11/14/2019 3 Competitive Analysis Frameworks Every Product Marketer Should Know

MENU

Tour the Platform Log In

← Back to blog

WED APR 17, 2019 08:15 AM

3 COMPETITIVE
ANALYSIS
FRAMEWORKS EVERY
PRODUCT MARKETER
SHOULD KNOW
Posted by Ellie Mirman on Wed Apr 17, 2019 08:15 AM

As part of analyzing the competitive landscape and turning that intelligence into
impactful resources for sales, marketing, or product teams, product marketers
consume a lot of data. From gathering intel on competitors’ product pages to diving
into their help sites to examining job postings and case studies, every bit of
competitive intelligence data is critical to a product marketer’s analysis. But how do
you actually analyze the data to ultimately come out with takeaways and action items
to help your team win against the competition? Here are three competitive analysis
frameworks that every product marketer should know.

Competitive Analysis Framework #1:

Comparisons

While a feature comparison sheet is not the end goal of such an analysis, it can be a
helpful place to start to understand the scope of each competitor’s solutions and how
your solutions stack up. Similarly, you can apply a comparison framework to pricing,
https://www.crayon.co/blog/3-competitive-analysis-frameworks-every-product-marketer-should-know 1/6
11/14/2019 3 Competitive Analysis Frameworks Every Product Marketer Should Know

positioning, product launch strategies, and markets served. Comparisons allow you to
see, side by side, similarities and differences between you and your competitors. This,
then, enables you to craft a differentiated and effective product marketing strategy.

Download our Guide to Competitive Intelligence for Product

Marketing

A comparison-based approach to competitive analysis allows you to visually see how

you stack up against a competitor or set of competitors either side-by-side or in a
competitive matrix. Examples of competitive matrices include:

Win / Loss Matrix - graphing your win rate against each competitor and grouped
by type of competitor
Feature Comparison Matrix - visualizing your feature coverage against your
competitors’ solutions
Competitive Landscape Overview Matrix - grouping competitors based on size,
target market, or other factors to more manageably take in a landscape with
many competitors

Competitive Analysis Framework #2:

Groupings

When it comes to large amounts of data - such as blog posts or website pages or
case studies - it can be helpful to categorize or group these inputs to identify trends.
Are 90% of a competitor’s case studies in the healthcare industry? They clearly have a
focus in that market. Are most of the competitor’s product features focused on
content publishing and user permissions? This shows their product focus has been in
these areas. Groupings established by tagging or categorizing pieces of competitive
intelligence allow you to get out of the weeds of the data and see the forest for the
trees.

Grouping competitive intelligence data by type, industry, or other key factors, allows
you to make sense of large quantities of data. This type of analysis allows you to, for
example:

Determine your competitors’ customer segments by analyzing which markets

they’re speaking to in their content, or markets they’re highlighting in case
studies or product pages

https://www.crayon.co/blog/3-competitive-analysis-frameworks-every-product-marketer-should-know 2/6
11/14/2019 3 Competitive Analysis Frameworks Every Product Marketer Should Know

Analyze your competitors’ product focus by seeing which areas of their product
are most built-out and which use cases are not addressed
Identify thought leadership focus areas by tagging blog posts and other
educational content by topic

Competitive Analysis Framework #3: Hints

of the Future

Sometimes it can be helpful to zoom in on seemingly minute pieces of intelligence in

order to get hints of a competitor’s future strategy. A small change to their boilerplate
or the subheadlines of a product page can signal major positioning changes with
more initiatives to come. A few bullet points in a job description for a product
manager role can reveal the company’s product strategy, giving you an incredible
view of where they hope their solutions will be months from now. These seemingly
small details can be incredible hints of future strategies, allowing you to craft a
winning strategy of your own.

This micro-approach to competitive analysis is not one to look over. So often, we think
analysis has to do with large amounts of data all lined up in a spreadsheet. But
analysis also includes honing in on the one data point that reveals a lot about a
competitor’s strategy. This approach leverages, for example:

Job postings that can reveal upcoming product investment or marketing growth
areas
Website headline changes that can reveal SEO strategies and positioning shifts
Landing page form field changes that show indications of a company’s sales
structure and process

While capturing complete competitive intelligence data is a necessary precursor, it’s

the analysis of that data that’s critical for making competitive intelligence impactful for
your organization.

https://www.crayon.co/blog/3-competitive-analysis-frameworks-every-product-marketer-should-know 3/6
11/14/2019 3 Competitive Analysis Frameworks Every Product Marketer Should Know

   

Filed Under:
Competitive Analysis

Comments

First Name* Last Name

Email* Website

Comment*

protected by reCAPTCHA
Privacy - Terms

Submit Comment

SHARE

   

Subscribe to Email Updates

https://www.crayon.co/blog/3-competitive-analysis-frameworks-every-product-marketer-should-know 4/6
11/14/2019 3 Competitive Analysis Frameworks Every Product Marketer Should Know

Subscribe to the Crayon blog*

Enter your email

Subscribe

Recent Posts

Product Marketing Spotlight Series: Jessica Iandiorio

5 Ways to Drive Sales Adoption of Battlecards
How to Tie Product Marketing to Revenue
How to Gather Your Competitors' Pricing Information
Competitive Intelligence Spotlight Series: August Jackson

Popular Resources

Guide to Competitive Intelligence

Competitive Analysis Template
Guide to Measuring Product Marketing

View all resources >

Helpful Links

Competitive Intelligence

Competitive Analysis

Product Marketing

Log In   Try for Free

Company

https://www.crayon.co/blog/3-competitive-analysis-frameworks-every-product-marketer-should-know 5/6
11/14/2019 3 Competitive Analysis Frameworks Every Product Marketer Should Know

About
News
Careers
Contact

Legal

Terms
Privacy

Content

Blog
Case Studies
Resources

Products

Platform Overview
Competitive Intelligence
Competitive Analysis
Email Digests & Alerts
Sales Battlecards

About Crayon
Crayon is a market intelligence platform that helps businesses track, analyze,
and act on everything happening outside their four walls. Track a company's
complete digital footprint across 100+ types of market intelligence with
Crayon's competitive analysis tools.

See the latest market research and competitive intelligence benchmarks in the
2019 State of Competitive Intelligence Report.

Competitive Intelligence | Competitive Analysis | Product Marketing | Sales Enablement |

Market Intelligence

© 2019 Crayon

https://www.crayon.co/blog/3-competitive-analysis-frameworks-every-product-marketer-should-know 6/6