Do you want to conduct a competitive analysis to better understand your competitors, launch new products, or even get more ideas for your marketing strategy? Let's see how!

You've started a new project: a shoe brand (not quite Edward Green, but on the rise). You think they have a good chance of disrupting the industry.

But you know that before you start thinking big, you have to better understand your environment. You need to explore your product's competitive landscape to determine how similar products in your industry are. More importantly, before making any decisions, you need to define your sources.

Do you know the answers to these questions?

But it shouldn't be normal. It needs to go deeper than just looking at your competitors' social media posts, ad campaigns, or advertising efforts for comparison.

For the best results, you need to investigate their history, their progress in selling products, who they consider your closest competitors, and where they're falling short.

To conduct a competitive analysis, you must fully understand the industry hierarchy. For example, it requires exploring up-and-coming shoe brands and figuring out who your competitive landscape is.

You need to know which brands of similar size your customers are likely to browse and compare to your business.

In fact, the strategic advantage of compiling this analysis is that it helps you better paint a better picture of your competition. This is how you gain a real-life template for success to emulate, while also identifying and avoiding failures.

Conducting a competitive analysis requires some effort, but it's worth it.

Here, we'll cover why you need to conduct a competitive analysis and offer more insightful recommendations.

But first, let's define competitive analysis so we have a clear understanding of its meaning from the beginning of this guide.