Competitive Analysis for Startups and New Businesses: how to collect, organize and analyze competitors' data. How to build SWOT and an action plan.

1. COMPETITIVE
ANALYSIS
&
SWOT
Dragana Mendel
President, Principal Consultant @ANAGARD, LLC

2. “
©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
"The essence of strategy formulation is coping
with competition."
— Michael Porter

3. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
AGENDA
1. HOW TO DO
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
3
Collect Competitors’
Data
Organize Data
Analyze Data
Make an Action Plan
2.WORKSHOP: BUILD
SWOT FOR YOUR
COMPANY

4. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
BARRIERS TO COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Why do not all firms have a formal reporting
system designed to collect and analyze
information about competitors?
➤ Overconfidence in product's continued
success reduces the willingness to
collect competitor information
➤ Where to collect competitors’ information
& how to analyze it

5. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS OVERVIEW
➤ Secondary Market Research
➤ Primary Market Research
➤ Assessing Competitors' Current Objectives
➤ Assessing Competitors' Current Strategies
➤ Marketing Strategy:
➤ Pricing — Promotion — Distribution — Product/Service Capabilities
➤ How to Assess Competitors' Strategies
➤ Assessing Competitors' Capabilities:
➤ Ability to Conceive and Design — Ability to Produce —Ability to Market — Ability to
Finance — Ability to Manage
➤ What to Do with the Information
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6. SECONDARY MARKET RESEARCH
Always start competitive analysis with secondary market
research
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7. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
SOURCES: SECONDARY MARKET RESEARCH
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OBSERVE COMPETITORS’ ACTIVITIES
➤ Search Engine
➤ Local & National Newspapers
➤ Press Releases
➤ Trade Associations & Journals
➤ Annual Reports
➤ 10k , Form-D
➤ Patent, Trademark Filling
➤ Marketing Brochures
➤ Consultants
Make it a
routine:
dedicate one
day per
month on
data
collection

8. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
SOURCES: SECONDARY MARKET RESEARCH
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MEASURE COMPETITOR’S INTERNET INFLUENCE
➤ Estimate Traffic
➤ SERP Ranking
➤ Social Media Presence
Tools:
SEM Rush, Moz,
SimilarWeb, Alexa,
SimplyMeasured, LinkedIn
Premier, Google Benchmark
& Trends
http://www.anagard.com/blog/2015/12/04/part-812-internet-summit-2015-making-the-case-for-seo/

9. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
EXAMPLE
Industry: Gym , Health & Fitness Clubs
1. Main Street Fitness Club — competition
is local
2. High Growth Startup for new Fitness
Technology — competition is global

10. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
GYM, HEALTH & FITNESS CLUBS INDUSTRY OUTLOOK IN 2016
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Growth stage industry
Intense, but fragmented competition
Healthy profit marginsSource: IBISWorld Report

11. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT 11
% of Households
regular exercise at Home
2+ times/week
max: 29.32% — 32.50%
Source: SimplyMap.com

12. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT 12
% of Households
regular exercise at Club
2+ times/week
max: 13.55% — 20.00%
Source: SimplyMap.com

13. PRIMARY MARKET RESEARCH
In-depth analysis of your top competitors
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14. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
SOURCES: PRIMARY MARKET RESEARCH
➤ Your sales force
➤ Your customers
➤ Your employees
➤ Your suppliers
➤ Consultants
➤ On no! Fake job ads!

15. ANALYSIS
Analyze collected competitors’ data once per quarter
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16. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
ASSESS COMPETITORS’ CURRENT OBJECTIVES
➤ Product or Brand Objectives
➤ Grow: observe advertising & marketing activities
➤ Hold: observe price fluctuations, promotions
➤ Harvest: decrease in marketing activities
➤ Estimate product market share or profits
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Growth?
Harvest?

17. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
ASSESS YOUR COMPETITOR’S PORTFOLIO OBJECTIVES & STRATEGIES
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Product
Price Promotion
Place
COMPETITORS’ PORTFOLIO SCORECARD
A. Product (quality, value chain, benefits)
B. Target Segment (who, where, when, why)
C. Place (distribution method and coverage)
D. Promotion (total $, methods)
E. Advertising (strategy, media, timing, budget)
F. Price (retail, wholesale)

18. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
HIGH END BOUTIQUE FITNESS CLUB FOR A WEALTHY WEEKEND WARRIOR
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Metric Competitor 1 Competitor 2 High = 5 Low = 1
Product 4 1
Latest fitness craze,
top instructors
No frills weight
machines, treadmills
Target Segment 3 2
Affluent, competitive
fitness enthusiasts
Anyone with a pulse
Place 4 2
Located in wealthiest
zip code in Triangle
Located in poorest
zip code in Triangle
Promotion 5 1
Never, or 1-2 per year
discount
Non-stop discounts
& coupons
Advertising 3 2 Heavy None
Price 5 1 Expensive Cheap
Total Score 0.80 0.30

19. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
Don’t
forget to
score your
own
company!
COMPETITORS’ ABILITIES SCORECARD
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1. Ability to Innovate
1. Technical Resources (patents, copyrights,
technical know-how)
2. Human Resources (key people & skills)
3. R&D Funding (% of revenue, consistency
of funding R&D over time, government
grants)
4. Management Processes (SixSigma)
2. Ability to Produce
1. Physical Resources (Buildings, capacity,
processes)
2. Equipment (automation, maintenance,
flexibility)
3. Human Resources (key people & skills,
workforce mix)
4. Suppliers (quality, capacity, commitment)
3. Ability to Market
1. Sales Force (skills, size, type, location)
2. Distribution network (skills, type)
3. Service & sales policies
4. Advertising
5. Funding (total, consistency over time)
4. Ability to Finance
1. Long term (debt/equity ratio, cost of debt)
2. Short term (cash, line of credit, liquidity)
3. Returns from operations (margin, profits,
cash flow, returns of sales, assets,
marketing expenditures, inventory,
receivables turnover)
4. System (budgeting, forecasting,
controlling)
5. Ability to Manage
1. Key People (objectives, priorities, values,
compensation)
2. Decision making (location, type, speed)
3. Planning (type, emphasis, time span)
4. Staffing (longevity and turnover,
experience)
5. Organization (centralization, functions, use
of staff)

20. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
SYNTHESIZE COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS DATA IN A SCORECARD
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Metric My Company Competitor 1 Competitor 2
Product, Go-To-Market 1 5 3
Financials 1 4 3
Operations 2 4 4
Innovation 5 3 4
Management 3 4 2
Total Score 0.48 0.80 0.64

21. INTROSPECTION
Do SWOT Analysis

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Strength
Opportunities
Weakness
Threats
S W
O T
DO STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT & PLANNING 1 —2 TIMES PER YEAR

23. “
©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
Are you overwhelmed?
Don’t boil the ocean

24. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
BASIC BUILDING BLOCKS OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
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Innovation
Customer
Responsiveness
Efficiency
Quality as Excellence
& Reliability
Don’t spread
yourself too
thin.
Focus on 1 to 2
competitive
advantage
building blocks

25. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
FOCUS ON 1 — 2 AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT
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Metric My Company Competitor 1 Competitor 2
Product, Go-To-Market 1 5 3
Financials 1 4 3
Operations 2 4 4
Innovation 5 3 4
Management 3 4 2
Total Score 0.48 0.80 0.64

26. YES, COMPETITOR CAN CRUSH YOU
Remember $SNAP IPO?

27. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
SNAP, INC IPO FROM $33B VALUATION TO….
➤ $SNAP IPO $17/share
➤ First day of trading
03/02/2017 opens at:
$24/share
➤ Closed on the first day of
trading with 44% jump
➤ Market cap of $33B for
silly camera, social
media company
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28. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
03/29/2017: FACEBOOK INTRODUCES FILTERS FOR MESSENGER
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20% “haircut”

29. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT
CONTACT ANAGARD, LLC
29
9360 Falls of Neuse Rd, #205
Raleigh, NC 27615
President, Principal Consultant
DMendel@ANAGARD.com
Office: +1.919.876.1314
Web site: http://ANAGARD.com
DRAGANA MENDEL

30. ©2017 ANAGARD, LLC — Competitive Analysis & SWOT 30
WORKSHOP TIME!
LET ME HELP, ASK ME QUESTIONS