Competitor Analysis Template

Competitor: SOME COMPETITOR

This document aims to answer the following three questions in complete detail and specificity, with references to sources:

1. Who are SOME COMPETITOR’s customers?
2. What is SOME COMPETITOR’s complete business model?
3. What brand messaging does SOME COMPETITOR use?

1. Customers

An explanation of SOME COMPETITOR’s existing customers and customers they aim to reach.

• List the industries that SOME COMPETITOR serves.
  • For each industry, list what they do and highlight the main thing.
• List the customers that SOME COMPETITOR serves.
  • For each customer, state what role and position they have, e.g. mid-level fleet manager.
  • For each customer, list the outcomes they aim for.
    • For each outcome, state if SOME COMPETITOR would help.
    • For each outcome, list what tasks they do towards it.
      • For each task, list what problems they might have trying to complete it.
        • For each problem, state why it could occur.
        • For each problem, if relevant, state how SOME COMPETITOR could help.
  • For each customer, list the opportunities SOME COMPETITOR could offer, i.e. as a result of helping with the aforementioned problems.

2. Business Model

An explanation of how SOME COMPETITOR makes money, what products or services they offer to do so.

2.1. Value Proposition

• List what SOME COMPETITOR offers.
  • For each offer, state whether it’s a product or service.
    • For each product or service, state how it is delivered, i.e. in-person, remote, online application, etc.
    • For each product or service, state what problems they solve (link back to customer examples if possible).
      • For each solvable problem, state what platform is used to solve it, i.e. web application, advice, programming, prediction report, etc.
    • For each product or service, state what benefits are gained by using it.
• List what technology, methods, and approaches SOME COMPETITOR uses to offer what they offer.
  • For each bit of technology, method, or approach, state where it’s used in their services and/or products.
  • For each bit of technology, method, or approach, explain why it’s used by SOME COMPETITOR, i.e. the benefits (cost, speed, flexibility, risk reduction, etc.).
  • For each bit of technology, method, or approach, state what resources they use, i.e. people, team size, skills, location, etc.

2.2. Complete Business Model

• Explain SOME COMPETITOR’s business model:
  • Explain how SOME COMPETITOR generates profit:
    • State how SOME COMPETITOR generates revenue, e.g. government contracts, selling vehicles, offering consultancy, finders fees, etc.
      • State what SOME COMPETITOR charges for products and/or services.
        • For each charge, state whether it’s a main revenue stream and why.
        • For each charge, state how SOME COMPETITOR charges for it, i.e. one-time charge for product, on-demand charging for service, recurring charges for service, etc.
    • State how SOME COMPETITOR loses revenue, i.e. their costs.
      • For each cost, state how it’s mitigated to improve profit margins.
  • State how SOME COMPETITOR markets, e.g. trade shows, website traffic, social media advertisements, etc.
  • State what partners SOME COMPETITOR has, i.e. recurring customers.

2.3. Business Model Canvas

Using information from the previous sections (sections 1, 2.1, and 2.2), complete the Business Model Canvas, explained here. It should be fairly high-level and just an overview of the more detailed information here.

If you wish to do this digitally, I recommend using Excalidraw so that you can just edit the raw file: Business Model Canvas.excalidraw. If not, then the image linked is very large, so should print off nicely if converted to a PDF of any size.

Note: You could also just complete this with the original diagrams contained here, the only difference is that I renamed things slightly to be less confusing with reference to this document.

3. Brand Messaging

An explanation of how SOME COMPETITOR communicates its brand and engages with customers through storytelling.

• Create a mood board of screenshots to demonstrate SOME COMPETITOR’s brand messaging.
  • List examples of customer stories that SOME COMPETITOR describes.
  • State how SOME COMPETITOR tells customer stories: a user → their task and problem → SOME COMPETITOR’s solution and its delivery.
    • List where the stories are found, i.e. website, testimonials, social media, conferences, etc.
    • State the perspective that SOME COMPETITOR speaks from.
    • State the tone of voice SOME COMPETITOR uses.
    • List any recurring messages and themes SOME COMPETITOR uses.
    • List any recurring keywords that SOME COMPETITOR uses.
    • List any imagery that SOME COMPETITOR uses.
  • State how SOME COMPETITOR’s position is described in contrast to others, in these stories.

Using this information, complete the Brand Canvas (raw file here: Brand Canvas.excalidraw), which is explained here.