Competitive Analysis & Market Trends (NOT "marketing" trends) Examples & Do's and Don'ts © 2008 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 (uniqueness) © 2008 D. J. Foreman

Competitive Analysis-2 It's all about CHOICES Why do consumers choose one business or product over another? What makes it a better business? (Price is NOT the answer!!!!!) Provable/proven quality unique merchandise location, size, access ambiance (décor, the "in“ thing) © 2008 D. J. Foreman

Analysis Do's & Don'ts DO: DO NOT: Show what's NEW about this ONE company Show what's DIFFERENT about them compared to EVERYONE ELSE in that industry Be VERY specific DO NOT: Mention prices, profits/gains, sales Refer to the stock market Refer to "trends" © 2008 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 Refers to a WHOLE industry Measured at 2 or more times Market Trends vs. Marketing Trends © 2008 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 © 2008 D. J. Foreman

Market Trends-3 Avoid : They are advertising, not market trends Statements about prices, profits or stock value Statements about any specific company Bragging: "the best/most experienced/biggest/most popular" etc. They are advertising, not market trends © 2008 D. J. Foreman

Market Trends-4 Good words/phrases to look for: % since, % previous year/decade, etc (note use of "%" over some TIME; MUST HAVE at least one date growth/grew/grown, up/down, increase/decline, etc became, turned into, etc. from … to, compared to They are NOT conclusive evidence of a trend READ and ANALYZE before using it!! © 2008 D. J. Foreman

Market Trends-5 Bad words and phrases Becoming, predicted, next, expected Any of the above with “%” Savings (because it’s MONEY!!!!!) Will increase/decrease Can anyone GUARANTEE it will?? Never! © 2008 D. J. Foreman

Market Trends-6 Beware the word: SALES Does it mean number of items or dollars??? If items, it must say so, 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 © 2008 D. J. Foreman

Market Trends-7 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) © 2008 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 © 2008 D. J. Foreman