Lesson 8: Brand Competitor Analysis

Self-Assessment – Brand Competitive Analysis

Understanding the competitive landscape from a brand perspective is one of the most important exercises you can do. 

1. First, create a list of competitors: start with your direct competitors, then secondary (compete in some way but perhaps not directly, also they could easily pivot into what you do [i.e., Blockbuster becoming Redbox]), and tertiary (they operate in the same industry and perhaps work in your ecosystem but likely will never compete/only compliment you).

2. Next, let’s identify their brand archetypes, their colour schemes, and why they have their logos the way they do: is it green for money, blue for trust, is it an F because they are lazy, etc. Take a few guesses to jot down as we’ll discuss with your team in a moment.

3. Now I want you to take a whiteboard in your office, print a copy of your logo, and put it in the middle. Around your logo, I want you to map out your 3 types of competitors just with their logos in a mind-map.

4. On a separate nearby whiteboard, I want you to do the same thing but only with your direct competitor’s websites/apps, print out and tape up their top 5 pages from their sites (landing page, registration, checkout, product view, etc) with yours in the middle.

5. The next step is to have a brainstorming session with your team, asking the questions below alongside anything else you come up with. This is a creative and brainstorming exercise, so no idea is dumb. Neither is group consensus the best way to make decisions, groups can choose 2-3 options to the test, but DATA and consumer opinion will always be your best tools to make decisions.

Remember – Just because you like the colour red and fire engines, does not mean your logo should be a red fire engine.

Questions to ask your team: 

• Does our brand and logo match the industry we are in?

• Do we stand out in a positive way or a negative way?

• Does our logo make sense to 3rd parties? (i.e., ask someone in the hallway what it looks like to them)

• Do our competitor’s logos make sense?

• Does our industry require a specific quality like “trust in finance”?

• Do we exude that quality in our archetype, logo, and brand colour scheme?

When comparing your website or app’s pages to your competitors – what is different, what is the same, and how do they feel? If you have time, take some photos of both, or bring in some people you know and ask them which they honestly prefer logo-wise from the pool with your competitors as well as website pages.

Market testing doesn’t have to be paid focus groups that cost $10k, nor should it be limited to you and your team. Our recommendation is ALWAYS to get as much data as you can and build in testing to your processes, even if it’s not “publishable quality” so that you at least catch the obvious “aha’s” like pirate flags and payment processing software don’t mix.

Your goal should be to foster creativity and make sure that your team is taking the time to “think through” everything they do from an outside customer and marketing perspective. Does that mean your engineers are now marketers? No.