A Guide to Competitor Analysis

What are the trends influencing your market?

This step focuses on identifying and evaluating the key trends shaping your market. By understanding these trends, you can determine their potential impact on your goals and define whether they act as accelerators or brakes.

Step 1: Identify five key trends

Trends can emerge from various domains, such as technology, society, the environment, economics, or politics. Begin by identifying the five most impactful trends relevant to your market.

Example categories of trends:

1. Technological Trends: Advancements in AI, automation, or digital transformation.

2. Social Trends: Changing consumer behaviors or demographic shifts.

3. Environmental Trends: Increasing focus on sustainability and green practices.

4. Economic Trends: Inflation, interest rates, or shifts in global trade.

5. Political/Regulatory Trends: New regulations or geopolitical events.

Step 2: Assess trend impact

For each trend, evaluate its influence on your market and goals. Trends can either:

• Accelerate Ambitions (Accelerators): Trends that create opportunities and align with your goals.

• Block Ambitions (Brakes): Trends that present challenges or barriers to achieving your objectives.

Example table: trends and their Impact

Step 3: connect trends to context and goals

Integrate the identified trends with the insights from Question 1 (Market Definition) and Question 2 (Competitor Analysis) to form a comprehensive market context.

1. Align Trends with Key Benefits:

   • Map trends to the benefits you identified earlier (e.g., performance, sustainability, trust) to see how trends influence your competitive positioning.

   • Example: Consumer Sustainability Focus supports brands with strong sustainability credentials like GreenClean but may hinder competitors with less sustainable practices.

2. Trend Impact on Goal Setting:

   • Accelerators: Set ambitious goals leveraging these trends (e.g., digital transformation to enhance efficiency).

   • Brakes: Adjust goals or create mitigation strategies to overcome barriers (e.g., adapting pricing strategies to inflation).

Step 4: visualize trends and their Influence

Create a summary visualization to help decision-makers clearly see the trend dynamics.

Example application: Tesla

Trends Influencing Tesla:

1. Electric Vehicle Adoption (Accelerator): Rapid adoption globally, driving demand for Tesla's products.

2. Raw Material Costs (Brake): Rising lithium costs impacting battery production expenses.

3. Autonomous Driving Innovation (Accelerator): Advances in AI bolster Tesla’s self-driving features.

4. Sustainability Regulations (Accelerator): Policies favoring EV adoption enhance Tesla’s market opportunities.

5. Geopolitical Tensions (Brake): Supply chain disruptions due to global conflicts.

Impact on Tesla's Goals:

• Leverage accelerators like EV adoption to set ambitious revenue growth targets.

• Address brakes like raw material costs through cost optimization or partnerships.

Final Thoughts

Identifying and assessing trends helps businesses future-proof their strategies. By understanding whether trends act as accelerators or brakes, you can:

• Align your goals with external opportunities.

• Mitigate risks to ensure sustainability.

• Create a clear, actionable path toward achieving your objectives.

What trends are shaping your market? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments!

Defining Your Goals: Turning Insights into Actionable Revenue Targets

With insights from Question 1 (Market Definition), Question 2 (Competitor Analysis), and Question 3 (Trend Analysis), you now have a clear understanding of your market, competitors, and trends shaping your industry. The next step in the Marketing Canvas process is to translate this knowledge into financial hypotheses and set quantitative goalsthat serve as benchmarks for success.

Your goals will be rooted in the revenue equation:

Revenue = Customers × Transactions × Average Price per Transaction

Step 1: Define your financial hypotheses

Start by linking the insights from the three market questions to each growth lever in the revenue equation.

1. Customers

• Question 1: How large is your addressable market (TAM/SAM/SOM)?

  • Example: If your SAM is growing, focus on acquisition (GET strategy).

• Question 2: How does your offering compare to competitors in perceived benefits (M9)?

  • Example: If you’re a challenger, leverage your unique strengths to attract new customers.

• Question 3: What trends influence customer behavior?

  • Example: Social trends like sustainability might help you acquire eco-conscious consumers.

2. Transactions

• Question 1: How frequently do customers interact with your product/service?

  • Example: Subscription models or habitual usage patterns could encourage consistent purchases.

• Question 2: Are competitors driving repeat transactions through cross-selling or upselling?

  • Example: Competitors may use targeted promotions to increase purchase frequency.

• Question 3: What trends drive increased engagement?

  • Example: Digital transformation enables seamless reordering or auto-renewal subscriptions.

3. Average Price per Transaction

• Question 1: What is the price sensitivity in your market?

  • Example: Luxury segments might allow for premium pricing, while mass-market segments may not.

• Question 2: How does your perceived price (M8) compare to competitors?

  • Example: If you have a strong perceived benefits score (M9), you may justify a higher price point.

• Question 3: What trends impact pricing?

  • Example: Economic trends like inflation or demand for premiumization could shape your pricing strategy.

Example Financial Hypothesis:

Based on these insights, a business might define the following hypothesis:

• Increase the customer base by 15% using sustainability-driven acquisition campaigns.

• Boost transaction frequency by 10% with loyalty incentives.

• Raise average price by 8% through premium features and bundles.

Step 2: Set quantitative goals for revenue

Translate your financial hypotheses into measurable revenue targets, broken down into the components of the revenue equation.

Example: Revenue goal breakdown

• Current revenue: €1,000,000

• Target revenue: €1,300,000 (+30%)

Revenue Breakdown:

1. Customers: Increase from 10,000 to 11,500 (+15%)

   • Linked Insight: Your SAM indicates a potential for 20% growth.

2. Transactions per customer: Increase from 2.0 to 2.2 (+10%)

   • Linked Insight: Competitor analysis shows a successful subscription model driving higher frequency.

3. Average price per transaction: Increase from €50 to €54 (+8%)

   • Linked Insight: Trends highlight premiumization as an opportunity to increase price mix.

How Market Insights Drive Goal-Setting

Here’s how the three market questions guide your financial goals:

• Market definition (Question 1):

  • Use TAM/SAM/SOM to understand potential customer acquisition targets.

  • Identify where your offering fits within the growth and experience curves (M3, M4).

• Competitor analysis (Question 2):

  • Leverage perceived price (M8) and benefits (M9) to define customer acquisition and pricing strategies.

  • Use competitor insights to identify gaps and opportunities in transaction frequency or price mix.

• Trend analysis (Question 3):

  • Align goals with accelerators and brakes.

  • Example: Sustainability trends might drive both customer acquisition and higher pricing.

Final Thoughts

Defining financial hypotheses and setting quantitative goals creates a solid foundation for aligning your strategy with market realities. By using insights from Questions 1–3, you ensure that your goals are not only ambitious but also achievable.

The next step will assess each dimension of your strategy to determine whether it helps or hinders your ability to achieve these goals.

What financial hypotheses are you setting for your business? Share your approach in the comments!