Competitor Analysis Secrets of an 8 Figure Brand

Hey everyone,

Welcome back for another bite to chew on. 

As you can imagine, we get a lot of questions about operating a DTC business from other founders and operators. 

Tons of stuff about Meta and marketing. 

Lots about finances and cash flow management. 

Huge interest in how we manage influencer. 

But a big topic that seems to be under-discussed? 

Competitor analysis. 

Because let’s face it - it’s a jungle out there. It’s never been easier to start an online business. 

So besides the big, established incumbents in your category, you always have to look out for the new entrants that might be coming for your market share. 

But competitor analysis isn’t just about defense.

Done right, it can uncover gaps in your market that might be underserved or ignored. Finding them can reveal new brand differentiators or revenue paths. 

So today we’re going to take you through the basics of competitor analysis, as well as what we do at Obvi to stay ahead of the curve. 

On the Menu 

• First - Competitive analysis frameworks

• Second - Creative and reputation research

• Third - Finding opportunities

Before we get going, we want to talk about the inspiration behind today’s topic…

Everyone’s always talking about data in DTC.

But what everyone really wants is intelligence. 

Nobody actually cares about having a bunch of info. They only care about what it means and how it will benefit them. 

That’s why we’re pretty excited about Particl - a new competitor intelligence platform. 

Here’s how we’re using it Obvi - 

• Keep track of our biggest competitor's price changes and sales trends. 

• Get regular updates on new product launches from other major collagen sellers in our space.

• Deploy their AI copilot to find whitespace in our market to inform new product dev.

If you’ve ever spent hours combing through another brand’s websites, catalogs, or social proof, then Particl is going to change your life. 

And like we said - they don’t just give you a big data dump. 

Their dashboards and reports provide actionable insights in just a few minutes.

Particl’s unique mix of → comprehensive e-commerce database + easy reporting + AI-informed analysis is what sets these guys apart from other competitive analysis platforms.

We found out about Particl because big brands like SKIMS, Hexclad, and AWAY have recently made it their competitor analysis tool. 

Now you can too. Get instant access to 20k brands’ sales insights with Particl’s 14-day free trial.

Competitive analysis frameworks

This stuff is very close to our hearts here at Obvi. 

It’s a core part of how we operate. 

Why? Because our market is highly competitive and highly saturated. 

Even from the outset, we had to deeply understand the supplement space just to have a chance.

We didn’t just look at who the main players were, but what products were popular, how they were being marketed, and their range of price points. 

Seriously - when we research our competition, our analysis doesn’t stop at product categories or individual lines. We dig right down to the SKU level.  

But - just thinking about this level of competitor analysis can be overwhelming. 

There’s a lot of information out there scattered across different sources. It can be hard just to know where to start. 

That’s why it can be helpful to have a framework in mind. 

The first step (the easy one) is to identify your key competitors. Take a look around your industry and make a note of the big guys and the ambitious newcomers. 

Put them in a list. 

Now consider what framework to use for your analysis. 

Two options are the classic SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) or the Porter Five Forces model. 

SWOT is straightforward and intuitive. Almost everyone has built a SWOT over the years. 

The Five Forces model can be a bit more comprehensive. Here’s what it looks like:

• Competitive Rivals - Look at the key industry players, as well as the size of your industry, its growth, and the similarities of what’s being offered.

• New Entrant Potential - Is this space easier or more difficult to enter? Entry hurdles can make it easier to start something new, but that can create a more cluttered and competitive market.

• Supplier Power - What is the supply landscape for this offering? Are suppliers limited/rare? How difficult is it to scale up production? 

• Customer Power - Are your customers informed or price-sensitive? Are there high or low switching costs if they want to jump ship?

• Substitute threat - How available are close substitutes within this market? Are customers able and willing to substitute offerings with ease?

This kind of analysis framework is really helpful if you’re looking to enter a market or start a new company, but it can also work to map things out, even if you’ve got traction. 

Here’s another framework more specific to DTC to get you to the next step —>

Market positioning - here’s where you look at things like price points, value props, regions, and messaging angles.

Web presence and UX research - Check out your competitor's navigation UX, product catalog, Product Description Pages (PDPs), and CRO activities. 

