Competitive Analysis & Market Trends (NOT "marketing" trends) Examples & Do's and Don'ts © 2004 D. J. Foreman
Competitive Analysis-1 Shows what's different about each competitor I.e.; why people buy from business A instead of B No relationship to YOUR business Examples: Worst: Joe's Pizza (what about it???) Bad: Joe's Pizza costs less (but is it good???) Better: Joe's Pizza is everywhere (availability) Better: Joe's Pizza comes in 17 flavors (variety) Great: Only Joe's has Hawaiian pizza (unique) © 2004 D. J. Foreman
Competitive Analysis-2 It's all about CHOICES Why do consumers choose one business over another? What makes it a better business? (Price is NOT the answer!!!!!) Provable/proven quality unique merchandise location, size, access ambiance (décor, "in") © 2004 D. J. Foreman
Analysis Do's & Don'ts DO: DON'T: Show what's NEW about them Show what's DIFFERENT about them compared to EVERYONE ELSE Be VERY specific DON'T: Mention prices Refer to the stock market Refer to "trends" © 2004 D. J. Foreman
Market Trends-1 CHANGE OVER TIME!!!!!!!! Examples: Number of outlets/franchises number of customers number of units sold Not about ONE company Measured at 2 or more times Market Trends vs Marketing Trends © 2004 D. J. Foreman
Market Trends-2 Shows change over time, not "current value" Examples Worst: pizza shop stock went (up/down) last year Bad: Joe's Pizza had great sales this year Bad: Joe's Pizza sold 1,000,000 pizzas this year Bad: Joe's Pizza sold 50% more this year Good: Avg shop sold 30% more pizza than last year! Better: # of pizza's sold was up 50%, 1990-2002 Great: 1990: 100M pizzas sold, 2000: 200M sold © 2004 D. J. Foreman
Market Trends-3 Avoid : They are advertising, not market trends Statements about prices, profits or stock value Bragging: "the best/most experienced/biggest/most popular" etc. They are advertising, not market trends © 2004 D. J. Foreman
Market Trends-4 words to look for: % since, % next/previous year/decade, etc (note use of "%" over some TIME; MUST HAVE BOTH ("next"=BAD, "previous"=OK) growth/grew/grown, up/down, increase/decline, etc became, turned/turning into, etc from … to, compared to They are NOT conclusive evidence of a trend READ and ANALYZE before using it!! © 2004 D. J. Foreman
Market Trends-5 Beware the word: SALES Does it mean number of items or dollars??? If items, say so and the URL better have it. If dollars or unknown, DON'T USE IT!!!! e.g. …had over 1,000,000 in sales. Is it #items or dollars ?? Can't tell, so skip it © 2004 D. J. Foreman
Market Trends-6 3 directions for a trend line ALL are VALID trends Up (could mean failures are increasing) Down (could mean costs are decreasing) Flat ALL are VALID trends A "good" trend depends on what you want. Don't think a trend is "good" only if it's "up" (see bullet 1 above) © 2004 D. J. Foreman
Trend Do's & Don'ts DO DON'T emphasize change emphasize time refer to a whole industry mention sales in units (# of items) DON'T mention prices or sales (in dollars) refer to one company's statistics use company commercials © 2004 D. J. Foreman