CIR: Comparative Competitive Efforts of Rival Companies HELP

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1 Competitive Intelligence Report: One-Year Snapshot Comparing Competitive Efforts of all Rival Companies Explanations of Numbers Plus Suggestions and Tips for Using the Information This Help section concerns how to interpret and make effective use of the four one-page displays for North America, Europe-Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America showing how your company s prices of cameras and drones, P/Q ratings for cameras and drones, the number of camera and drone models offered, advertising, web site displays, retailer support, warranties, and so on compared (1) against those of every other rival company in the preceding decision round and (2) against the industry averages for each of the competitive factors affecting sales/market share of cameras and drones. Strong Recommendation: The information in the 4-page Competitive Intelligence Report is of the utmost importance and should be examined after every decision round as essential preparation for determining what sorts of changes in prices, P/Q ratings, models, advertising, warranties, and other competitive factors are needed to improve the buyer appeal of your company s products, your company s competitiveness against rival companies, and your company s overall performance on the five scoring measures in the upcoming decision round. Why It Is So Important to Examine How Your Company s Competitive Efforts Compared with Those of Rival Companies and with the Industry Averages Downplaying or ignoring the information provided in the 4-page Competitive Intelligence Report leaves you in the high-risk position of: 1. Being totally uninformed about what rival companies did in the prior year to try to out-compete your company and to win sales and market share on their own behalf. 2. Having no knowledge about whether your company s competitive efforts (with regard to camera/drone prices, P/Q ratings, models offered, advertising, length of warranties and so on) in each region compared against the average level of competitive effort exerted by all companies in each region, thereby resulting in your company industry having either a competitive advantage or disadvantage on each of the competitive factors determining your company s sales and market share in each region. 3. Having no clues about the competitive advantages/strengths and disadvantages/weaknesses of rival companies. In the absence of such knowledge, your company s management team is left in the unenviable position of having to guess about what competitive moves to make in the upcoming decision round and hoping your guesses work out OK guessing and hoping are not sound prescriptions for managerial success and good company performance. The inescapable truth here is that studying the competitive efforts of rival companies in each geographic region in the prior year is essential to being able to craft savvy moves to outcompete them, region-byregion, in the upcoming decision round. Making informed decisions about how to compete successfully against rivals is necessary if you want to improve your company s performance. One more point. Typically, the competitive efforts of rival companies relating to average wholesale prices charged to retailers, the numbers of retailers, advertising expenditures, and monies spent for web site displays and retailer support vary from one region to another so you cannot assume that how your company compares against rival companies is the same across all four regions. Also, there are often crossregional differences among rivals as concerns prices for cameras and drones, the number of weekly sales promotions for cameras, promotional discounts for cameras, and the length of warranty periods for both Copyright GLO-BUS Software, Inc. Page 1

2 cameras and drones. Hence, you have to look at how well your company s competitive efforts compare against rivals, competitive factor by competitive factor, in each of the four regions. Assessing your company s competitiveness in just one region like North America is never sufficient. An Important Tip for Making Your Company a High Performer: Becoming a shrewd poweruser of the information in the CIR provides a reliable path for out-managing and out-competing rival companies (especially those companies whose co-managers dimly understand the value of the information in the CIR or naively assume they can skip looking at the information altogether). How to Use the Menu Options for Displaying the Comparative Competitive Efforts of Rival Companies for Each Geographic Region When you open the Competitive Intelligence Report you will initially see the report for North America. The one-page display for North America displays the competitive efforts of each company in the AC Camera market segment and the UAV Drone market segment. At the bottom of the page are strategic group maps showing the market positioning of each company in the North American camera segment and the North American drone segment. It also shows how your company s competitive effort in North America on each of the factors affecting unit sales/market share compare against the all-company (or industry) average for North America. Changing the region. To see the company comparisons for a different region (Europe-Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America), simply click on the box on the top right where North America appears to access the onepage displays for the other