Market Competitor Research

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name: competitor-research description: Research competitors systematically. Analyze positioning, pricing, features, marketing, and gaps. Generate competitive intelligence reports with actionable insights. Use when analyzing market competition, benchmarking products, or finding market opportunities. Triggers on "competitor", "competition", "benchmark", "market analysis", "competitive intelligence".

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Competitor Research

Systematic competitive analysis to understand your market position and find opportunities.

Research Framework

1. Identify Competitors

Direct Competitors:

Same product category

Same target market

Similar features/pricing

Indirect Competitors:

Different product, same need

Alternative solutions

Adjacent markets

Emerging Competitors:

New entrants

Startups

Platform expansions

How to Find:

- Search "[product] alternatives"
Check review sites (G2, Capterra)
Industry reports
Customer suggestions
Social media mentions
App store categories

2. Analyze Positioning

Value Proposition:

What do they claim?

Who do they target?

What problem do they solve?

How do they differentiate?

Positioning Map:

                Premium
                   │
    ┌──────────────┼──────────────┐
    │              │              │
    │   Competitor A    Competitor B
    │              │              │
Enterprise ───────┼─────── SMB
    │              │              │
    │   Competitor C    You
    │              │              │
    └──────────────┼──────────────┘
                   │
              Commodity

3. Evaluate Features

Feature Matrix: | Feature | You | Comp A | Comp B | Comp C | |---------|-----|--------|--------|--------| | Core Feature 1 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | | Core Feature 2 | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | | Advanced Feature | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | Integration X | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | | Mobile App | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |

Gap Analysis:

Features only you have → Differentiation

Features everyone has → Table stakes

Features you lack → Competitive disadvantage

Features no one has → Opportunity

4. Pricing Analysis

Pricing Models:

Free tier + Premium

Per-seat pricing

Usage-based

Enterprise contracts

One-time purchase

Price Comparison:

| Plan | You | Comp A | Comp B |
|------|-----|--------|--------|
| Free | 5 users | 3 users | 10 users |
| Pro | $29/user | $25/user | $35/user |
| Enterprise | Custom | $99/user | Quote |

Pricing Strategy:

Undercut? Risk race to bottom

Premium? Need clear differentiation

Match? Compete on features

5. Marketing Analysis

Channels:

Where do they advertise?

What content do they create?

Which communities are they in?

Who are their partners?

Messaging:

Keywords they target

Tone and voice

Claims and promises

Social proof used

Content Strategy:

Blog frequency

Content types

Distribution channels

Engagement metrics

6. Technical Analysis

Technology Stack:

- Framework/Language
Cloud provider
Third-party integrations
Open source dependencies

Performance:

Load time

Uptime

Scale limits

Security posture

Developer Experience:

API quality

Documentation

SDK availability

Community support

Research Methods

Public Sources

Company Website:

About page

Pricing page

Feature pages

Case studies

Blog

Press releases

Review Sites:

G2

Capterra

Product Hunt

AlternativeTo

TrustRadius

Social Media:

Twitter/X

LinkedIn

Reddit communities

Discord servers

YouTube

Industry Sources:

News sites

Podcasts

Conference talks

Investor updates

SEC filings (public companies)

Technical Sources

Built With:

BuiltWith.com

Wappalyzer

GitHub repos

Package dependencies

Job Postings:

Required skills reveal stack

Growth areas

Strategic priorities

API Documentation:

Capabilities

Rate limits

Integration options

Customer Intelligence

Reviews:

What customers love

What they complain about

Feature requests

Switching reasons

Customer Interviews:

Why they chose competitor

What they'd improve

Switching costs

Unmet needs

Community:

Forum discussions

Support tickets (public)

Feature request boards

User groups

Analysis Templates

SWOT Analysis

COMPETITOR: [Name]
Strengths:
What they do well
Resources they have
Market position
Unique advantages
Weaknesses:
Product gaps
Customer complaints
Technical debt
Market limitations
Opportunities:
Markets they could enter
Features they could add
Partnerships possible
Trends they could leverage
Threats:
New entrants
Technology shifts
Market changes
Regulatory risks

Competitor Profile

## [Competitor Name]
Basic Info
Founded: [Year]
Funding: [Amount/Round]
Employees: [Count]
Location: [HQ]
Market: [Segment]
Product
Core offering: [Description]
Key features: [List]
Pricing: [Model]
Target: [Customer]
Positioning
Value prop: [One line]
Differentiation: [How]
Messaging: [Tone/Style]
Traction
Users: [Count]
Revenue: [Estimate]
Growth: [Rate]
Markets: [Geography]
Strengths
[Top 3 strengths]
Weaknesses
[Top 3 weaknesses]
Strategy Implications
How should we respond?
What can we learn?
Where can we win?

Actionable Outputs

Competitive Report

# [Industry] Competitive Analysis
Executive Summary
[2-3 paragraphs on market position and key findings]
Market Overview
Market size: $X billion
Growth rate: Y%
Key trends: [List]
Competitor Landscape
Direct Competitors
#### [Competitor A]
[Profile]
#### [Competitor B]
[Profile]
Indirect Competitors
[Brief profiles]
Feature Comparison
[Matrix]
Pricing Comparison
[Table]
Gap Analysis
Features only we have: [List]
Features we lack: [List]
Opportunities: [List]
Recommendations
1. [Priority action]
2. [Priority action]
3. [Priority action]
Appendix
[Detailed data]

Battle Card

# [Competitor Name] Battle Card
When They Come Up
[Scenario where prospect mentions them]
How We Win
[Key differentiator 1]
[Key differentiator 2]
[Key differentiator 3]
Common Objections
| Objection | Response |
|-----------|----------|
| "They're cheaper" | [Response] |
| "They have X feature" | [Response] |
| "They're bigger" | [Response] |
Proof Points
[Case study]
[Testimonial]
[Metric]
Don't Say
[What to avoid]
Do Say
[Key messages]

Continuous Monitoring

Set Up Alerts

Google Alerts:
"[competitor name]"
"[competitor product]"
"[competitor CEO]"
Social Mentions:
Twitter lists
LinkedIn follows
Reddit saves
Newsletters

Track Changes

Weekly:

News mentions

Social activity

Blog posts

Monthly:

Pricing changes

Feature releases

Hiring patterns

Quarterly:

Full re-analysis

Strategy update

Report to stakeholders

Ethical Guidelines

Do:

Use public sources

Cite sources properly

Focus on facts

Update regularly

Share internally only

Don't:

Misrepresent yourself

Access private information

Share confidential data

Make false claims

Use for defamation

Tools

Research:

Google (search, alerts, trends)

Social media monitoring

Review aggregators

News aggregators

Analysis:

Spreadsheets

SWOT templates

Positioning maps

Feature matrices

Monitoring:

RSS readers

Newsletter subscriptions

Social lists

Calendar reminders