Editing Competitor analysis (section)

{{Short description|A corporate strategy}}
{{refimprove|date=April 2013}}

'''Competitive analysis''' in [[marketing]] and strategic [[management]] is an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and potential [[Competition (economics)|competitors]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Competitive Analysis Definition - Entrepreneur Small Business Encyclopedia|url=https://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/competitive-analysis|access-date=2020-07-08|website=Entrepreneur|language=en}}</ref> This analysis provides both an offensive and defensive strategic context to identify opportunities and threats. Profiling combines all of the relevant sources of competitor analysis into one framework in the support of efficient and effective strategy formulation, implementation, monitoring and adjustment.<ref>(Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2003, 2007)</ref> 

Competitive analysis is an essential component of corporate strategy.<ref>{{cite web|last=Bergen|first=Mark|title=Competitor Identification and Competitor Analysis: A Broad-Based Managerial Approach|url=http://assets.csom.umn.edu/assets/71542.pdf}}</ref> It is argued that most firms do not conduct this type of analysis systematically enough. Instead, many enterprises operate on what is called "informal impressions, conjectures, and intuition gained through the tidbits of information about competitors every manager continually receives." As a result, traditional environmental scanning places many firms at risk of dangerous competitive blindspots due to a lack of robust competitor analysis.<ref name="Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2007">(Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2007)</ref> It is important to conduct the competitor analysis at various business stages to provide the best possible product or service for customers.<ref>{{Cite web|title=How to Conduct a Business Competitor Analysis - Business News Daily|url=https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/15737-business-competitor-analysis.html|access-date=2020-07-08|website=www.businessnewsdaily.com}}</ref>