regions. It is strongly recommended that you print the report for each of the four regions to use as a reference when you begin entering decisions for the upcoming year. Changing the year. Initially, the data for the just-completed year will appear on the page. You may review or print a report from any previous year by clicking the year button at the top-right of the page. Seeing how the competitive efforts of any rival company of interest compare against the all-company regional averages. While you are primarily interested in how your company s competitive effort compared to the all-company regional averages on each factor that determines unit sales and market share (to see whether your company had a competitive advantage or was at a disadvantage on that factor), you can also quickly see how any other company stacks up against the industry/all-company regional averages (the data in the far right column). To change to a different company and view the sizes of its competitive advantages/disadvantages versus the industry averages, click the company letter button in the menu selections at the top of the page and choose the company of interest--this feature is particularly useful for studying the competitive efforts of companies you consider to be your closest competitors and/or industry-leading companies. Check Out Where Your Company Is Positioned on the Two Strategic Group Maps In addition to how your company s competitive effort on each competitive factor compared to those of rivals in both the action-capture camera segment and the UAV drone segment, it is helpful to take a look at the two strategic group maps indicating how rivals are positioned in the action camera segment and the drone segment. The company circles closest to your company s circle should be considered close competitors (because the product offerings of these companies have prices, P/Q ratings, and numbers of models similar to those of your company). The circles of the companies that are more distant from your company s circle do not compete as strongly against your company because their prices, P/Q ratings, and numbers of models differ more greatly than those for your company. Note: Again, be alert to the fact that the strategic group maps for each region are often different hence your company s closest competitors in one region can be different from those in another region. Copyright GLO-BUS Software, Inc. Page 2

3 How to Examine, Analyze, and Draw Conclusions about the Competitive Efforts of Rival Companies Suggestion 1. Pay close attention to how your company s competitive effort stacks up against the industry (or all-company) average, factor-by-factor (see the last two columns on the right of the page). Remember that how many action cameras each company sells in each geographic market is a function of a company s competitive efforts relative to the industry-average effort in the region for each competitive factor. Thus, whether your company s competitive effort on a particular factor is above/below the industry average determines whether your company has a competitive advantage over rivals or is at a competitive disadvantage on that competitive factor. The percentage size of this competitive advantage/disadvantage is signaled by the numbers in the last column on the right. Later, you may find it helpful to change the company being compared (by clicking the company button in the menu listings at the top-right of the screen) and check: 1. How the competitive efforts of the one or two top-performing companies in the industry compare against the industry averages. 2. How the company with the largest sales volume/market share in the region compares against the industry averages. 3. How the one or two companies considered to be your closest competitors compare against the industry averages. These comparisons will identify the sizes of their competitive advantages or disadvantages on the various competitive factors, thus making it easy for you to determine how they compare against the sizes of your company s competitive advantages and disadvantages. Suggestion 2: As you make region-by-region decision entries for prices, models, P/Q ratings, amounts of advertising, and so on for the upcoming year, give strong consideration to increasing your company s competitive effort on some (most?) of those factors where your company s effort in the prior year was below the all-company regional average. In addition, give consideration to increasing your company s competitive effort on one or more factors where your company s effort in the prior year was above the all-company regional average (to widen any prior-year competitive advantage) after all, one or more rivals may try to steal away some of your company s sales/market share by narrowing their prior year s competitive disadvantage against your company. Suggestion 3. Print the report for each geographic region. Viewing the information on the screen is fine, but experience shows most company managers find it very useful to have printouts in front of them when they go to the decision entry pages to enter region-by-region decisions for prices, models, P/Q ratings, amounts of advertising, and so on in an effort to devise a stronger overall competitive effort for the upcoming year that results in better company performance. Reviewing/Analyzing the Data Pertaining to the AC Camera Segment Average Wholesale Price. The first line of the AC Camera Segment Data shows the average wholesale price each company charged the retailers of its camera models. The competitive relevance of the different company prices is straightforward. Companies whose average wholesale prices are below the industry average wholesale price for a region enjoy a price-based competitive advantage over companies whose average wholesale prices are above the industry average (because, other competitive factors being close to equal, price sensitive camera buyers would naturally gravitate toward purchasing a lower-priced brand rather than a higher-priced brand). Key Point: The bigger a company s price is below the industry average wholesale price in a region, the bigger its price-based competitive advantage over higher-priced rivals; the more a company s price is above the industry average, the bigger its competitive disadvantage. Copyright GLO-BUS Software, Inc. Page 3

