Although most markets are fiercely competitive, with so much focus on demand generation, many marketers cannot allocate sufficient resources to anticipating competitors’ moves. Companies need to make a myriad of strategic and tactical decisions regarding how they will operate in the market and engage with customers. These decisions often require a strategic lens that considers both the customer and the competitive environment. A focus on customer insights is a good thing — but when marketing organizations fail to anticipate competitors’ moves that affect customers, all the insights may be for naught.
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Anticipate Your Competitors’ Moves
• Are they likely to discount their prices?
• Provide incentives to their partners in an effort to tie up the channel?
• Extend offers to customers that will dissuade trial of — and switching to — your offer?
As part of developing a go-to-market plan for innovations and/or market strategy, we consider technology, functionality, customer segments and requirements, channels and partners, pricing and promotion. Our competitors are doing the same. Therefore, thinking about these questions and areas from the perspective of your competition provides insight into their potential opportunities and possible responses.
Ten Questions to Help You Think Like the Competition and Inform Your Marketing Strategy
- What technologies or features might a competitor include to make its product/service more compelling to your target customers?
- How much technological lead must each competitor need in their next-generation product or service in order to leapfrog the current products in the market?
- How much more will customers be willing to pay for a competitor’s technological or experience improvements?
- What partnerships could the competitor establish that would affect your ability to gain traction and penetration in the market?
- What customer segments could competitors tap to accelerate their growth and category share?
- In what segments will price competition be the fiercest, and how big are these segments? What position does the competition have in each of these segments?
- How can the competition adapt any of their existing products to differentiate them further?
- Which markets/geographies/customers will the competition focus on to protect their current share? In bringing a new offer to market? To grow their category position?
- How will the competition position new products/services and bring these to market?
- What barriers to entry can the competition create or develop that could delay our ability to respond?
These ten questions will probably spark more questions for you and your team to address. Reflecting on these questions will help you sharpen your thinking when it comes to innovation and market entry strategies. Take your Marketing Strategy efforts to the next step.
FAQ:
A: Demand generation consumes time and budget, leaving insufficient resources for competitive anticipation. The result is a customer-insight-heavy strategy that can be undermined when competitors change the rules.
A: Competitors’ actions affect customers’ expectations, choices, and switching behavior. If you do not anticipate competitor responses, even strong customer insights may not translate into market traction.
A: Before making meaningful market moves—especially launching a new product/service, changing pricing, shifting channels, or adjusting positioning—because these actions often trigger predictable competitive reactions.
A: Discount pricing, provide partner/channel incentives to lock up distribution, and extend targeted offers to dissuade customer trial or switching.
A: Technology and functionality, customer segments and requirements, channels and partners, pricing, and promotion—because competitors are evaluating the same levers.
A: What features/technologies could they add to be more compelling, how much lead they need to leapfrog the market, how they could adapt existing products to differentiate further, and what customers would pay for improved experience or technology.
A: Which partnerships they could form to limit your traction, which segments they could target to accelerate growth, where price competition will be fiercest (and their position in each segment), and which markets/geographies they will defend or pursue for expansion.
A: How they will position and launch new offers, and what barriers to entry they can create that delay your response—so you can plan mitigation and speed-to-market accordingly.
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