[MUSIC] I'd now like you to analyze each major competitor in a few words and state how you think they compare with you. You can do this maybe on some sort of scale if you wish, being the scale of one to five or one to ten. One where they really are critical to your success or they don't really impact on you at all. So, in the first instance of your competitor analysis, list the factor itself. So, for you for instance I was referring to your strength, your weakness, but also the strengths and weaknesses of competitor A, competitor B, competitor C, etc. Try not to make it too long, too onerous. What is it that's being offered here, then how important is it to the customer? I think it's also key here to think about the various products that you plan to offer, and that your competitors also plan to offer. I now want you to think about analyzing each of your major competitors, and in a few words state how you think they compare with you. In the table that you will see later on, I think it's important that you rank them or put them into some sort of weighting on whether you think they're critical to your success or not particularly important. The table should include, first of all, the competitive analysis, such factors that relate to you. What is it, the strengths and weaknesses that you have, but also the strengths and weaknesses of at least two of your competitors, competitor A, competitor B, and how important they are to the customer. What is it, the products that they're actually delivering. At what price point are they selling those products or services? This is a key thing, this is potentially another method of you competing with those competitors. What sort of quality is it that they're offering? Do you want to compete based upon a high quality product, or a pile them high, sell them cheap type of competition? In terms of the selection, what is that you select about the customers? How is it that you select your customers? What sort of service are you going to offer? Now, in terms of service it isn't just about maybe a service industry, but it's the service of your products as well. What about reliability? This hints back to that quality again. What sort of reliability are you going to offer, are you going to offer any warranties, etc? How stable is the market? How stable is the competition? Have there been a lot of people moving out of this particular industry or even moving into this particular industry? What level of expertise do you have, and what level of expertise do the competition have? What is that you bring to the table? What is it that they have? Brand awareness, company reputation. As a new business, you're going to have to develop that yourself. What is it that you're competing with? Have they built up a brand that is almost impenetrable, or is their brand at a low ebb? And we can think of maybe some scandals recently if we think of the Volkswagen scandal. And we can think about how their brand, which was very highly respected, is no longer highly respected because of the particular scandal with the emissions. What about location? Whereabouts do you expect to deliver your product or service? What's the appearance going to look like? And this can simply be in terms of packaging. What sort of sales method are you going to offer? Are you going to be internet sales? Are you going to have to have actual physical locations to sell your products? Are you going to have a large sales team who go out there and sell? This is more business to business. So you need to have an awareness of the particular sales method that you expect to use and utilize. Most transactions tend to be done on business to business basis. This means that they involve some sort of credit policy where you’re buying and selling on credit. What sort of credit policies do you plan to have? Will you be giving your customers credit? Will you be expecting to take credit from your suppliers? This can take a little while for you to build up a reputation in this area, so be realistic here. We spoke about marketing but more specifically what about advertising? How is it you're going to get yourself out there? What sort of image is it that you plan to portray? I'd like you to maybe, just for now, write a short paragraph stating your competitive advantages and disadvantages. Are you aiming for a niche? Are you aiming for a very specific niche which is going to set you apart from the competition? So now you've done this systematic analysis, your industry, your product, your customers, the competition. You should have a much clearer picture of where your company fits into the world itself. And I think in one short paragraph, I'd like you to define your niche, your unique corner of this particular market, what it is that you're bringing that's different to the competition. [MUSIC]
