Chapter 8
Covering Your Competition
IN THIS CHAPTER
Seeing the value in competition
Unveiling your real competitors
Making use of strategic groups
Keeping tabs on your competitors’ actions
Predicting what your competitors are going to do next
Putting together competitive data
Spending time with the competition isn’t anyone’s idea of fun. Who could possibly forget the Lindsay Lohan character having to deal with the “Plastics” in Mean Girls? Think they’re out to get you? You bet they are. But the more you know about the competition, the better off you are when it comes to figuring out their next move — and setting a strategy to stay one step ahead.
If you haven’t gotten around to thinking about the competition yet, you’re in bad company; many businesses fail to take this part of planning seriously. Typical excuses include the following:
- We have no way of knowing who all our competitors ...