What’s working, what isn’t? 

Inspect their offers and pricing model - Is this competitor premium or competing on value for dollar? 

Are they bundling or pushing users to a subscription? 

Do they have cross-sells and upsells?

Is there a free shipping threshold?

Run through their funnel - Nothing reveals your competitor’s DTC strategy better than going through their purchase process. 

Sign up for their emails and SMS to better understand their retention tactics. 

Abandon your cart in the purchase flow. 

Buy something so check out their in-cart and post-purchase experience. 

The creative and reputation research phase

At this point, you’re probably getting a good sense of the competition. 

But you’re going to want to go another step deeper if you’re serious about this kind of analysis.

This is where you dig into their online reputation and paid marketing. 

What you’re looking for → 

What do consumers like and dislike about this brand? What are the common recommendations and the complaints?

How is this brand using pad media and direct response marketing to drive awareness? What messages and concepts seem to dominate their ads?

There are some great methods to review your competitor's reputation:

• Social proof/reviews on their site

• Social media comments (both organic and on their ads)

• Communities, message boards, and gathering spaces like Reddit

• Google Reviews

Pay attention to the good and bad here. It can give you a clear indication of their brand perception, strengths, and weaknesses direct from the most reliable source - their customers. 

Next, check out their Meta ad Library. 

Look up Meta Ad Library on Google and it will take you to this simple search page:

Choose the location, ad type, and brand/advertiser name and you’ll get to inspect their relevant ad creative.

From there you can apply filters like platform, media type, active status, impressions by date…

You’ll also be able to click on individual ads to check them out in more detail → 

Make sure to click the CTA so you can inspect the post-click destination and whether they are using landing pages.

Finding opportunities

Okay, so here’s your foundational market analysis → 

• You’ve gone through your competitor's website, purchase flow, and social media.

• You understand their positioning, offers, and pricing model.

• And you have a sense of their brand perception and key messaging. 

Yeah, that’s a lot. But now what do you do with all of it?

For us at Obvi, it’s all about establishing the market baseline of products and offerings and then finding ways to offer something that’s different or something that’s better.

That’s always been our mindset. Don’t just come out with something that the market already has. Find ways to zig when everyone else is zagging.    

So here’s how we leverage competitor analysis to make this happen:

Benchmarking - what is their product assortment relative to ours? What are their best sellers? How do their prices compare to us and other competitors in the space?

Creative Inspo - Can we take anything from their positioning, messaging, or ads? Are they using creative frameworks that can inform our own creative dev? 

UX comparison - Is there some aspect of their funnel, be it positive or negative, that can educate us about our own UX? What is creating friction vs what is adding value?

Market gaps - Can we spot unresolved customer complaints or requests? Is there whitespace in this industry given what is currently offered? 

In short - competitor analysis can add huge value to your:

• Current brand position and offering mix

• Creative development and branding

• CRO, website, and UX 

• Product research and development

It’s a lot of work, especially if you’re doing everything manually without a tool like Particl - but it’s worth it. 

The intelligence that leads to your next major product launch, winning ad, or key UX unlock could be out there, waiting for you to find it.

Sum it up

When we started Obvi, it was on the back of a simple market analysis - that the supplement brands promising youth and beauty all seemed kind of dull. 

It was this straightforward insight that helped us create a disruptive collagen brand.

But…we always make sure not to rest on our laurels.

We are always trying to improve and evolve.  

Part of that is keeping an open dialogue with our customers through our 100k-member Facebook community. 

But the other big piece has always been competitor analysis. 

That’s why we are so excited about adding a tool like Particl to our tech stack. 

It has drastically reduced the amount of hours we have to pour into our research. And it has given us powers we never even had previously →

→ Instant access to competitor revenues over time

→ Per SKU sales trends

→ Sentiment analysis across entire industries

That said, whatever way you go - purely manual or by leveraging cutting-edge technology - 

We’d tell you that competitor analysis isn’t really optional these days. 

If you want to grow sales and maintain an edge in the market, you have to understand how you fit in it and where the biggest opportunities lie. 

All the best, 

Ron and Ash