Competitor Analysis and Benchmarking Methods - Visualizing with Positioning Maps

Competitor Analysis and Benchmarking Reports - A Practical Guide to Actionable Insights

Complete Research Mastery Series for PE·VC·Consulting·Corporate Practitioners ③

What Differentiates Us from Competitors?

If you're considering Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A), strategic investments, or New Business Development, you must thoroughly understand the companies fiercely competing with your target firm in that market.

Even if you've concluded through market research covered in Part 1 and market size calculations in Part 2 that the Market Size is sufficient and growth rates are attractive, failing to properly assess the competitive landscape can render everything meaningless.

No matter how large the market, it's worthless if you can't survive the competition.

This article covers specific practical methods for accurately identifying who you're competing against in markets you're entering.

Read through to discover how to find ways to beat potential competitors.

Why Competitor Analysis Matters

Many companies think of competitor analysis as merely "researching competitor information." However, proper competitor analysis becomes the core foundation for strategic decision-making, and this should be your goal.

Competitor analysis delivers:

✔︎ Objective and accurate assessment of our market position

✔︎ Systematic analysis of competitor strengths and weaknesses

✔︎ Discovery of differentiation opportunities and positioning strategy development

✔︎ Early identification of hidden Risks and threats

✔︎ Selection of benchmarking targets and learning from best practices

Competitor and benchmarking analysis is a core research type that identifies competitor status and strategies within specific industries and sets your business direction by referencing industry best practices.

To stay ahead of competition, you must read market trends and analyze industry-leading cases.

McKinsey's 3-Stage Competitor Analysis Framework

The competitive analysis framework actually used by McKinsey and BCG breaks down into three stages:

Define who your competitors are (Who), analyze what they're doing (What), and develop strategies for differentiation (How).

Stage 1: Who - Find Your Real Competitors

Many companies stumble right at the first stage. They view only companies making the same products as competitors.

In reality, you must analyze Direct Competitors, Indirect Competitors, and Potential Competitors separately.

✔︎ Direct Competitors are companies offering similar products/services to the same customer base. For K-beauty brands, other K-beauty brands in the same price range are direct competitors.

✔︎ Indirect Competitors are companies satisfying the same customer needs through different methods. For cosmetics brands, dermatology clinics or beauty device companies can be indirect competitors.

✔︎ Potential Competitors are companies currently in different markets but with high entry potential. Global cosmetics giants or Big Tech companies fall into this category.

Using Porter's 5 Forces Model for Competitor Analysis

Harvard Business School Professor Michael E. Porter's Porter's 5 Forces Model, developed in 1979, enables systematic analysis of industry competitive structure. This model has served as a core strategic consulting framework for over 40 years.

The key is comprehensively analyzing five competitive forces to evaluate industry profitability and attractiveness:

• Intensity of Competitive Rivalry: The degree of competition among current market players

• Threat of New Entrants: The likelihood of new competitors entering the market and entry barriers

• Threat of Substitutes: The existence of alternative solutions that can replace our products/services

• Bargaining Power of Suppliers: The power suppliers have to influence prices and terms for raw materials or components

• Bargaining Power of Buyers: The power customers have to negotiate prices and service terms

📚 Reference: Porter, M. E. (1979). "How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy", Harvard Business Review

📖 Recommended Resource: Harvard Business Review - Porter's Five Forces

Stage 2: What - Understand What Competitors Are Doing

Once you've defined competitors, analyze what they're doing.

It's critical to assess competitive intensity within the industry and analyze specific company strengths and weaknesses by researching competitor market share, business models, customer satisfaction, and reviews.

Market Share & Growth Rate Analysis

Professional research firms provide industry-specific market share and growth rate data. This reveals who's leading the market and which companies are growing rapidly.

Use data from these research firms:

• Global: Statista, IBISWorld, Euromonitor, Frost & Sullivan

• Korea: Fnguide, NICE BizLINE, Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade

The key isn't just looking at current rankings but identifying underlying trends. If the third-place company is growing much faster than first and second place, the competitive landscape will likely shift.

