Competitive Analysis Examples in Excel for Your Next Project

Are you tired of watching your competitors steal the spotlight while you struggle to stay relevant?

Let me give you a secret – keep your enemies closer.

Yes, it may sound contradictory, but trust me, it’s the key to creating a winning strategy.

The key to business success goes beyond having a fantastic product or service. Understanding your competition is equally important. After all, how can you emerge victorious if you are unaware of what you’re up against?

That’s where competitive analysis comes in.

It’s not about copying every competitor’s move but learning from their successes and failures. Then make strategic decisions to gain a competitive edge.

Of course, competitive analysis is not easy. It requires patience, persistence, and a bit of creativity. But with the right mindset and tools, you can emerge victorious. Let’s look at some competitive analysis examples that will inspire your next business supremacy-winning strategy.

Table of Content:

1. What is Competitive Analysis?
2. Benefits of Competitor Analysis
3. Competitive Analysis Examples
4. How to Do Competitor Analysis in Excel?
5. Wrap Up

What is Competitive Analysis?

Competitive analysis is the art of decoding and outmaneuvering your rivals’ moves in the marketplace. Think of it like a game of chess, where you anticipate your opponent’s next move. Then plan your counter-attack accordingly.

Similarly, competitive analysis helps you identify your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, market positioning, and product offerings. This empowers you to fine-tune your strategies, differentiate yourself, and gain a competitive edge.

Benefits of Competitor Analysis

Let’s explore the benefits of competitor analysis and how it can take your business to the next level.

• Identify Strengths and Weaknesses

You can gain insights into your strengths and weaknesses compared to your competitors through competitive analysis. Armed with this knowledge, you can take strategic steps to improve your offerings. Consequently, gain an edge over your rivals.

• Discover New Opportunities

By conducting a thorough competitive analysis, you can unveil untapped prospects that may have gone unnoticed. These opportunities range from unexplored market segments to novel product or service offerings or innovative marketing tactics. This will help you devise a robust strategy to bridge these gaps and gain a competitive edge.

• Improve Customer Satisfaction

When you conduct a competitive analysis, you gain insight into the preferences and expectations of your target customers. With this knowledge, you can optimize your offerings to cater to these needs and desires. Consequently, improve customer satisfaction and boost loyalty toward your brand.

• Better Pricing Strategies

A competitor analysis will help you understand the market landscape and the pricing strategies employed by your competitors. Then optimize your pricing strategy by leveraging your unique value proposition and the demands of your target audience. As a result, attain a “sweet spot” where your prices are attractive to customers and profitable.

• Innovation

Competitive analysis can inspire innovation by exposing you to new ideas and technologies. By understanding what your competition is doing, you can develop new products and services that are more innovative. As a result, meet customer needs better.

• Risk Management

You can identify potential risks and threats your competitors pose through competitive analysis. Armed with this knowledge, you can proactively safeguard your market share and mitigate any potential risks. Consequently, ensure that you remain a strong and viable player in the industry.

• Brand Positioning

A thorough examination of your competitors can empower you to craft a more robust brand positioning plan. Such a strategy can help you in setting yourself apart from the competition. Consequently, enhance your market standing and build a loyal customer base.

Competitive Analysis Examples

In today’s fast-paced business environment, keeping up with your competition is crucial. Conducting a competitive analysis can help you big time.

Need some inspiration?

Let’s explore some competitive analysis examples to help you stay ahead of the game.

• Comparison Bar Chart

A Comparison Bar Chart is a visualization tool that displays data in horizontal or vertical bars. This chart effectively compares multiple items, such as sales performance, market share, or customer satisfaction ratings. The bars are color-coded to represent different categories of data, making it easy to interpret and understand.

One of the benefits of a Comparison Bar Chart is that it can quickly reveal patterns and trends in data. However, one limitation is that it may not be suitable for displaying large amounts of data. Why? It can become cluttered and difficult to read.

Overall, the Comparison Bar Chart is useful for data analysis and decision-making. Look at the competitor analysis report example on website traffic shown below.

Quarters	Companies	Traffic
Q1	Your Company	250986
Q1	Competitor 1	26106
Q1	Competitor 2	95563
Q2	Your Company	160466
Q2	Competitor 1	78874
Q2	Competitor 2	71263
Q3	Your Company	223179
Q3	Competitor 1	134726
Q3	Competitor 2	121635
Q4	Your Company	201495
Q4	Competitor 1	32707
Q4	Competitor 2	208904

• Stacked Bar Chart

The Stacked Bar Chart is a bar chart variant that displays a variable’s total sum. It also breaks down the total sum into sub-categories, each represented by a stacked segment. The height of each segment is proportionate to its sub-category’s value. Then the entire bar’s height indicates the variable’s total sum.

Stacked Bar Charts help to compare the proportions of different sub-categories across different variables. They are common in business and marketing to visualize market share, sales data, and customer demographics.

See the market share competitive analysis report template below.

