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Article
-Linda Musgrove
-TradeShow Teacher
-www.tsteacher.com
Hello class, it's good to be back for another lesson. In this lesson we will be covering competitive intelligence. Now you may be wondering what this has to do with trade shows and the answer to that is twofold. First, when you exhibit at trade shows you want to know how to stand out from your competition and secondly there is no better place to collect competitive intelligence than at a trade show! In this lesson we will focus on both of these areas. Good news is, you won't have learn secret codes or other tools of the spy trade.
Why Track Competitors?
Besides needing to differentiate yourself at the shows you exhibit at, tracking competitors is an important analysis tool to help define what your competitors are up to and "where they are headed". This information helps steer many aspects of your business:
• Trade show exhibiting
• Advertising
• Management planning
• Marketing
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Restructuring
• Pricing
• R&D (research and development)
Types of Competitors
When you are defining who your competitors are, you shouldn't just look at the companies offering similar products to what you offer. There are 3 types of competitors to look for; direct competitors, indirect competitors and future competitors. Direct competitors are the most obvious; these are businesses offering the same type of product/service as your business does. Indirect competitors are businesses that offer an alternative solution to your key prospect's problem, sometimes it's a little harder to think about what alternative solutions may be, but here's an example that may help you understand this better. For example airlines are not just competing with other airlines, they compete with chartered flights, high speed trains, bus services and arguably even video conferencing. Future competitors are businesses that are expected to start "invading your market space" sometime down the road.
Finding Your Competitors
To know who and what to research, you need to determine who your top competitors are in those 3 categories. There quite a few places to help with your search for competitors. Below is a list of a few examples to help you get started with your search.
• Search engines: Enter keywords related to your company and products
• Industry publications: Look within the articles and the advertisements
• Trade shows: Attend industry trade shows to see what competition is in the market. Look at the exhibitors and ask around at the networking events
• Trade show websites: Research industry trade shows to see what companies are exhibiting, read their company descriptions and find their website
• Your sales department: They should know who or what they lost business to
A word to the Wise....Before Starting Your Research
Someone in your business may already have this information compiled! Now wouldn't that be nice? Before starting your research ask other departments whether they already have a competitive analysis report. If they don't, well then it looks like you have some work ahead of you. If you have the internal resources to gather the information then go ahead and start your research. If you don't have the internal resources available, consider hiring an outside firm to create one for you so you don't unnecessarily tie up your staff.
Finding Competitor Information
Once you know who your top competitors are, you will need to start the process of researching them. If you are hiring a firm, ask them questions about where they compile their information from; use the list below as guidance. If you are doing the work internally, gather your competitive information from the sources listed below.
• Company website
• Press releases
• Search engines
• Trade shows
• Industry analysts
• Conferences
• Suppliers
• Panel sessions
• Partners
• Reps. and distributors
• Networking
• Media articles
Compiling Information About Competitors
There are so many pieces of information you can collect about your competitors to paint an accurate picture of them, it can make your head spin, but there are several key areas that you should focus on. The more information you can collect and organize the more accurately you can exploit your competitor's weaknesses and position your business for success. The most efficient way to organize this information is in a spreadsheet. The key areas to collect information about are listed below; depending on the size of your company some of this information may be inapplicable:
• Products/services
• Features
• Sales/marketing
• Sales representatives
• Support (if applicable)
• Strengths (list all known)
• Weaknesses (list all known)
• Company
• Financial
Competitor Exhibiting List and Activities
Coming back to competitive data to gather specifically for your trade shows; the best approach is to make a separate spreadsheet containing all trade show related details for each competitor. Also take a look at the shows you are exhibiting at this year to see if there are additional competitors you need to consider and position against. The key areas to focus on are:
• Exhibit list and booth sizes
• Trade show marketing approaches (pre-show mailers, advertisements, sponsorships and so on)
• Public relations approaches (press releases, press conferences, media specific events and so on)
• Special events sponsored
Using the Data for your Trade Show Advantage
Of course I didn't ask you to collect all this data for nothing! This data can be analyzed to plan your trade show activities and approaches. Each company is different and will determine what information is the most relevant to use; key areas in which to use the competitive trade show data are:
• Show selections and booth sizes
• Conveying your company/product's competitive advantages through booth staff and signage
• Marketing, public relations and event planning approaches
Using this data for your business advantage
Competitive information and your ability to differentiate yourself based on it, is key to all aspects of your business, not just trade shows. It may affect what information you share on your web site or how you develop your PR and event strategy. It may even affect the roadmap of your products. The most important part to understand is that no two companies can have the same image in a prospect's mind. To successfully beat your competition, you have to be perceived differently.
That's it for this month's lesson, now it's time for your homework!
Homework
There are several parts to this homework assignment to create an overall competitive analysis and trade show competitive analysis. To get the best results for your company do ALL of your homework!
First - determine who your top competitors are (direct, indirect and future) then write a list of each competitor and answer these three questions:
1.) What do you already know about this competitor?
2.) What additional information will you research to learn about this competitor?
3.) Where will you look for this information?
Second - Create a spreadsheet with overall information about your competitors (direct, indirect and future) and third - create a separate spreadsheet for trade show competitive analysis .
For overall competitor information, list each competitor and record information about the items below:
• Products/services (list each)
• Target customer
• Features (list each)
• Sales/marketing (list each item)
• Sales representatives (list by title)
• Support (if applicable)
• Strengths (list all known)
• Weaknesses (list all known)
• Company (Info such as HQ, stock, stock price, etc - if applicable)
• Financial (Info such as revenue, cash, outstanding debt, etc - if applicable)
For Trade Show competitive analysis, list each competitor and record information about the items below:
• Exhibit list and booth sizes
• Trade show marketing approaches (pre-show mailers, advertisements, sponsorships and so on)
• Public relations approaches (press releases, press conferences, media specific events and so on)
• Special events sponsored
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