Business Model Analysis

You must understand how each competitor makes money.

Platforms like Business Model Navigator, Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade, KOTRA, Owler and reports from consulting firms like McKinsey, BCG, Deloitte are useful for this analysis.

For example, within the same battery industry, some companies focus on direct manufacturing, others specialize in core material supply, and still others adopt technology licensing models.

Business model analysis is essential because each has different revenue structures and Risk factors.

In-Depth Competitive Advantage Strategy Analysis

Leveraging an Expert Network Service (ENS) is a highly effective way to obtain core strategies and internal information that public data alone cannot reveal.

Major expert network platforms include:

• GLG (glginsights.com/ko): The world's largest expert network

• Guidepoint (guidepoint.com): North America-focused expert consulting service

• brainconnect.ai (brainconnect.ai): AI-powered next-generation ENS with a 47-country global network, specialized in Korean companies and niche market expert searches

Through these platforms, you can conduct direct interviews with former employees of Acquisition Targets, former competitor executives, industry experts, and client contacts to secure differentiated strategic insights never publicly disclosed.

Stage 3: How - Develop Differentiation Strategies

Once you've assessed the competitive landscape, it's time to develop your unique differentiation strategy.

Here, the Positioning Map becomes an extremely useful tool.

Let's take a closer look at the Positioning Map, a core component of this analysis.

Visualizing Competitive Space with Positioning Maps

A Positioning Map is a tool that visually represents competitor positions by setting two core axes. The axes should represent the most important value factors in that industry.

For example, in the cosmetics industry, you could set axes like price range (X-axis) vs. functionality (Y-axis) or brand awareness (X-axis) vs. product innovation (Y-axis).

For the battery industry, technology capability (X-axis) vs. production scale (Y-axis) or price competitiveness (X-axis) vs. quality stability (Y-axis) work well.

After drawing a Positioning Map, you gain several important insights.

First, you can find White Space. Areas without competitors can become our opportunities.

Second, you can identify at a glance where the most intense red ocean competition exists.

Third, you can clearly set the position we should target.

Benchmarking - Learning from Industry Best Practices

Alongside competitor analysis, benchmarking is crucial.

Benchmarking analysis doesn't stop at competitor research—it's the process of analyzing Best Practices from successful companies in the industry and applying them to your own company. You can establish more effective business directions by referencing successful strategies.

There are three main types of benchmarking:

Internal benchmarking (other departments or product lines within the same company), competitive benchmarking (direct competitors), and functional benchmarking (best practices from other industries).

1. Internal Benchmarking

Referencing best practices from other departments or product lines within the same company

2. Competitive Benchmarking

Referencing direct competitors' success strategies and operational methods

3. Functional Benchmarking

Applying best practices from other industries to ours

The most innovative insights often come from functional benchmarking. For example, applying Netflix's recommendation algorithm to personalized cosmetics services, or benchmarking Amazon's logistics system for battery supply chain management.

The key isn't simply copying surface-level elements but understanding the fundamental causes of success. If benchmarking Apple's success, you shouldn't just copy product design—you should learn the mindset of designing the entire customer experience.

Now let's review competitor analysis methods through specific examples.

Market Analysis Example ①

K-Beauty Industry Competitive Analysis Case Study

Let's conduct a competitive analysis of the "premium anti-aging serum" market as a concrete example.

Stage 1: Define Competitors

• Direct Competitors: K-beauty anti-aging serum brands in the same price range (KRW 50,000-100,000, approx. $40-80 USD)

• Indirect Competitors: Global premium brands, dermatology procedures, beauty devices

• Potential Competitors: Possibility of global cosmetics giants launching K-beauty lines

Stage 2: Competitive Landscape Analysis

Identify market share based on Euromonitor data and analyze growth rate trends for each brand. Simultaneously, compare customer satisfaction through Trustpilot or reviews on Olive Young, a leading Korean health and beauty retailer.

