Market Mapping the Competitive Landscape: Why It Matters and How To Do It
Market mapping is a data-driven market research strategy that removes guesswork, and allows you to strategically position yourself in a market.
In competitive environments, the big names who make the most noise aren’t always the ones you should be paying attention to.
Your biggest threat could be flying under the radar while you’re distracted by companies that just don’t matter.
So, how well do you know your competitors?
Unless your answer is rooted in data, you can’t really be sure.
Keep reading to see how you can use market mapping as a competitive advantage.
How to do market mapping
Companies of all sizes and at all stages can leverage the benefits of market mapping. The concept is useful when you want to enter a new market, launch a new product, increase market share, strengthen your position, and evaluate products. Let’s take a look at some market map examples that serve different purposes.
Market mapping competitors
Imagine you’re a start-up company and need to create your go-to-market strategy. Or you are an existing company defending your rank against the competition. You’d want to understand who the strongest players in the market are. In this case, you’ll position companies on a graph representing relevant measures such as yearly revenue and reach, or product range and price level.
When you view the various companies on the competitive map, you can detect gaps or weak points in the market that present an opportunity for you.
Let’s get even more specific. If your purpose is to identify how successful companies are in their marketing effort, you would evaluate traffic share and conversion rate, for example. Find out where your competitors are positioned on the graph and benchmark against them.
You’ll quickly see who is more successful and can pinpoint companies that you want to continue analyzing to understand their strategy
Market mapping products
Market mapping the audience
Another type of market mapping focuses on the customer. For example, an eCommerce marketer may focus on the frequency of purchases or website demographics such as age, gender, or location. You’ll create a map to identify which type of people are your best customers
