A competitive landscape provides a comparison between a company and its major competitors across specific parameters. These parameters, including the specific companies to research, are laid out in the Research Criteria.
Generally, a competitive landscape compares 2-3 companies across five parameters including company overview, target market, products/services, competitive advantage, and value proposition.
Sometimes, the Research Criteria may ask for other parameters such as each company’s business model (e.g., wholesale, direct-to-consumer, business to business, or marketplace, etc.), pricing, financial data (e.g., revenue or funding), marketing messages, customer ratings or reviews, etc. Make sure to stick to the parameters outlined in the Research Criteria.
Minimum Requirements
- Include 2-3 competitors per 3-hour request.
- Include a minimum of 5 data points (e.g., company overview, value proposition) for each competitor. Note: Company website, locations, and/or founding year/founder name are part of one data point, i.e., company overview.
- Data Points- (Provide a minimum of five)
- brief company overview that includes (as available) HQ locations, other location information, founding year, or other relevant information. (This should be a minimum of 2-3 sentences).
- geographical footprint (where they operate)
- revenue and/or funding information
- list of key products/services & pricing (if available)
- competitive advantage (point of differentiation from their competitors)
- competitive advantage
- names and LinkedIn URLs of their C-Suite level executives
- 3-5 press releases from the last 12-24 months with a one-sentence explanation. (If readily available)
- Provide a minimum of one image per 3-hour request. If possible, add an image for each concept discussed.
Locating Information for a Competitive Landscape
- Read through the Research Criteria carefully to gain a complete understanding of the data the client has requested for each company.
- Start with a direct search using keywords and search strings. If you cannot find information through a general search, use more specific search strings, Boolean, and X-ray searches, as well as filters to pull relevant results.
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🧠Note: Search strings and advanced search methods e.g., X-ray and Boolean search are tools, not strategies. Do not mention these in your research reports. Instead, mention the publishers of the resources, reports, and databases consulted (e.g., International Data Group (IDG)).
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Prioritize official resources over third-party data. Where possible, prioritize as follows:
Company filings (annual/quarterly reports, investor presentations) > official website & press releases > social profiles > industry reports > company mentions in reputed news articles > third-party company databases.
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Only use high-quality, industry-specific, and reputable sources. Wonder’s Master Resource List has a great collection of resources to consider.
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Ensure the sources you use provide the most-recent data. If you perform any calculations, make sure to utilize the most recent figures available.
Findings
- Organize your findings using bullets and concise headings/subheadings.
- If the Research Criteria asks for information to be compiled in a spreadsheet, remember to cite your spreadsheet in the introduction section of the report. Make sure the link is shareable and editable.
- For a spreadsheet project where the write-up can be minimal (per the Research Criteria), provide a brief summary of the findings or 3-5 important findings from the spreadsheet.