Identify and Segment Primary and Secondary Competitors
Map the competitive landscape into direct, indirect, and potential substitute solutions currently used by your target customers. Focus on real behavioural alternatives rather than just obvious named rivals to capture true market dynamics.
Completing this step isolates the exact competitive forces competing for your customer's budget and attention. It grounds the venture's positioning strategy in reality rather than an idealised, competition-free vacuum.
A structured competitor matrix segmenting rivals by direct competitors, workarounds, and emerging threats. Each segment must include clear criteria explaining why these entities pose a credible threat to customer acquisition.
Five questions an expert would ask when reviewing your output
Use these to challenge assumptions, pressure-test your logic, and check the quality of this action's output in the context of the parent task and wider venture development.
- 1
Why have you categorised these specific entities as direct competitors while excluding other obvious market players?
- 2
What evidence demonstrates that customers currently view these alternatives as viable substitutes for your offering?
- 3
How does your segmentation account for non-obvious workarounds or manual status-quo processes?
- 4
Which emerging or indirect competitors pose the greatest threat of disruption over the next twelve months?
- 5
Where does your definition of the competitive landscape fail to reflect actual customer buying behaviour?