment, and what matters is that we rely on our subjective opinion or conclusions independent experts, which can also be wrong. As a result of a questionable Yes/No assessment, you may focus on the wrong things and waste time searching for non-existent treasures and eliminating ghost pirates.

3. SNW analysis

Some say that SNW is an improved SWOT analysis. But in fact, this is a different model that focuses on analyzing the internal environment of the company. That is, if a SWOT analysis analyzes the strengths and weaknesses (2 of 4 parts), then in the case of SNW you also study the neutral aspects of the company. In practice, this helps you find your competitor’s points in a normal (neutral) state. For you, this means that you can make them your competitive advantage if he does not pay attention to them.

This analysis is less suitable for small businesses, since its focus is on strategic comparison. Therefore, if you are not particularly focused on the topic of strategy right now, then it is better to return to SWOT or comparative analysis. In addition, SNW analysis makes a rating based on the principle of good/normal/bad, which is also not an accurate measurement of tactics.

Briefly about the main thing

In marketing consulting, we always start our work by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of competitors. This usually results in us getting a lot of flak from property owners because they don't see the need for it and think we're wasting their money. And you will be surprised (or maybe not), but there will be no good ending to this story. After the analysis, no one says “thank you” to us and they still consider it a waste of resources.

There is a phrase: “You should have fought evil, not joined it.” We are precisely those who go against the grain. Let us lose clients because they allegedly did not see results in the first month of work. But we will still conduct an analysis of competitors and the company at the beginning of work, hoping to find true connoisseurs of a smart approach, where every step is taken not because it is “cool”, but because it is justified. And without analysis this cannot be achieved.

You will forgive me, but most of you will not do the analysis wisely. You will have a thousand excuses to do this later. As my friend says, “I’m not getting paid for this argument, so let it be your way.” Therefore, I will not convince you, but in order to somehow smooth out the situation, I have prepared for you a list of minimal actions to move consciously at least at arm's length.

What is the positioning and unique selling proposition?
What acquisition channels are used?
By what criteria is their product better than yours?
What is the pricing and discounts for the product?
How well do managers sell in person?

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10 tables for monitoring competitors - PowerBranding.ru

If you are asking the question “How to conduct competitor analysis in practice?”, then you should definitely read this article. Using the competitor analysis example we prepared, you will be able to assess the competitiveness of your company. This example of competitive analysis includes 10 basic steps that must be taken when analyzing a company's competitive environment. At the end of the article you will find a convenient template with tables that will help you structure all the information obtained during the work.

Preliminary work

Before moving on to a comparative analysis of competitors, do some preliminary work. First, clearly identify your competitors (see the “Choose Your Competitors Correctly” technique). Secondly, define the goals of the competitive analysis so as not to analyze “extra” information that will not answer the necessary questions. Thirdly, conduct a survey of consumers in the market to form an understanding of what ideas the target audience has about your product and competitors’ products, assess the level of knowledge and loyalty.

Conducting competitor analysis for the first time?

the faster the market environment changes
the more important is mobility and quick response to changes
the higher the level of required costs, personnel qualifications and expectations from the product
the more difficult it is to find a free market niche and a successful competitive strategy
the higher the risk of reducing long-term profits
the higher the level of development and saturation of the market

At the first stage of competitive analysis, determine the number of players, the rate of market growth, the dynamics of the emergence of product groups and new products in the industry. Conclusions on at this stage should be made regarding the intensity of competition, the prospects for its tightening and forecasts for market changes over the next 3 years. To make such an assessment, you can use the following competitor analysis table.

It is better to collect data on the above indicators for 3-5 years, but in the absence of such information, 1-2 years will be enough. Goal: clearly understand the trend and make correct predictions about the future position of the market.

#2 Build a competitor map

The competitor map will help highlight those players who are driving the market, determine the rules of the game in the industry and can become an example of successful solutions and strategies.

It’s easy to build a map; just determine the market share and sales growth rate for each competitor:

What conclusions can be drawn from the information received? Make a profile for each competitor. Competitors with high market shares and high growth rates set the rules of the game in the market. Competitors with negative or low growth rates can be a good source of business growth. Competitors with high growth rates can tell you about successful sales techniques.