4 Key Point: Similarly, your company has a price-based competitive advantage over all other companies charging a higher average wholesale price and a price-based competitive disadvantage over all rivals with a lower average wholesale price. P/Q Rating. The second line of the AC Camera Segment Data shows the P/Q Ratings of each company s camera brand. The competitive relevance of the different P/Q ratings is also straightforward. Companies whose P/Q ratings are below the industry average P/Q rating have a performance-quality competitive disadvantage over companies whose P/Q ratings are above the industry average (because, other competitive factors being close to equal, performance-quality sensitive camera buyers would naturally gravitate toward purchasing a higher-rated brand rather than a lower-rated brand). The further a company s P/Q rating is above the industry average P/Q rating, the bigger its P/Q-based competitive advantage over rivals with lower P/Q ratings; the further a company s P/Q rating is below the industry average, the bigger its competitive disadvantage on product performance and quality. Similarly, it would be accurate for you to conclude your company has a P/Q-based competitive advantage over all other companies with lower P/Q ratings and a P/Q-based competitive disadvantage over all rivals with higher P/Q ratings. Brand Reputation. On the third line are the comparative brand reputations of rival companies (as measured by the respective Image Ratings on the second page of the prior year s Camera & Drone Journal). Brand reputation is one of the factors buyers consider in deciding which camera brand to purchase. Consequently, companies with brand reputations above the industry average have a reputation-based competitive advantage over companies with brand reputations below the industry average in a region. And, as before, it would be accurate for you to conclude that your company enjoyed a reputation-based competitive advantage over all other companies with lower brand reputations and was burdened by a reputation-based competitive disadvantage versus all rivals with higher brand reputations. Number of Models. The fourth line of the AC Camera Segment section shows comparisons of the number of camera models offered by each of the company s rivals. Companies offering more than the industry average number of models have a model-based competitive advantage over companies with a below-average number of models. You can also conclude that your company had a model-based competitive advantage over companies offering buyers fewer camera models and a competitive disadvantage against companies having a bigger line of camera models. Retail Outlets. The fifth data grouping shows the comparative numbers of retail outlets (multi-store chains, online retailers, and local retailers) stocking and merchandising each company s camera brand. The numbers of retailers each company has are competitively important because these retailers are the company s only distribution channel for accessing the buyers of action cameras plainly, having more retailers enhances a company s competitiveness against companies with fewer retailers. Having more/fewer multi-store retailers than the industry-average in a particular geographic region means you have a competitive advantage or disadvantage versus rivals, on average, in the multi-store distribution channel the size of the advantage or disadvantage is measured by how far above/below the industry-average your company s number is. It is also clear from the numbers of multi-store chains just which company (or companies) has/have the biggest competitive advantage in the multi-store distribution channel. If your company does not have an attractive number of multi-store chains carrying your camera line and if you wish to increase unit sales and market share in that region, then you need to consider what changes in competitive effort you might need to make in the upcoming year (lower prices, higher P/Q rating, more ads, more promotions, biggest price discounts, etc.) to attract more multi-store chains to carry your company s brand. Precisely, the same interpretation can be made for the numbers of online retailers and local retailers. The number of retailers desirous of carrying a company s brand in an upcoming year is based on: Copyright GLO-BUS Software, Inc. Page 4