Countries	Companies	Garments	Electronics	Toys
USA	Your Company	56	37	7
USA	Competitor’s Company	25	11	64
Canada	Your Company	52	38	10
Canada	Competitor’s Company	52	34	14
UK	Your Company	53	22	25
UK	Competitor’s Company	32	35	33
UAE	Your Company	27	24	49
UAE	Competitor’s Company	44	26	31

• Radar Chart

The Radar Chart is a graphical representation of multivariate data. It displays data points on a circular grid with multiple axes radiating from the center. Each axis represents a different variable. Then the data points are plotted at the intersection of these axes, forming a polygonal shape.

The Radar Chart can be useful for comparing multiple variables, highlighting strengths and weaknesses across categories.

Example

Let’s say you have sales data by product category distributed across the different months of the year.

Months	Your Website	Competitors Website
Jan	614000	646000
Feb	579000	740000
Mar	753000	954000
Apr	956000	616000
May	545000	880000
Jun	697000	531000
Jul	677000	462000
Aug	742000	962000
Sep	512000	688000
Oct	750000	553000
Nov	659000	518000
Dec	849000	457000

You can map this data on a Radar Chart, as shown below.

How to Do Competitor Analysis in Excel?

With the vast amounts of data available, you need effective visualization and analysis tools. While Excel is a powerful data organization tool, it poses challenges when creating insightful visualizations for complex datasets.

This is where ChartExpo comes in.

Combining Excel’s data organization capabilities with ChartExpo’s visualization features lets you glean valuable insights into your competitors.

Why ChartExpo?

Benefits of Using ChartExpo

• ChartExpo prides itself on its user-friendly interface, which empowers you to craft compelling visualizations with ease. No coding skills are required.
• ChartExpo empowers you to unleash your creativity and design visuals that perfectly embody your unique personality and style. With its advanced customization features, you can tweak design elements to create unique visualizations.
• ChartExpo’s affordability is unmatched. You can use the free 7-day trial to test the features before committing to a $10 monthly plan.

How to Install ChartExpo in Excel?

1. Open your Excel application.
2. Open the worksheet and click the “Insert” menu.
3. You’ll see the “My Apps” option.
4. In the office Add-ins window, click “Store” and search for ChartExpo on my Apps Store.
5. Click the “Add” button to install ChartExpo in your Excel.

ChartExpo charts are available both in Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Please use the following CTA’s to install the tool of your choice and create beautiful visualizations in a few clicks in your favorite tool.

Let me show you how to create a Radar Chart visualization of your data to glean valuable insights.

• To get started with ChartExpo, install ChartExpo in Excel.

• Now Click on My Apps from the INSERT menu.

• Choose ChartExpo from My Apps, then click Insert.

• Once it loads, choose the “Radar Chart” from the charts list.

• Click the “Create Chart From Selection” button after selecting the data from the sheet, as shown.

• The Radar Chart will appear as below.

• Click the Edit Chart button to modify your chart.
• Click the pencil icon next to Chart Header to change the chart’s title.
• It will open the properties dialog. Add a heading in Line 1 of the Text section and enable the Show. Give the appropriate title of your chart and click Apply.
• Click the Save Changes button to persist the changes.

• To enlarge the size of the dots in the Radar Chart, click the “Settings” button. Expand the “Curve Point” property and toggle the “Show” option.
• Click the “Apply” button to keep the modifications.

• The final chart will appear as below.

Insights:

• Your website and your competitor’s website received almost equal traffic in January.
• Your competitor outperformed your website in five months: February, March, May, August, and September. Your competitor’s more extensive user base could be the contributing factor.
• Your website performed better than your competitor’s website in six months of the year: April, June, July, October, November, and December. This was due to your consistently higher traffic levels.

FAQs:

What is competitive analysis?

The competitive analysis involves researching and scrutinizing your competitors to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. Then identify opportunities and threats to help you improve your business strategies. Competitive analysis examples include researching competitors’ products, sales tactics, pricing, marketing strategies, and social media presence.

What should I include in a competitor analysis?

To conduct a comprehensive competitor analysis, you need to gather the following data on your rivals;

• Product or service offerings
• Marketing tactics
• Target audience
• Pricing strategies
• Sales tactics

It’s also essential to evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT).

How do I conduct a competitive analysis?

To conduct a competitive analysis, first gather data on your competitors, then compare it to your business. You can use tools like the Comparison Bar Chart, Stacked Bar Chart, and Radar Chart to perform this comparison.

Wrap Up

In conclusion, competitive analysis is crucial for any successful business strategy. By understanding your competitors, you can identify gaps in the market and differentiate your brand.

How?

By identifying your strengths and weaknesses compared to your competitors, you can do the following;

• Refine your marketing strategies.
• Improve your product offerings.
• Enhance customer experiences.

Remember, competitive analysis is not a one-time task. You should regularly analyze your rivals to stay up-to-date on industry trends and changes in the competitive landscape. Consequently, adapt your strategies to stay ahead of the game.

As we have seen with the competitive analysis examples above, you can’t ignore the power of charting. Charts are great for summarizing data, illustrating trends, and showing how things change over time.

The good news is you can create your charts in Excel with just a few clicks.

How?

Use ChartExpo for Excel. It lets you quickly gain a bird’s eye view of your competitors and make informed business decisions.