Successful public relations is about more than what you’re putting out into the world – it’s about what your competitors are putting out, too.
Competitive analysis isn’t just about keeping up appearances. It should be proactive and strategic, because brands that understand their competitors’ moves make the most out of every opportunity by shaping narratives and responding to threats. Competitive analysis helps your business navigate changing landscapes with insight and agility, and it should be a part of your wider media monitoring strategy.
What is Competitive Analysis?
Competitive analysis is the process of evaluating your competitors' strengths and weaknesses, understanding their strategies, and identifying opportunities or gaps in the market that your organization can swoop in to fill. In PR, this practice can inform everything from messaging to campaign direction, media outreach, and crisis management.
Here’s why monitoring your competitors is essential:
Informed Decision Making
Competitive analysis can help you gain valuable insights into what has worked (or flopped) for your competitors. By analyzing their public statements, media coverage, and social media presence, you can identify trends that resonate with your shared target audience and avoid pitfalls. It also allows you to develop your own internal crisis response strategies by studying what your competitors could have done better. This analysis-driven approach allows you to craft informed and effective PR strategies, rather than metaphorically throwing spaghetti at a wall.
Identifying Industry Trends
The media landscape moves fast. Competitive analysis helps you stay ahead of these changes by identifying emerging industry trends and audience behavioral shifts. Monitoring your competitors keeps you up-to-date on new technologies, tools, or communication strategies they’re adopting to engage their audience. You can use this information to fine-tune your own efforts and remain relevant in your market, rather than being caught off guard by a competitor's innovative PR campaign.
Improving Brand Positioning
Understanding how your competitors are positioning themselves in the market helps you differentiate your own brand. Competitive analysis can reveal gaps in your competitors’ messaging, which become opportunities for your brand to stand out. Competitive analysis gives you the chance to shape your narrative in a way that emphasizes your unique strengths, making your brand more appealing to your target audience.
What You Need for Successful Competitive Analysis
A killer competitive analysis program needs several key components. By incorporating these elements, you can create a structured approach to monitoring and analyzing your competition effectively.
1. Competitor Identification
The first step is to identify who your competitors are. These are not just direct competitors who offer similar products or services, but also indirect competitors who might be targeting the same audience in different ways. For each, consider what sets them apart in addition to their strengths and weaknesses. Remember that some competitors are peers, like Burger King versus McDonald’s, while others are only peers for certain products or services, like Slack versus Microsoft. Competitors in the latter category require a nuanced monitoring approach to avoid a firehose of irrelevant data.
2. Media Monitoring & Social Media Listening
Two of the most critical components of competitive analysis are media monitoring and social listening. Media monitoring involves tracking how often competitors are mentioned in the media, the tone of the coverage, key message pull-through, and which outlets are covering them.
Social media listening includes monitoring your competitors’ owned social media channels, including how they engage with their audience and the sentiment of comments or replies they receive. A great listening program also monitors organic social media coverage for deep audience insights.
Tools like Google Alerts, Cision, Brandwatch, and Meltwater can help automate media monitoring, and tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social can help with social listening.
3. Coverage Analysis
Consider what types of stories your competitors are featured in or are creating: Is it product launches, crisis responses, or thought leadership? Understanding this can guide your own media strategy, especially when it comes to timing of your own announcements.
4. Messaging and Positioning Review
Analyzing your competitors’ messaging is crucial for understanding how they position themselves in the market. Review their press releases, interviews, blog posts, and other public communications to see how they build their narratives. Pay attention to tone of voice, key messages, and any shifts in strategy over time. By identifying how they appeal to their audience, you can differentiate your brand’s messaging and stand out in your market.
5. SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
Finally, conducting a SWOT analysis of each competitor provides a comprehensive view of their positioning. What are their strengths and weaknesses? Are there external opportunities they may be missing? What threats do they face, either from the market or their own missteps? This strategic assessment helps you see where your brand can capitalize on weaknesses or avoid direct competition with their strengths.
The TL;DR:
Incorporating competitive analysis into your PR strategy helps you gain the insights needed to stay ahead. By identifying your competitors’ strategies, messaging, and media presence, you can anticipate trends, seize opportunities, and refine your own PR approach.
Need help getting started? ELM Communications was founded by experts in media monitoring and competitive analysis strategy. We can consult on your in-house operations or develop custom competitive analysis reports to help your business succeed.
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