- Being competitive and growing your business
requires an understanding of past performance,
current marketplace dynamics, and a future outlook.
This includes your company's brand
and its interaction with competitors and customers.
It's good to start by understanding the history.
What happened in the past and why?
Benefit from these lessons to avoid repeating mistakes.
Here's a framework you can use
when you research marketplace history.
In the top row, fill in your brand and competitors.
The number of competitors you see here
is just to illustrate.
You may have any number of competitors.
In the left column, use the prompts to fill in
historical information for your brand and competition.
Here are just a couple of examples,
market share, business size, and media spend.
Once you complete your historical research,
you're ready to assess current trends.
You can use the same framework we just reviewed
to fill in a snapshot of what's happening today.
I've included an exercise file with this framework
and additional examples
of what you can include in the left column.
You can use the left column as is,
or customize to better suit your needs.
To develop a future outlook to identify opportunities,
evaluate strengths, weaknesses, and threats.
These can include anything specific
to your brand, customers, and competition.
This also can include other dynamics
that may affect your category.
Let's say your company sells a part
for an expensive luxury car.
If the economy is weak,
then you probably need to take that into account,
as you assess threats.
It's helpful to consider history
when you think about the future.
But remember, the past does not always predict the future.
Predictions work best over short time intervals,
when past circumstances are essentially the same
as what you anticipate,
and when customers are consistent
in their attitudes and behaviors.
You may have heard of a SWOT analysis,
which includes strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats.
I put a twist on this to make it more actionable.
A traditional SWOT typically is used as an ideation tool
and has these four quadrants.
People ideate a bunch of items to include in each quadrant.
The problem with this typical approach
is that it often leaves marketers
with many lists unprioritized
and they just don't know where to start.
This can cause frustration and inaction.
So, here's what I recommend.
Think of one strength,
and then one corresponding weakness and threat
with that strength.
Then think collectively
about that strength, weakness, and threat
to identify the opportunity.
Sometimes it helps to think of strengths and weaknesses
from an internal company perspective,
and threats from an external perspective.
Here's an example of how to use this approach.
Let's say a company has manufactured copy machines for years
but recently started offering other office products,
like printers, faxes, and software.
This company's strength is that they are a well-known,
reputable brand in the copy machine category.
Their weakness is that most customers
only think of this brand for copy machines.
The threat is other brands
entering the copy machine category
who also offer many of the other products
that this company offers,
like printers, faxes, and software.
So, this company's opportunity is to leverage
its strong brand reputation and awareness in copy machines
to promote its other products in the other categories.
Understand past performance and current trends
to anticipate opportunities
to differentiate and keep your brand relevant.