One of our favorite research methods is the competitive analysis, which is used to understand how your competitors are marketing themselves, as well as the underlying meaning of messages that are designed to persuade their intended audiences.
The vast majority of messages that the marketing, PR and advertising industries produce are meant to get people to do something – whether it’s to buy a new product, change their behavior or adopt a different point of view. By analyzing these messages, how they’re constructed and how effective they are, we can learn a whole lot about a competitor strategy, the values of your target audiences and any gaps that might be able to leverage and fill with your own messages.
That’s why we use this type of analysis as part of our initial market research and competitive review, or prior to helping a company pivot to reach new audiences. The insights we uncover through this process inform the messaging strategies that we recommend to our clients, and ensure that we are prioritizing and highlighting the right details of our clients’ value propositions. If we first analyze the trends and themes present in the competitors’ messages, we can make sure to craft more compelling and differentiated messages for our clients that will stand out and break through the noise.
This is important when the end goal is to persuade a target customer to choose your product or service over the competition - and it’s especially crucial in generating media coverage. Reporters want to know how you’re different, why you’re taking a different approach and why you think it’s going to work. If you’re saying the exact same thing as your competition, reporters will move along to cover a more interesting story.
After we conduct our competitive analysis and create differentiated messages, we often use them to create new website copy, revise sales materials and update investor decks. This ensures these new messages are consistent across all externally-facing touch points, and results in strong corporate narratives that establish thought leadership for our clients.
Interested in finding out what a rhetorical analysis can do to strengthen your corporate narrative? Get in touch - we'd love to help!