#3 Conduct a comparative portfolio analysis

Identify your competitors' portfolio and compare it with your company's portfolio. Be sure to mark the key business areas of each player (key business areas in the table are pink cells):

Key business areas - product categories that provide the highest share of sales and profit share

Determine your competitors’ bestsellers for each product category and prepare a comparative analysis of each competitor’s “hit” with your product. Be sure to note the key properties of the products.

It is more convenient to evaluate properties on a 5-point scale, where 0 points is the absence of a property, and 5 points is Best offer On the market

The most accurate way to obtain a truthful assessment of the products of your company and competitors: surveying consumers and conducting blind tests (without packaging and the ability to identify the product with the manufacturer). The severity of properties is most conveniently presented in the form of a “polygon of product characteristics”:

#4 Conduct a comparative price analysis

Distribute all competitors into the main price segments: low-price, mid-price, high-price and premium segments.

Identify the extreme price limits of competitors and the main price range in which the competitor does business: determine the most low price, the highest price and the average sales price.

#5 Conduct a comparative analysis of product distribution

First, identify key sales channels for goods (for example: hypermarkets, supermarkets, convenience stores, markets, pharmacies, direct sales channels, the Internet). Then evaluate the quality of the display of your product and the products of competing companies. Then estimate the share of the grocery shelf.

#6 Determine the positioning of all players in the market

At this stage of competitive analysis, it is not even the positioning of each competitor’s product that is important, but rather the existing perception of consumers, and it is almost always based on the following criteria:

famous - unknown
expensive-cheap
high quality - low quality
specialized - ordinary
direct purpose of the product or key benefit

This perception is most easily reflected on a perception map:

Also collect information about the key brands (or promises) of competitors, the popularity of your company in the market and the level of loyalty to it.

#7 Evaluate promotion methods and advertising budgets

This information will be needed to formulate the correct competitive and media strategy. Information can be collected in detail, detailing precise budgets, coverage and intensity of support; or briefly describing the format and features of the placement of the advertising message.

Analysis of direct promotion methods:

Analysis of BTL programs: will allow you to create working competitive offers for buyers

Don't forget to collect and analyze advertising message layouts, they will answer the question about key brands and strategies for persuading consumers.

No. 8 Describe your competitors’ key customer

Demographic, behavioral and psychographic segmentation criteria will help describe the target audience.

No. 9 Assess the technological level of competitors

To develop competitive strategies, it is very important to understand the technological capabilities of competitors, their ability to achieve low level costs, access to resources, level of personnel qualifications and financial capabilities.

No. 10 SWOT analysis assessment of competitive advantages

The last stage of a competitive market analysis is to compile a brief SWOT analysis for each competitor. There is no need to do a detailed analysis; it is enough to indicate 1-2 theses for each point of the SWOT analysis.

We have a ready-made template with which you can easily apply the theoretical knowledge of this article in practice. You can download a template for conducting competitive analysis in the “Useful marketing templates” section.

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Why is it necessary to conduct a competitor analysis in a business plan?

Competition is considered the engine of a market economy and this is true. But its downside is that in competition it is the survival of the fittest. In other words, those who could not withstand the competition lose their positions or leave the market altogether. Competitor analysis is a necessary part of competition. Knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses gives additional trump cards in the hands of a businessman, allowing him to competently build an economic policy for the enterprise, which will allow him not only not to incur losses, but also to make a serious profit. Good knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of competing companies not only allows you to protect your organization from losses, but also helps to correctly navigate the market conditions.

Indeed, it often happens that the actions of competitors can be used to fairly accurately predict future market changes. This, in turn, makes it possible to properly plan your actions. You cannot underestimate this side of the business, remembering your competitors only when you feel their pressure. By this time, all your steps may be useless and you will not be able to turn the unfavorable situation in your favor.

Important! Collection and analysis of information should be carried out constantly, with the involvement of necessary funds and resources.

At the same time, you should not go to the other extreme, devoting more effort, money and time to this than is required. Studying competing firms is just one of the tools of competition, but it is an important and necessary tool.

In order for the analysis to be properly correct, it is necessary to immediately outline the range of issues that it should address. General scheme its content might look like this:

Identifying companies that can compete with your company.
Determining the advantages and disadvantages of each of them.
Assessing their potential.
Assess the threats they may pose.

