What to look at if we know our competitors and our market share? How can I tie back to the case?
Competition Landscape
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Hi,
Assuming you alredy know the competitors and our market share, this is still not enough to appreciate what's going on on this market.
The minimum we should ask for to complete the picture at high level would be :
- trends over the last year (market share, diversification)
- Main differences with competitors (product, segment targetted, distribution, pricing)
- Potential substitution / new entrants
- external factors potentially impacting market in favor of one or other (regulation, etc.)
I think we would need more info on the case background (at least what is the central question) to provide more specific insights.
Thanks
Benjamin
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As others have said, questions on competition depend on the context.
In general, though, for all cases, you should only ask questions if the answer to the question directly helps you solve the case! The fact that you ask "how can I tie back to the case?" shows me that you are not thinking in a hypothesis-driven way, and are just asking about competition because "it sounds like something important to ask about". If you don't know why you are asking a question, DON'T ASK IT. When giving cases, I habitually ask my interviewees "why do you want to know this information?" and it is surprising how high a percentage of candidates simply don't know exactly why they are asking - they are merely "fishing" for information.
For example, if your (sub-)hypothesis is "this is an industry-wide profitability problem" your questions should be competitors revenues/costs and how these have changed over time. Note that the answer to this question directly helps prove/disprove the hypothesis, and it clearly and unambigiously ties back to the case.
Hope this helps!
Alessandro
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Hi,
There might be tons of options and we definitely need more information.
One example - if the other player is performing better then you (Higher market share or higher growth) you can check what's the difference between you and this player using the following structure:
- Product
- Marketing
- Distribution
- Price
Best
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Dear Anonymous A,
Can you share more information about this Case so that helpful advice may be provided?
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