Are you new in manufacturing? If the answer is “yes,” the chances are that you are not the only one offering the type of products that you are sending into the market. Your competitors are working day and night to try and win a bigger market share, and if they can knock you out; it will be a plus for them. Therefore, you also have to be aggressive and smart, and one of the best methods is analyzing the competitors.
Competitor analysis is a method of looking at what your competitor is doing so that you can craft better strategies, better products, and race ahead of them. In this post, we will tell you the main steps that you need for a full competitors analysis in manufacturing.
Select the Top Competitors and describe them
To analyze your competitors, the first step is identifying them. You can identify the competitors by running a market survey, especially directly via different distributors. These distributors can tell you the companies that are making the fast-moving products. You can also search your products and identify the top ten companies on the search engine result pages SERPs).
One you have identified the competitors, just like said by Andrey Bokarev, go to the next step, and describe them. You can do this by visiting their websites, social media pages, and reading their profiles on different platforms.
Explore their Competitive Edge
At this point, you need to ask and answer the question, “What is your competitor’s competitive edge?” You can establish this by checking their operations and products. Try to establish why their products are preferred by more people. For example, if you are in the mining niche as reflected on here, your competitors might be selling stronger materials to win more clients.
Identify their Strengths and Weaknesses
Notably, even the top competitor in your niche still has some weaknesses, and you can use them to get a competitive edge. So, expand your analysis to understanding your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps your competitor is having a competitive advantage because his company is located closer to the source of raw materials but has a poor quality product. In such a case, you can look at the weakness and establish how to deliver a better product to the market.
Note the Available Opportunities
The final step of your competitor analysis is developing ways of improving your system. With the data about the competitors, you can engage your research and development team to explore ways of improving your system. So, here are some possible areas that might provide good opportunities for growth and better performance.
- Adopting technology in production.
- Seeking more reliable and timely suppliers.
- Generating more leads.
- Regular product design reviews.
If you want to be more successful in industrial manufacturing, it is prudent to understand what your competitors are doing and craft ways of outsmarting them. To achieve better results, it is advisable to include a professional when carrying your competitor analysis.