Based on the results of this analysis, the tactics that your business should follow in order to:

Protect yourself as much as possible from possible threats.
Achieve maximum promotion in the market of your products.

Let's try to consider each point of this scheme in more detail.

First of all, you should find out which firms can be considered competitors. This question is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. The fact is that the number of potential competitors includes not only those companies that this moment produce similar products or provide similar services. After all, if they don’t do it today, then it’s likely that they will do it tomorrow. It follows that the objects of analysis should be not only the companies whose products your business currently competes with. We must try to identify companies that have the ability to start producing products similar to the products you produce. In addition, there is such a thing as implicit competition. We can talk about it when the products that your business creates are displaced from the market not by similar products from other companies, but due to the emergence of new technologies. In this case, the entire market segment may disappear due to the transition of manufacturers to new manufacturers. To understand what we are talking about, it is enough to remember how many industries, having become obsolete, simply ceased to exist. Therefore, competitor analysis must necessarily include tracking activities of companies that are capable of using new developments and technologies that do not pose a clear threat to your business. Thus, competitors can be divided into three groups:

Direct, producing products or providing services of the same profile as your company.
Potential, those who are able to compete in the future
Not explicit or indirect, that is, those whose actions can push your business out of the market.

The study of each of these groups has its own distinctive features. But, regardless of what category the company under study belongs to, the main component of its analysis is the study of its strengths and vulnerabilities.

Having formed a list of companies that are of interest to you, you should decide which of them you need to pay attention to first. It may seem that such objects of in-depth attention should be competitors with great capabilities, but this is not entirely true. Priority should be given to those with whom your interests really intersect. That is, those with whom your business has a common consumer base. In addition, you should be aware that your business is not able to fend off all the risks and threats. Therefore, the second criterion by which competitors that require special attention are determined is your ability to neutralize the danger posed by them. For enterprises and small businesses, such an analysis is not too difficult. If the owner is well versed in the specifics of the business he is managing, then he can quite easily identify those competitors with whom his business comes into particularly close contact. The list of the main parameters by which a rival company is assessed looks, in general terms, like this:

Product prices;
Product quality assessment;
Trade turnover;
Level of customer and customer service;
Competence of management and its personal characteristics;
Relationship with government agencies, including informal ones;
Qualitative and quantitative composition of employees;
Location of retail outlets or production areas;
Suppliers;
Advertising policy.

It should be noted that depending on specific circumstances, this list may change. But its core remains unchanged.

You can apply some technical techniques that will make it easier to process the information received and analyze it. For example, it is known that material presented in the form of a graph or table is easier to perceive. In this case, it is very useful to provide each column with notes in which you can freely write down your observations and conclusions regarding the selected item. This form of organizing information will help you use it in its entirety, minimizing the risk of missing something important.

It may seem that the competitiveness of an enterprise or firm and its strengths and weaknesses are one and the same. But this impression is erroneous; it would be more correct to say that these are factors of the same series, complementing each other. Strengths and weaknesses can be attributed to subjective factors, that is, to factors that, to one degree or another, can be regulated by management. But competitiveness - this is a complex value that is a combination of the weaknesses and strengths of an enterprise with external circumstances. External circumstances, by definition, cannot be controlled by the management of the enterprise. Such circumstances may include:

Legislation regulating the activities of enterprises in this market segment;
Market conditions;
Climatic and geographical features of the region;
Social and criminal situation in the region and much more.

Moreover, all these circumstances are considered exclusively in terms of their impact on the functioning of the enterprise.

Another important factor of competitiveness is the ability of the company's management to adapt to external circumstances. Moreover, in crisis situations, this ability to adapt is often decisive for the existence of the enterprise.

The classification of hazards that may come from a competing organization or firm is rather vague, since it can be largely determined by local conditions. Such hazards can be divided into two main groups:

Producing products or providing services that may compete with your company's products or services.
Interfering with the normal functioning of your business.