5 1. Each brand s prior-year share of action camera sales in that region (companies with growing market shares tend to attract more retailers to stock their brands, and companies with falling market shares can expect to lose some of their retailers). 2. Each company s P/Q ratings for its action camera models (companies whose P/Q ratings have risen relative to the industry average tend to gain retailers, and companies whose P/Q ratings have fallen relative to the industry average tend to lose some of their retailers). 3. Each company s prior-year spending year to support the merchandising efforts of its retailers in the region as compared to the all-company regional average. In general, companies that boost spending to support the merchandising efforts of retailers relative to the regional average tend to attract additional retailers; companies whose spending for retailer support declines relative to the regional average tend to lose retailers. 4. Each company s number of prior-year weekly sales promotion campaigns and the size of promotional discounts offered during these campaigns as compared to the regional averages. Retailers lean toward stocking the brands of companies that have more weekly sales promotions and bigger discounts during these promotions because they help generate buyer traffic and boost store revenues. The numbers in the second and third lines of the Retail Outlet Grouping enable you to determine the size of any competitive advantage/disadvantage your company has in the numbers of online retailers and local camera shops that are merchandising its cameras in the region. You should be alert to the numbers of multi-store chains, online retailers and local camera shops handling the brands of rival companies. Is your company the leader? If not, how far behind the leader(s) are you and what should you consider doing in the upcoming year to try to attract more retailers of all types to handle your company s brand? In particular, do you need to increase the amount sales/merchandising support provided to retailers in certain regions? Do you need to improve the buyer attractiveness of your company s price, P/Q rating, number of models, advertising so as to win a bigger market share in the region which, in turn causes more retailers to stock and merchandise your company s brand? To attract more retailers in a given geographic region in future decision rounds, your company will most likely have to undertake actions that make it more attractive for retailers in the region to stock its camera brand via some combination of the following: (1) grow your company s market share in the region and/or (2) improve your company s P/Q ratings relative to the industry average and/or (3) increase your company s expenditures for retailer support relative to the regional average and/or (4) increase your company s number of weekly sales promotions in the region relative to the regional average and/or (5) increase the size of your company s promotional discount relative to the regional average during weekly sales promotions. In the same fashion, you should examine your company s competitive advantages and disadvantages regarding retailer support, advertising, website product displays, number of sales promotions, size of promotional discount, and the length of the warranty period. For each of these competitive factors, is your company s competitive effort above or below the industry average, thus resulting in a competitive advantage/disadvantage on each of these competitive factors? And, how well does your company compare against those particular rivals you consider to be your company s closest rivals? Demand for ACC Units. Next, look very carefully at the numbers showing the demand for your company s cameras versus those of rival companies and the industry/all-company average. Demand amounts greater than the industry average signal higher-than-average buyer appeal for your company s camera brand and a stronger-than average overall competitive effort as compared to the buyer appeal for rival camera brands and the overall competitive efforts exerted by rival companies. To put it another way, the combined effects of the competitive factors where your company has competitive advantages versus the industry averages outweighs the combined effects of the competitive factors where your company has competitive disadvantages as Copyright GLO-BUS Software, Inc. Page 5

6 compared to the industry averages. Remember, the impact on sales and market share are not the same for each of the various competitive factors affecting buyer demand. Gained/Lost (due to stockouts). This line shows which companies lost sales because they did not assemble enough camera units to fill all the retailer orders they received. When a company cannot fill all orders from retailers stocking/merchandising its camera brand (called a stockout ), the retailers whose orders cannot be filled immediately shift their orders to companies with comparable offerings. In other words, all lost sales/unfilled orders are reallocated to companies having cameras of comparable buyer appeal and sufficient assembly capacity to fill the extra orders, which results in sales gained. The plus (+) numbers in this row represent sales gains and the minus ( ) numbers represent sales lost. AC Camera Units Sold. This line displays the number of cameras each company sold after adjusting the amounts demanded/ordered for sales gains/losses due to inadequate assembly capacity and the reallocation of lost sales (stockouts) to other companies. Market Share. This line reports each company s actual market share of action camera sales in the region. Any company with a market share above the industry average had higher-than-average buyer appeal for its camera brand and a stronger-than average overall competitive effort as compared to those companies with a below-average