UX method/technique:

Competitive Analysis is the “process of identifying competitors in your industry and researching their different marketing strategies.” Source. By using a competitive analysis, you identify the strengths/weaknesses that your competitor has and how you can outcompete them. This also allows you to identify your company’s strengths/weaknesses and where you can fill in gaps in the market.

How is the method used?

1. Determine who your competitors are.
   • Direct – a company offering the same products/services as you.
   • Indirect – a company that targets the same audience as you and aim to satisfy the same needs as you, but offer different products.
   • You can also find them in 4 key areas: your industry, organic search (ie: a Google search), paid search, and your community.
2. Who is your target audience?

1. Questions to ask
   • What do your competitors have that you don’t? And vice versa.
     • Do they publish marketing materials online for their audience? If so, what kind?
       • What kind of sway does this have on their audience?
       • Is the content free to use?
       • Who is writing their content?
     • Are they on social media? If so, which platforms?
       • How many followers?
       • How often do they post?
       • What kind of content do they publish?
       • What kind of engagement level do they have with their audience?
     • Do they use accessible features?
     • What key words are they utilizing?

Source. Semrush has a feature that you can make a competitive analysis and create a spreadsheet to look at all of the information at once.

Research studies

Social media competitive analysis and text mining: A case study in the pizza industry

This study mentions the competitive nature of social media marketing for pizza restaurants. That the establishments need to compare the content that their competitors are providing the audience. It also mentions text mining, which “is an emerging technology that attempts to extract meaningful information from unstructured textual data.”

Social media data analytics for business decision making system to competitive analysis

This study specifically states the benefit from analyzing uder-generated data, such as social medi analytics. “These data contain useful knowledge, including customer perceptions feedback and product/service suggestions.” However, the study also mentions the complications that can arise from using this kind of data in business decisions.

Blind spots in competitive analysis

I like this study because it opens up with the potential benefits of using a competitive analysis, specifically as a strategy. Although this study is older, published in 1993, the material still holds value. When the reader gets to the flaws portion, the study states that focusing solely on defining the industry’s domain will lead executives to believe that their competition only satifies one kind of customer.

Looking at table 1, it describes flaws in this kind of analysis and potential actions to take to alleviate them. This is extrmely useful for those that see similar flaws in their own copmany and can give ideas on how to solve them.