Threats belonging to the first group are identified quite simply. As for the second group, the range of threats related to it is very wide. This is due to the fact that there are many ways to interfere with the work of an enterprise or company and they are very diverse, some of them are criminal in nature. Such methods include, for example, organizing the leak of confidential information by bribing employees or hacking. It is interesting to note that such actions can be carried out as part of an analysis by your competitors of the competitiveness of your company. You can also call for the organization of various inspections by government agencies, up to the opening of far-fetched criminal cases. Moreover, one should not expect that such methods of competition are used only by large players in the market against rivals of equal weight to them. Unfortunately, even a small company is not immune from them. Closer to the traditional understanding of competition are threats such as interception of supplies. To do this, it is often enough to offer suppliers a higher price for the raw materials or products they supply.

In the same category we can name dumping, a well-known technique used to force competitors out of the market. In this case, the product is sold at a clearly reduced price, as a result of which the competitor loses buyers or clients. To use this technique, a company must have a solid resource base that will allow it to survive a period of time when trading is carried out at a loss. It is worth saying that a well-organized analysis of competitors with great accuracy allows you to calculate in advance those of them who have the opportunity and desire to implement dumping pressure on your business. In this regard, we can also mention unfair marketing, the manifestations of which can also be very diverse. This could be black PR in relation to your company and advertising containing deliberately false information about your own products or services. We didn't spend far full list such threats and dangers, but it gives some idea of what their nature may be. To analyze the competitors of a large enterprise, the list will have to be significantly expanded. The larger and more diversified the company’s activities, the greater the number of parameters that must be used when analyzing its competitors.

Based on the results of the analysis, it is imperative to position the enterprise relative to competitors. This concept includes the development of a policy in relation to each group of potential threats emanating from them. The purpose of this policy is:

Taking a set of measures to create a system of protection against possible risks and threats associated with competition in order to completely eliminate them or minimize possible damage.
Using the information received to achieve superiority over competitors and its full implementation.

Thanks to correctly carried out positioning, not only a system of relations with competitors is created, but also an algorithm for the enterprise’s behavior in the market is generated, which ensures its safety to the greatest extent.

Due to the dynamic nature of external circumstances, the positioning of the enterprise requires constant adjustment.

There are many methods for collecting information about existing and potential competitors. It must be said right away that to obtain the necessary information there is no need at all to resort to extreme forms of data extraction, for example, such as data theft or bribery of employees. In the vast majority of cases, especially when small businesses are affected, completely legal and trivial methods are sufficient. Let's list some of them:

Survey of clients and customers. To do such a survey, you do not need to spend too much effort and money. But at the same time, the survey must be done correctly. This means that you need to skillfully select questions so that the answers contain the necessary information.
Testing products of competing companies.
Studying the documents that competitors make publicly available can also provide a lot of information. This applies to presentations, press releases and other events.
Quite a lot of information may also be contained in advertising materials.

This list is far from complete, but if the business is relatively small, it may be sufficient. But when you need to analyze big business, you have to use more complex and expensive tools.

The main tool of this kind is classical financial intelligence, which, despite a certain prejudice, is considered relatively legal method collection of information. Its purpose is to obtain information about the financial potential of competitors and the movement of their financial flows. It is believed that only specialized companies can engage in financial intelligence, but in reality the capabilities of such companies are often limited, and the results of their work are more than modest. Therefore, when conducting financial intelligence, first of all, you should clearly define what kind of information you are interested in. And only then, based on this, select performers. At the same time, in order not to make a mistake in choosing, it is highly advisable to familiarize yourself with the dossier of a specialized company and try to study reviews of its activities.

Databases, credit histories, open sources, and the like can become objects of financial intelligence. It is also no secret that much data can be obtained by establishing informal connections with employees of a competing company or employees government agencies. How far to go on this path is up to each businessman to decide for himself.

Important. It should be remembered that although financial intelligence is considered a legal activity, the line between it and violation of the law can be very fragile. And it’s better not to stand up for her.

Conclusion

When talking about competitor analysis, it is worth considering the purpose for which it is carried out. For example, most business plans have a section dedicated to competitors. And although in this case we also talk about analyzing competitors, in fact we are talking only about their brief overview. It is also worth mentioning that such research can be carried out not only in relation to rivals. It can be extremely useful to analyze your own company in the same way. Moreover, thanks to the detachment effect, you can get very interesting information. Finally, it remains to be said that in conducting a qualitative analysis, the main role is played by a thoughtful approach, methodicality and continuity of action. Great value also has a choice of analysts to conduct it.

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