Anima Palshikar

Anima PalshikarSr. Technical Writer – MarComCyberoam Technologies Pvt Ltd.Ahmedabad

Competition Analysis: A Lesser Explored Combination of Technical and Marketing Communications

What has brought you here?

• Subject: Interesting or Confusing

• How and Why a comparison can be a combination of Technical and Marketing Communication?

• Relation amongst Marketing Communication, Technical Writer and Technical Communication

• Can we consider making a career in Competitive Analysis (how)?

What do you think, what is a Comparison?

Definition says : An act of evaluating two or more things in relation to each other.

Social Perception:A way of Life

Philosophy:• The thief of joy• The reason of joy

Why Do We Need Comparisons?

Zero Moment of Truth

• To understand the similarities and differences

• Matching the requirement to the available options

• To understand value for money

• To take a right decision

• To understand the market and competition

• To find out the strengths and weaknesses

• To understand the scope of improvements and Sale

Different Needs Different Comparisons

Consumer

Vendor

Why we are discussing it in the forum of Technical Communicators?

Profile Overview - Conventional

A Technical Writer • Is a bridge between a Technocrat and an end user.

• Translates Technical concepts into simple language.

• Documents all the stages of a product or software

life cycle.

• Documents all the processes of a

product/service/software life cycle.

Developer and Users

Technical Writer’s Positioning

End User Documents

Development

• Gap Analysis • BRD and PRDs

• Marketing ComparisonsTechnical Writer

Market

Competitor Study in Organization

Why - Market• kill the competition• help in decision making • boost up the sales• market the product

Why - Development• Gap Analysis• Betterment of the product

Marketing Comparison


Approach – My Product is the BEST

• Identify/create the market

• Identify/choose your competitor

• Identify your strengths

• Identity competitors’ weakness

• Understand the user’s psychology

• Identify pitch line and stick with that


How to start with a Marketing comparison ?

• Know your product and competitor product

thoroughly

• Study all the available literature and collaterals, User

Interfaces

• Develop price to performance ratio analysis

• Hands on with product, if possible

• Highlight what the user will enjoy with a particular

product or what their suffering would be with

competitor product.


Points to compare

Features Comparison

Value for Money

User Experience

Must Have for Marketing Comparison

• Interesting and useful read for the user

• Backed with appropriate references

• Improve readers’ knowledge regarding the

product and motivate them to ask more

from the competition

• Penetrating Customers thought process

• Presenting weakness of the product in a

convincing way

Comparison: A Development Point of View


Approach - There is always a room for improvement

• Feature comparison • Market need• Efficiency• Granularity, Usability and Scalability • Innovation

• Price • Best product with reasonable price• Competitor price, Discounts, Schemes,

Trade up programs


How to do a Gap Analysis?

• Address customer problems

• Analyze genuine feature requests and

their scope

• Interact with concerned teams or

customers to understand the

requirement and implications

Must Have for Gap Analysis

• Feature requirement with use cases and visuals

(if required)

• Business criticality - time and geography wise

• Brief information regarding competitor’s

approach

• Clear visibility of market trends

• Short and crisp reading for the developers

What is the challenge?

• Two schools of thought

• Truth with hard core facts – Left

Brain

• Marketing Standards – Right

Brain

• Balance of Left and Right Mind

Skill Set

Inside• Right Attitude• Eye For Detail• Good Analytical mind • Good understanding of customer

perceptions and psychology

Outside• Language • Statistics• Graphics- Illustration• Real Scenario and Use Case

About the Hangover

• Thumb Rule - Comparisons should not make you loose a deal

• Ready for the responses from the competitors. Sometimes comparisons backfire

Aid to…

• Sales and Marketing Campaigns

• Branding and Advertisements

• Newsletters

• Offers and Schemes

• Core Documentation

Thank [email protected]

Anima Palshikar

Documents

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