Why bother to analyse competitors?

Competitor analysis serves several important roles in business strategy planning including:

• Helping organisations understand their competitive advantages/disadvantages relative to competitors
• Generating understanding of competitors’ past, present and more importantly future strategies
• Providing an informed basis to develop strategies to achieve competitive advantage in the future
• Helping forecast the returns that may be made from future investments and actions. e.g. How will competitors respond to a new product or new pricing strategy?
• Assisting in preparation for proposals, presentations, sales pitches and marketing campaigns to both new and existing customers