Discussion Board: Analyzing the Competition

Imagine you are working in the marketing department of Zest Bars, a fictional, medium-size company that makes energy bars. Your manager would like you to lead the process to define the company’s brand positioning strategy. When you review their proposal for how you should lead this process, there is no mention of performing a competitive analysis.

Prompt

Write a short paragraph responding to your manager’s suggested brand positioning strategy. Your response should include:

• A rationale for why the marketing team should analyze the competition as part of its brand positioning strategy
• The specific value a competitive analysis can bring to the energy bar company
• Three specific steps the marketing team should take to begin the process of conducting a competitive analysis

Feel free to include specific names of energy bar competitors in your response to illustrate your argument to your manager.

Read

Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings.

Respond to a colleague’s posting in one or more of the following ways:

• Ask a probing question, e.g., “Could you explain … further?” or “Is this what you’re saying?”
• Share examples from the module or section that support their position or provide a different position.
• Provide an insight and connection to your own post and the module or section.