Competetive Anaylisis – A Struggle To Be Neutral
The Bloated Penguin | June 30, 2009
We’re all taught in school that whenever we’re doing research, we have to try and step into the mindset of a true user. Depending on the product that could mean anything, but in order to get a true experience, things often need to be seen through the eyes of someone most likely to use the product or service. This is where researching the competition becomes difficult for me. On one hand, I’ve got some major loyalty issues – in a good way! Whenever I’m going through a competitor’s product, the first thing that pops into my head is how lame the other product is. I don’t know if this is because the product is actually lame, or because of the fact that I enjoy working on my own product more. So this obviously isn’t exactly being neutral, but it’s a struggle I guess. Do I stay loyal or do I try my hardest to be neutral and in the meantime actually change my perception and give more lenience to the competition because I don’t want to come off as favoring one side over the other?
Hey-Zeus – this must be confusing for the one person out there reading this. Let me paint a picture.
I’m working for product A and in order to make product A the best product out there, I need to compare it to product B, C, and D. So I take a look at B, C and D and my initial reaction is that A is already way better because of reasons X. My problem is that when I present my findings I want to be able to at least support the fact that product A is in fact the best product. So how do I appear to stay neutral? I find parts of B, C and D that work and focus on them. My problem is that sometimes B, C and D don’t have any good qualities, but in order to appear neutral I have to talk about “something.” In doing so I sometimes focus too much on coming off as fair and find good qualities in some aspects of B, C and D. This hinders X because I’m giving B, C and D too much lenience….
I just realized that I may have made things more confusing…. I apologize and present you with a short video clip of the opening sequence to a great 80’s show starring a young Jerry O’Connell.















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