market share. This does not mean that companies with below-average market shares were necessarily less profitable or worse-performing than companies with above-average market shares highshare firms could be buying market share with ultra-low prices and ultra-low profit margins. Whether this was the case or not for some companies can be seen by looking at the income statement summaries for all companies and the Profitability Ratios on page 5 of the Camera & Drone Journal. Special AC Camera Contracts. Starting in Year 9 you will see three new rows in the AC Camera Segment all appearing below the row labeled Market Share. These 3 rows show the results of the bidding for special contracts to supply multi-store chain retailers with AC cameras at a discounted price. The first row in this section reports each bidder s discount price offer. The second row reports the Value Index associated with each bidder s offer. The Value Index is based on (1) the net wholesale price the retailer will pay after the price discount, (2) the P/Q rating of the bidder s action cameras, and (3) the numbers of models in the bidder s line of cameras. Multi-chain retailers consider the Value Index as the best indicator of which bidder(s) is/are offering them the best deal, taking into account the factors of discounted net price, camera performancequality, and breadth of product selection. The third row shows the company or companies whose bids were accepted and the number of extra cameras they sold. This information will prove valuable in helping you determine what can be done to improve your company s Value Index, should you be interested in competing to win a special contract in the upcoming decision round. Key Points: 1. After each decision round, it is absolutely essential for you to explore the data for each geographic region to determine how your company s overall competitive effort to win sales/market share compares to the overall competitive efforts of rival companies, as indicated by the sizes of the specific competitive advantage or disadvantage your company has in the action camera segment regarding average wholesale selling price, P/Q rating, brand reputation, models offered, number of retailers, retailer support, and so on. 2. In evaluating the strength of a company s competitive effort against rivals, keep in mind that a competitive advantage or disadvantage that is above (or below) the industry average by 5% has a smaller impact on sales/market share than does being above/below the average by 16%. The sizes of each competitive advantage/disadvantage therefore matter. 3. Moreover, some competitive factors are more important than others. Thus, a 12% competitive advantage or disadvantage versus the industry average on such competitively important factors as average wholesale price or P/Q rating or brand reputation carries more weight in impacting a company s sales volume and market share than does a 12% competitive advantage or Copyright GLO-BUS Software, Inc. Page 6

7 disadvantage on such less important competitive factors as the levels of spending for retailer support or website displays or the number of weekly sales promotions. 4. If your company has the biggest market share, then your company had the strongest overall competitive effort compared to rivals; if your company has the lowest market share, then your company s overall competitive effort was the weakest among all companies in the region. Companies with an average (or nearly so) market share had an average (or nearly so) overall competitive effort, all factors considered. 5. The chief purpose of this whole analysis is to put you in position to draw conclusions about what changes in competitive effort are needed to improve your company s competitiveness against rivals in the region s camera segment in order to improve unit sales, market share, and profitability in the upcoming decision round. Which competitive advantages (competitive strengths) should you try to extend in the upcoming decision round? Which competitive disadvantages (competitive weaknesses) do you need to correct in the upcoming decision round? Often, strong consideration should be given to upping your competitive effort and narrowing the gap on those competitive factors where you are farthest below the industry average. But market share gains can be made by upping your effort (lowering price, improving P/Q ratings, adding models, boosting promotional efforts, etc.) on any and all competitive measures (assuming that rivals do not out-strategize you by upping their competitive efforts by equal or larger amounts so as to preserve or enhance their own unit sales and market shares). 6. Be alert to the fact that taking actions to increase profitability are more important than taking actions to simply increase market share. Some market share gains can be costly and actually reduce profitability. There is little glory in capturing a bigger market share if it results in lower profitability. Reviewing/Analyzing the Data Pertaining to the UAV Drone Segment Data Analyzing the CIR for the UAV drone market segment in a region should be done in the same manner as for the action camera segment. Check out how your company s average retail price for drones at the company s website compares against those of rivals and the size of the price-based competitive advantage/disadvantage your company has versus the industry average. Do the same for all the other competitive factors for drones discount to online retailers, P/Q rating, brand