What is brand benchmarking and how can you apply it successfully?
There is a reality that all companies experience when they compete in the market, and that is that they need to know what their competitors are doing, be it to adjust their marketing strategies, improve their products or services, or identify what that other company may be doing better. brand. That is precisely what comparative evaluation or benchmarking does, a concept that has its origin in the word benchmark or "reference point".
And the reason for this is that in a market with such rapid changes, the competition is always working to gain an advantage that allows them to stay one step ahead. Hence, the usefulness of benchmarking is being able to keep your brand or company above competitors.
Even the improvements that you apply to your products or your business processes, because of benchmarking, can go much further than simply guaranteeing better performance, since they can also contribute to a better customer experience with the brand.
That is why the intention of this content is that you can understand, first, what is brand benchmarking? And what are the steps you must follow to apply it successfully and that it really brings benefits to your brand or business. Do you want to clarify your doubts about it? So, keep reading and we will explain it to you...
What is brand benchmarking?
A first approach to its definition would be that it is an in-depth strategic analysis of the best practices that have been developed by other brands in the same market segment or, what is the same, your competition. But, at the same time, it is a valuable management tool that can be used to improve or improve both products and services, or even your business processes.
It can also be understood as the fact of determining how a brand wants its product or service to be seen by the consumer. That is, it is about comparing your product with that of the competition and verifying that it meets a certain level of performance.
In general, when you want to bring a product to the market, such as a new model of camera or tablet, you need it to meet standard tests or minimum requirements to be able to compete. However, what benchmarking can offer you is that advantage that your brand needs to be the best in the eyes of the consumer.
Steps to successful brand benchmarking
Steps to successful brand benchmarking
Regardless of what you want to achieve with brand benchmarking, it is important that you follow these steps:
1. Identify your competitors
It seems obvious, but it is undoubtedly the first step you must take to obtain the data you need. You must consider that the final objective of benchmarking is to use the key knowledge of the brands or companies that have a better position in the market to determine what their next moves could be.
Therefore, you can start by defining which are your closest competitors or the brands that are within your market and that offer the same type of products or services. Likewise, you can look at those that have the same size and success, or that are aimed at the same type of customers. Then, it is important that you also determine who your indirect or secondary competitors are, who can also reach the same audience, but with assorted products.
2. Define your goal and benchmark
If you are not clear about your objective when looking for information from your competitors, it is best to start with some questions, such as: What do you want to learn by comparing yourself with them? or what should you compare? Another way to do it could be to use the weak or growth points that you have already identified in your brand or company, which represents a good starting point.
Other information sources, such as performance or performance indicators (KPIs), can also be helpful. You can even consult internally, to determine what might be useful to include to make your benchmarking goals as clear and complete a picture as possible.
3. Determine the strategies for collecting the data
If you have already identified your objectives, the next thing is to determine the best methods and tools to collect the data that will provide you with valuable insights to refine your business strategies or improve your products and services.
That means, for example, that if you have set out to find out why your brand is more popular in some regions while not others, then you need to find a way to access direct consumer data, especially those who help you clarify why they prefer other brands in certain regions.
In that case, it might be helpful to have access to tools that collect transactional data from consumers and show you how your brand is performing as well as your competitors. That way, you would have data associated with a location at hand, making it easier to refine regional data and extract valuable information for your comparative analysis or benchmarking.
4. Apply the conclusions you have reached with the benchmarking
Once you have finished your comparative analysis or benchmarking, the result should be a series of improvements that you should not only be able to apply, but also be feasible from a practical point of view and should lead to results that allow you to improve or optimize. the performance of your brand in the market.
This last step is vital, since it not only consists of implementing the improvements that you have determined for your brand or business, but also analyzing whether the subsequent results have achieved the objectives that you had set for yourself.
Without a doubt, you now have a much more precise knowledge of what brand benchmarking is and how you can apply it to get consumers to lean towards your brand, be it cameras, computers, tablets, or monitors. However, if you need your technology brand to stand out from your competitors, at Distritech we can help you achieve it. Just contact us and we will gladly advise you.
