Competitive Analysis Using Online Data

Transcription

1 QI Leap Analytics Competitive Analysis Using Online Data Hootan Rashtian, Lauren Fratamico October 17, 2016

2 In developing business strategy, managers consider the strategies of their competitors [1] While in highly fragmented commodity industries, the moves of any single competitor may be less important, in concentrated industries such as retailers, competitive analysis - one of the most authoritative forms of research - becomes a key part of strategic planning Competitive analysis has two primary activities, i) obtaining information about important competitors, and ii) using that information to analyze competitors behavior [2] The goal of competitor analysis can encompass several aspects, such as understanding: with which competitors to compete, competitors' strategies (eg, in Social Media), how competitors might react to actions from a company, how to react to competitor behavior to the firm's own advantage Competitors should be analyzed systematically, using organized competitor intelligence-gathering to compile a wide array of information such that well informed strategy decisions can be made Also, a competitor analysis should include the more important existing competitors as well as potential competitors such as those firms that might enter the industry QI Leap performed a thorough analyis of social media activity for Luvo Inc a leading company in healthy frozen food industry The analysis consisted of exploring the potential connections between sales and social activity over several time periods This is done for sales data of different stores and regions The analysis brings values to realize where and how sales data is affected by social media activity Competitive Analysis 1

3 Challenges There are large amounts of data being generated in the digital world as a result of social media interactions and part of this data is about retailers and their products Smart businesses have been listening to and collecting social media data with the hope to understand more about competitors strategies Analyzing the right metrics can help a business learn what it can be doing to better inform its audience and to fulfill its needs In the past, businesses were impressed with number of followers or likes, however now they are realizing that these vanity metrics don t bring tangible results Therefore, the main challenges are to come up with a refined set of metrics and provide useful analysis to bring valuable insights [3] Solution A comprehensive solution for competitive analysis should consider different aspects Listening to mentions and mining conversations on social media is important Consumers are knowledgeable, word-of-mouth is one of the most powerful marketing channels Together, these two features can lead to valuable insights that couldn t be otherwise gained Minding these metrics is valuable to understand where a brand stands among the competition, and what they can be doing to increase engagement and give users what they re looking for Monitoring the competition can also reveal much about product strategy vs competitors For example, sentiment analysis around the product acts as an online focus group, and can help determine feelings about a product or service, both for the business itself as well as its competitors Share of voice is also an important metric to keep in mind when conducting competitive analysis How much more is a brand taking on social media vs its competitor? Although these numbers may not be directly responsible for increasing ROI, they are certainly helpful in learning where a brand stands among its contenders and which areas may need improvement Competitive analysis on social media can also show a business if it is lacking presence on a particular social platform where other businesses in the same industry are growing It can also help dictate what an audience in the same industry responds best to Competitive Analysis 2

4 In addition to social media data, there is also metadata available in other online resources For example, if there are products made by businesses, there would be contextual data on their websites about the products including ingredients or materials, use-cases, safety tips, nutrition facts, etc This information could be used as input for further analysis such as understanding relative market presence in different market verticals Product 1 Product 2 Product 3 Luvo Product Product 4 Example of competitive analysis at product level Luvo products and competitor products were clustered based on their nutrition facts As the figure indicated, there was a cluster of 5 products with only one Luvo product in it This can be a hint of introducing a new product to be present in this cluster Conclusion A strong competitive analysis should offer businesses such as retailers an indication of where they stand among their competitors Analyzing the right metrics can help a retailer learn what it can be doing to better inform its audience, and to fulfill its needs QI Leap provides services to help clients reveal these metrics and work with businesses to pinpoint the right set of metrics QI Leap also provides proper insights and can offer optimal techniques for a meaningful analysis of competitors These services can help lead to adjustments necessary for overall growth, as well as provide an advantage over competitors References: 1 Frambach, Ruud T, Peer C Fiss, and Paul TM Ingenbleek "How important is customer orientation for firm performance? A fuzzy set analysis of orientations, strategies, and environments" Journal of Business Research 694 (2016): Hollensen, Svend Marketing management: A relationship approach Pearson Education, He, Wu, et al "A novel social media competitive analytics framework with sentiment benchmarks" Information & Management 527 (2015): Competitive Analysis 3

5 About QI Leap Qi-Leap Analytics is founded with the vision to constantly and continually translate the latest technological developments in big data analytics into impactful solutions To discover how QI Leap can help your company achieve its business objectives of better demand prediction by employing a mix of machine learning technology and big data analytics, please contact: Poya Haghnegahdar (CEO), admin@qileapcom For more information, visit: wwwqileapcom Competitive Analysis 5