The key isn't just numbers but understanding growth drivers. Analyze whether brands are growing through influencer marketing, technology capability, or price competitiveness.

Stage 3: Develop Positioning Strategy

Draw a functionality (X-axis) vs. brand awareness (Y-axis) map and mark each competitor's position. Find white space here to set our unique positioning.

For example, if the "high functionality + medium brand awareness" area is empty, you could adopt a strategy of building the brand based on superior product capability.

Market Analysis Example ②

Special Characteristics of B2B Industries Like Batteries and Semiconductors

Competitive analysis becomes more complex in B2B industries. You must consider the entire Value Chain, not just the final product.

In the battery industry, different competitive structures form at each stage: raw materials (lithium, nickel) → core materials (cathode, anode) → components (cells) → finished products (battery packs) → final applications (EVs, ESS).

Additionally, in B2B, technology roadmaps are core to competitive analysis. You must understand not only current technology capability but also technology development directions over the next 3-5 years and each company's R&D investment strategy.

For such complex analyses, insights from industry insiders become even more critical.

The process of validating technology competitiveness, customer relationships, and supply chain stability—difficult to identify through public data—through field experts is essential.

In such cases, it's effective to conduct 5-10+ Expert Interviews using verified Expert Network Services (ENS) like Brainconnect AI to thoroughly identify market opportunities and hidden Risks.

Practical Checklist - Competitor Analysis Completion Criteria

After completing competitor analysis, you should be able to clearly answer these five questions:

First, have you defined who your real competitors are, categorized as direct, indirect, and potential competitors?

Second, have you specifically identified each competitor's strengths and weaknesses? It should be specific like "generates average 100 million monthly views on influencer channels, specialized in targeting women in their 20s-30s," not just "good at marketing."

Third, have you found your unique differentiation points through a Positioning Map? Confirm whether you've avoided intensely competitive red oceans and discovered blue oceans.

Fourth, have you identified Best Practices worth benchmarking? Include excellent cases from other industries, not just your own.

Fifth, do analysis results connect to actionable strategies? Executable plans that actually help business decision-making should emerge, not analysis for analysis's sake.

Systematically completed competitive analysis becomes the core foundation for all strategic decisions including fundraising, M&A reviews, and New Business Development. You can only win by truly knowing your competitors.

Adding Depth to Competitive Analysis with Expert Interviews

Public data alone has limitations.

Ultimately, the goal of any competitor and benchmarking analysis is to develop a sophisticated competitive advantage. This requires two key actions: monitoring competitor trends with reliable data, and utilizing insights from various reports and industry Expert Interviews.

Experts actually working in industries have vivid insights into undisclosed market trends, competitors' internal strategies, and future industry changes.

You can access these insights through expert network services like Brainconnect AI.

Identify Hidden Market Risks with Expert Network Services

Brainconnect AI in particular is an ENS specialized in Korean niche markets, supporting more sophisticated competitor and benchmarking analysis through expert networks across various industries.

Through interviews with former executives who worked at competitors, industry technology experts, and investment analysts, you can secure deep competitive intelligence beyond surface-level analysis.

With Brainconnect AI's 47-country global network, you can identify strategies and trends of not only domestic but also overseas competitors.

Complete your competitor analysis with Brainconnect AI's expert network.

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Next: How to Conduct Consumer and Customer Trend Research (Part 4/6)

The next installment covers methods for listening to customer and consumer voices.

We'll share a practical guide for identifying what customers truly want through trend research and needs analysis.

Complete Business Research Mastery Series

• Part 1: Increase Research Success by Clarifying Goals with SMART Criteria

• Part 2: Market Size and Growth Analysis (TAM/SAM/SOM, CAGR Application)

• Part 3: Competitive and Benchmarking Analysis (Deriving Differentiation Strategies)

• Part 4: Consumer and Customer Trend Research (Discovering Needs and Pain Points)

• Part 5: M&A Investment Research Practical Guide (Decision-Making Methodology)

• Part 6: Industry Regulatory Change Analysis (Turning Risks into Opportunities)