The 2:2:1 Selection method is a proprietary market research strategy by Louder Group, aids in maintaining flexibility, and serves as a benchmark for success in the early stages of the startup.
One of the earliest activities involved with bringing any new effort to market is a competitive analysis. Here’s a shortcut to crafting a compelling and useful competitive analysis environment for your new product-based business.
Direct competitors are other businesses in the marketplace that:
For example, let’s imagine you’re a Men’s Resort Wear brand. You may have direct competitors who have the same customer, also serve the resort market, and have a near identical product line-up. The purpose of having direct competitors is to validate demand and positioning in the marketplace. Choosing your direct competitors is less about seeing what they are doing from a product standpoint and more about gaining clarity on where you sit in the marketplace.
Indirect Competitors are other businesses in the marketplace that accomplish 2 of the below:
An example of an indirect competitor for our Men’s Resort Wear brand would be a business that has a similar customer and problem, but not the same solution because they only offer men’s swim trunks. The purpose of having indirect competitors in your competition landscape is to use these brands as research weigh-points. Is there something your indirect competitors do to improve their customer service that you can adopt? Indirect competitors are great brands to observe because neither business is directly competing for the same dollar spend.
You’ll really stand out with investors if you can clearly identify a meaningful aspirational brand that you compete with. For example, if you’re in the athleisure space, you may list Lululemon as your aspirational competitor. The purpose of the aspirational competitor being a part of your competitive landscape is to keep your development and business model flexible and research-heavy. When you have an outlier brand you will consistently have a benchmark of success to guide your early-stage start-up days.
This method of Two (direct), Two (indirect) and One (aspirational) – or the 2:2:1 Selection is a proprietary market research strategy brought to you by Louder Creative Group. Email us with your 2:2:1 for your new brand – we’d love to take a look!