reputation, number of models, number of 3 rd -party online retailers stocking and merchandising your company s drones, and so on down through the list of competitive factors that determine buyer appeal for the various product offerings of rival companies and each company s overall competitiveness and ability to win sales and market share. Then, carefully review the numbers for drone demand (direct demand at your company s website, demand for 3 rd -party retailers, and total demand). How does total demand for your brand of drones compare against those of rivals and against the industry average? Which companies lost sales because of insufficient drone assembly? Which companies gained sales because some drone buyers switched their purchases from companies unable to fill buyer orders to companies they considered to be acceptable substitutes for their preferred brand? Next, check out your company s unit sales and market share versus both rival companies and the industry averages. On which competitive factors does your company have a big competitive advantage (10% or more above the industry average)? On which competitive factors is your company at a big competitive disadvantage (10% or more below the industry average)? Copyright GLO-BUS Software, Inc. Page 7

8 What changes in competitive effort does the preceding analysis indicate need to be considered by management in the upcoming decision round to enhance your company s competitiveness against rivals and help boost unit sales, market share, and profitability? Normally, strong consideration should be given to upping your competitive effort and narrowing the gap on those competitive factors where your company s effort is far below the industry average and puts your company at a big competitive disadvantage (unless such moves are so costly that they will impair profitability). But profitable gains in unit sales and market share can also be made by upping efforts (lowering price, improving P/Q ratings, adding models, boosting promotional efforts, etc.) on any and all competitive measures (assuming that rivals do not out-strategize you by upping their competitive efforts by equal or larger amounts so as to preserve or enhance their own unit sales and market shares). Reminder: Increasing profitability is more important than increasing market share. Upping your company s P/Q rating can be costly and actually reduce profitability even if your company realizes gains in sales and market share. For example, instead of spending say $8 million to boost the P/Q rating for drones by.4 stars, it may be more profitable to boost your company s competitiveness and market share by spending $5 million additional dollars on search engine advertising, website displays, recruitment/support of 3 rd -party online retailers, and/or longer warranties. The point here is that you want to assemble an adequately potent competitive effort at the lowest possible cost some efforts to enhance a company s competitive effort and boost sales/market share may prove more cost-effective (and thus more profitable) than others. Gleaning Clues about What to Do from the Two Strategic Group Maps There is merit in spending a couple of minutes to examine the two strategic group maps showing how your company is positioned against rivals in the region based on price and P/Q rating (the vertical axis) and product line breadth (the horizontal axis) in the AC camera segment and the UAV drone segment. The sizes of the circles are drawn proportional to each company s market share in the geographic region. Your company s position on the strategic group map for cameras is likely to be different from that on the strategic group map for drones so look at both maps. Those company circles that are bunched closest together signify strong or close competitors; those farthest apart are weak competitors. Companies that are more isolated, in the sense of not having many other company circles close to their positions, face somewhat weaker head-to-head competition because their product offerings are more strongly differentiated from the other companies. However, such differentiation on the part of these distantly-positioned companies may be attractively profitable (because of weaker competition from rivals) or considerably less profitable (because the market position occupied by these companies is not associated with a product offering that is particularly appealing to the buyers of cameras/drones). Companies whose circles are bunched closely together encounter strong competitive pressures from nearby rivals (because their products are weakly differentiated as concern the measures on the horizontal/vertical axes). The more companies that are clustered close together, the more likely that profitable opportunities exist for several of these companies to differentiate their product offerings more strongly and thereby reposition themselves in a more open (or vacant) part of the market where competitive pressures from rivals are weaker. Because the strategic group maps at the bottom of the page are helpful in pinpointing who your company s closest competitors are, you should consider studying the competitive efforts of these companies more closely and see if you can anticipate what competitive maneuvers they will undertake next. The more successful you are in predicting their next competitive moves, the more able you are to craft actions in the upcoming decision round to counter (and hopefully defeat) their expected actions. Copyright GLO-BUS Software, Inc. Page 8