This document outlines a competitive analysis process including: industry analysis to understand challenges, opportunities, and customer profiles; competitor discovery through online searches; competitor segmentation based on key attributes; reviewing competitors' strengths in areas like lead generation tactics; and providing recommendations in these key areas to help the company improve its competitive position. The overall goal is to provide strategic intelligence on the competitive landscape to help decision making.

1. [Company Name]
Competitive Analysis

2. Competitive Analysis
• A competitive analysis is a formal evaluation of the
businesses that compete, directly or indirectly, with your own.
• Objectives:
1. Provide the necessary intelligence to inform strategic
decision making
2. Illuminate your own strengths and weaknesses
3. Reveal opportunities where you can gain competitive
advantage
4. Enable your team to better understand your industry in
order to effectively achieve your objectives
Overview
Contents
1. Industry Analysis
2. Competitor Discovery
3. Competitor Segmentation
4. Competitor Review
5. Recommendations

3. Industry Analysis
TWO AREAS OF FOCUS:
1. Research on [Industry name]
• Understand current challenges and opportunities
• Understand customers’ profiles
• Identify opportunities that can influence testing plan
2. Research on [marketing objective, i.e. lead generation] tactics
• Review of relevant marketing reports with insight information about latest tactics and trends

4. Industry Analysis
[INFORMATION TYPE]
• Access industry type information using
Google, Forrester, e-marketer, et cetera:
• Consumer budgets
• Consumer awareness
• Sales cycles
• Benchmarks (CR, CTR, CPC, Open Rates)
• Trends
• Social media
Relevant Chart
Relevant Chart

5. Industry Analysis
ENVIRONMENTAL FORCES
• Evaluate the industry according to
Porter’s Five forces:
• Threat of new entrants
• Bargaining power of buyers
• Threat of substitute products or services
• Bargaining power of suppliers
• Rivalry among existing competitors
Threat of new
entrants
Threat of substitute
products or services
Bargaining power
of suppliers
Bargaining power
of buyers
Rivalry among
existing competitors

6. Industry Analysis
ENVIRONMENTAL FORCES
• HIGH threat of substitutes
• List of companies
• List of companies
• How to counteract this threat:
• Point of analysis
• Point of analysis
• Point of analysis
Threat of new
entrants
Threat of substitute
products or services
Bargaining power
of suppliers
Bargaining power
of buyers
Rivalry among
existing competitors

7. ONLINE SEARCH LANDSCAPE
• Who competes for the same
market space as [company]?
• This question can be partially
answered by conducting online
searches with a diverse group
of relevant keywords
• Keywords associated with
potential customers’
motivations
Competitor Discovery
Keyword 1 Keyword 2 Keyword 3 Keyword 4
PaidOrganic

8. Competitor Segmentation
Using the competitors identified in online search results, we will segment the competitive
landscape in terms of [number] determinant attributes:
1. Attribute one
2. Attribute two
3. Attribute three
We chose these determinant attributes for several reasons:
• Traffic volume is a good indicator of current success
• [If not traffic, then Reason 1]
• [Reason 2]

9. Competitor Segmentation (option 1)
OBSERVATIONS
• Point of analysis
• Point of analysis
• Point of analysis
• Point of analysis
UniqueVisitors
High
Value Proposition Communication Score
50
350,000+
Shutterstock
Fotosearch
BlendImages
123rf
depositphoto
fotolia
bigstockphoto
Veer
ThinkstockphotosCorbis Images
Dreamstime
StockFresh
RGB Stock
SuperStock
Alamy
ImageSource
iStock Photo
Getty Images
Low

10. Competitor Segmentation (option 2)
OBSERVATIONS
• Point of analysis
• Point of analysis
• Point of analysis
• Point of analysis
Low
High
UniqueVisitors
High
$1,200$0
Low
Pimsleur
120,000
60,000
Price
90,000
30,000
LEGEND
• Bubble size: number of languages offered
• Color: competitor business model
• One-time buy
• Subscription
• Color shade: Value presentation score
• Light colors = weak VPS
• Strong colors = strong VPS
Voxy
Ouino
Michael
Thomas
Pimsleur
Berlitz
Rosetta
Stone
Transparent
Language
Mango
Languages
Busuu

11. Competitor Segmentation (option 3)
Pimsleur
Payroll
Inventory
Sales &
Expenses
Invoicing
● Peachtree
Accounting
● Intacct
● Cyma
● NetSuite
● HarrisData
● Syspro
● SAP
● SageMAS (Sage)
● Fishbowl
● Asapsystems
● Gigatrak
● ClearlyInventory
●SpendMap (Sage)
● OpenAir
(NetSuite)
●Sure Payroll
●SageAbra (Sage)
●Kronos
● BellWetherCorp
● Avidian (NetSuite)
● Certify
● Dovico
INDIRECT COMPETITION
DIRECT COMPETITION
● Quickbooks
• Point of analysis
• Point of analysis
• Point of analysis
• Point of analysis
• Point of analysis
• Point of analysis
• Point of analysis
• Point of analysis
Full
Service
Company X

12. Based on [segmentation variables] and competitive market, we have identified the following close
competitors whose strengths you can gain valuable insight from:
• [Competitor 1]
• [Competitor 2]
• [Competitor 3]
• [Competitor 4]
We will examine these competitors in several key areas paying close attention to strengths that we
can learn from:
• [Key area 1, e.g. “Lead generation tactics”]
• [Key area 2]
• [Key area 3]
Competitor Review

13. [COMPETITOR]:
• Point of analysis
• Point of analysis
• Point of analysis
• Point of analysis
Competitor Review – Lead Generation Tactics
Relevant Screenshot
Relevant Screenshot

14. Recommendations
[KEY AREA OF STUDY 1]
• Big picture recommendation X
• Detail recommendation 1
• Detail recommendation 2
• Detail recommendation 3
• Big picture recommendation Y
• Detail recommendation 1
• Detail recommendation 2
• Detail recommendation 3

15. Recommendations
[KEY AREA OF STUDY 2]
• Big picture recommendation X
• Detail recommendation 1
• Detail recommendation 2
• Detail recommendation 3
[KEY AREA OF STUDY 3]
• Big picture recommendation X
• Detail recommendation 1
• Detail recommendation 2
• Detail recommendation 3

16. Two Ways to Improve your Competitive Position
Call for Research Partners
We are currently building our research
calendar and are looking for companies
focused on finding out why customers say
“yes” in the areas of subscription, lead gen,
nonprofit and ecommerce.
Graduate Education
To learn more, visit:
MECLABS.com/Partners
Get a graduate certificate in Communicating
Value and Web Conversion from the
University of Florida and MECLABS Institute.
To learn more, visit:
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