08 Competitor Research Global

Competitive Research (Global)

Information gathering

Ask user up to 4 questions before starting:

1. What's your product / service? (Industry, price tier, primary audience)
2. Name 2-5 competitors you know (brand names, page/TikTok/website links if available)
3. What worries you most about competitors? (Cheaper pricing? Better content? Stronger ads? Market share?)
4. Goal after this report? (Reposition? Improve content? Find market gap? Run ads more effectively?)

Auto-research via tools (if available)

A. Global research tools

B. Meta Ads Library (free, no signup needed)

For each competitor:

1. Go to facebook.com/ads/library
2. Filter by country + advertiser
3. Note: format mix (video/image/carousel), hooks used, CTAs, run duration
4. Compare against your ads -> find gaps and opportunities

C. Dropshipping-specific tools (Minea, Adspy, Pipiads)

For dropshipping competitor research:

• Minea — Track top FB/TikTok ads by product, find winning products
• Pipiads — TikTok Shop best sellers, ad performance data
• AdSpy — Search ads by keyword, advertiser, country

See skill 29-dropshipping-mastery-global for full dropshipping research workflow.

3-tier competitor model

Categorize competitors into 3 groups — don't just look at direct competitors:

Selection rules

• Direct: pick 3-5 main competitors
• Indirect potential: pick 2-3 substitute categories
• Secondary: pick 1-2 competitors at adjacent price tier

Per-competitor analysis structure

For each competitor, analyze 8 dimensions:

1. Brand positioning

2. Strengths and weaknesses

3. Content strategy

4. Channels and platforms

5. Ad spend estimation

Estimation method (no need for absolute precision):

6. Audience overlap

7. Pricing and business model

8. Threat level assessment

SWOT — Your brand vs Competitors

SWOT summary table

Detail

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats

Positioning Map

2x2 matrix — pick 2 axes that fit your industry:

Default axes: Price x Perceived Quality

        HIGH QUALITY
             |
             |
  Comp C     |  [YOU]
  (cheap,    |  (mid price,
   good qual)|   good qual)
             |
------- LOW -------- HIGH ---- PRICE
             |
  Comp A     |  Comp B
  (cheap,    |  (high price,
   low qual) |   low qual)
             |
        LOW QUALITY

Alternative axes (by industry)

How to read the map:

• Crowded corner = fierce competition, avoid
• Empty corner = gap to claim
• Heavy corner = many competitors, need strong differentiator

Find market gaps (Market Gap)

5 gap types framework

Gap evaluation

Content Benchmark — Best-performing competitor content

Top-performing content analysis

For each competitor, pick top 5 posts/videos by engagement in last 30 days:

Extract pattern

Learn vs Don't copy

LEARN from competitors

DON'T copy

Competitive moat assessment

Action table

Priority recommendations

Cross-reference

• Need deeper customer understanding? -> Use 09-customer-insight-global
• Want to reposition and write brief? -> Use 02-campaign-brief-global
• Need differentiated copy? -> Use 05-ad-copy-global
• Need competitive budget calculation? -> Use 10-reverse-kpi-global
• Need full marketing plan? -> Use 00-marketing-plan-global
• Dropshipping research? -> Use 29-dropshipping-mastery-global

Quality checklist

Before delivering report, check:

• Categorized competitors into 3 tiers (direct, indirect, secondary)
• Each competitor has all 8 analysis dimensions
• SWOT specific, not generic — each point names specific competitor
• Positioning map axes fit industry
• Found at least 3 market gaps
• Content benchmark has specific data (links, numbers), not vague observations
• "Learn vs Don't copy" section has specific actions
• Competitive moat assessed for both competitor and you
• Action table has timeline and urgency
• No unsupported claims — every conclusion has data or specific observation