Competitors

Other brands & what they are up to

Brands do not exist in isolation: they exist in a landscape, and knowing that landscape is a basic condition for navigating it well.

Competitor analysis in branding is not about copying or one-upping. It is about understanding the context in which your brand has to make its case. Customers are always choosing between options, even when they feel loyal, and knowing what the other options look, sound, and feel like helps you see the space more clearly, including the gaps where there is room to stand out.

The most useful competitive research looks beyond direct competitors to the whole category of alternatives someone might consider, including doing nothing. It also looks at what competitors communicate versus what they actually deliver, because the gap between those two things is often where opportunity lives. A competitor's weakness is rarely advertised, but it is usually visible if you look carefully at reviews, community discussions, and customer complaints.

How strong brands handle it

The same building block, handled well. These are approaches and illustrations from how brands tend to work, not rules, and never a ranking of companies.

Map the landscape, not just the leaders

Strong brands scan the full competitive space including emerging players, adjacent categories, and alternatives that customers might not immediately compare directly. Oat milk brands like Oatly had to understand not just other plant milks but the whole ritual around dairy, which shaped their positioning.

Track what they communicate, not just what they make

Monitoring competitor messaging over time reveals strategic shifts before they are announced. Brands like Spotify and Apple Music constantly watch how the other frames its value proposition, especially when launching in new markets or categories.

Look for the space between claims

When multiple competitors cluster around the same benefit claims, there is often whitespace in what is left unsaid. Innocent Drinks found a gap in the smoothie market not by beating others on nutrition facts but by owning a tone and personality that none of the established juice brands were using.

Questions to explore

Use these on your own or in a group. There are no right answers, only better conversations.

Who are the two or three brands your customers would consider instead of you, and what do those brands promise?
What do your competitors say about themselves, and how does that compare to what their customers actually say?
Which competitor poses the most risk to you over the next two to three years, and why?
Where is there space in the market that no one is currently owning well?
How do you explain the difference between your brand and your closest competitor in one sentence?

Things to notice

Defining competitors too narrowly by focusing only on products that look identical, when customers compare alternatives across a much wider set.
Treating competitor analysis as a one-time exercise rather than an ongoing practice, so the map goes stale.
Using competitor research to justify copying rather than to understand where you can genuinely be different.