The corporate world is a ruthless place. There is politics, tough competition and extremely fast paced business practices. Some people win while others lose. In the old days it was all about crushing your competition. These days it’s not all about running your competition out of business. Instead many businesses want to grow together while trying to outperform each other. Businesses have understood that having a healthy competition is more important that destroying each other. You never know, you may learn a trick or two by observing your competitors. So this is why it is very important for businesses to know their competition.
We have gathered a few reasons why it is important for you to study your competition.
You Will Understand Your Competitive Advantage
Once you start observing your competitors, you will understand what differentiates each business from the other. You can then think about something more innovative and creative that none of your competitors are doing. This will help you build a competitive advantage which can help you attract a large chunk of potential clients towards your business.
Observe Untapped Markets
Your competitors might have found a market that was previously untapped by all other companies in the industry. So if you are observing your competitors, you can also take advantage by tapping in the same market. The new market may get saturated fast with all competitors entering it at once so the faster you enter that new market, the better.
New Marketing Techniques
Once you start analyzing your competition, you can understand all the techniques they have been using to market their business. It can also show you which marketing strategy has worked best for them. Now this does not assure that you will also be as successful as your competitor with the same marketing strategy however it can surely give you a direction. You can also understand the factors you have to avoid while setting up your marketing strategy.
Benchmarking Your Competitors
Another crucial reason to study your competitors is to set a benchmark. Especially if you are just starting out in the industry then it is important for you to have a benchmark to look up to and there is nothing wrong with having the market leader of your industry as the benchmark. You can learn a lot of things from the market leader. You can understand the points that make them the market leader. It will give your business a big boost if you can understand their operations and try to follow the same principles in your organization. However it should be noted that as a small business, you may not be able to imitate all principles of the market leader.
You Can Observe the Innovations They Are Bringing Into the Market
One of the most important reasons to study your competitors is to observe the innovations they are about to bring to the market. Nokia was one of the most popular mobile phone companies in the world. However with the innovation of smart phones, Samsung and Apple started dominating the market and Nokia had to take a backseat. This is a prime example of how your competitor’s innovation can run you out of business. A brilliant response in this scenario would be to come up with something more innovative or creative to match your competitor’s upcoming product. However this has to be done really fast. Instead of spending your time trying to sabotage your competitor’s hard work, you should try to work on developing something more innovative and client friendly. However if this isn’t done quickly then your competitor can easily push you out of the market.