Assignment Instructions

Competition Analysis

Please note the following:

 It will take you approximately 3 hours to complete this assignment.

 It will be wise to divide your time as:
o 30 minutes to work on interviewing each of the 4 customers, that is, a total of 2 hours.
o 30 minutes to research online on your competitors.
o 30 minutes to discuss with your teammates and finalize on the competitors, product
benefits, and what customers perceive about those benefits.
 Ask your facilitator how and when to submit your assignment.
Basi
c
Cou
rse Learning Objectives:
in
Objectives of this assignment are to:
Ent
rep
ren  Understand who your competitors are.
eur  Identify product benefits that are most important to the customers.
shi  Understand how customers perceive the benefits of what your competitors are offering so that
p you can further refine your value proposition.

What do you need to do?

 Identify your competition and important product benefits.

 Conduct at least 4 customer interviews to validate important product benefits and capture how
competition is doing against those benefits.

How will you go about this assignment?

A. Follow the instructions below to fill in this section.

You have identified your Unique Value Proposition in the previous lesson. Now, you will identify and
analyze your competitors. By doing so, you will understand if your value proposition is sufficiently
different from what your competitors are offering. This will help you to further refine your Unique Value
Proposition and make sure your products and services are different from theirs.

Step 1: Identify 3 to 6 existing players who are likely to be your main competition. Be careful to correctly
identify those competitors who will be fighting for the same niche. In case you are able to identify many
more competitors, go for the ones who sell more in your niche.

Step 2: Identify important product benefits (pain relievers or gain creators). Shortlist 4 to 10 that are most
important to customers. To do this, simply merge the lists of gain creators and pain relievers you had
worked on and prioritize the joint list. List them below:

Business Model Page 1 of 4

© Wadhwani Foundation www.nen.org For Students’ Use
V01
 Product Benefits:
Based on the previous interviews we conducted and these are the 4 most important product benefits that

are pain relievers and gain creators for the customers.

 Time- It refers to how much time a customer spent on buying or booking a ticket. This depends on factors

such as the crowd intensity level on the terminals, internet connection, digital literacy or consumer

behaviors. The customer being able to buy a ticket and saves more time is a gain creator
Basi
c  Accessibility- A product benefit that tells on how customers access the way of booking tickets. With regards
Cour
se in to our venture it refers to customer going to the terminal to buy a ticket, or needing a computer and
Entr
epre internet connection to buy through the website.
neur
ship  Process- The benefits of having good and easy process can minimize the working time and gives more ease

to people. It increased more efficiency of the particular application. Improving the business agility can help

the business to grow more in future.

 Features- Features that the customers can benefit from using a certain method of buying tickets. Such as

having being notified about your departure time well or being able to see you trip details easily.

 Price- Customers tend to avail a service that helps them save more money. Spending less money is a pain

reliever thus an important benefit.

A. Customer Interviews

It is recommended you interview at least 4 customers. You need to interview customers to:

1. Validate the product benefits.

2. Capture how the competitors fare against those product benefits i.e. the perceived performance
of the competitors for each of the benefits.

To do this, show them your list of product benefits and add or remove them based on what the
customers say. Ask them how the competitors fare against those product benefits. Based on what the
customers say as well as your research, you need to tabulate your findings.
 For example, if you want to look at the energy drinks market, this is how the table will look. Let the
product benefits column headings and the competitors as row labels.

Competitors Product Benefits

Price Taste Stimulants Branding Packaging
(INR)
Energy Drink 80 Metallic Caffeine Taurine Sports 330 ml can
1 Carbonated
Energy Drink 80 Metallic Caffeine Taurine Sports 240 ml
2 Carbonated Party
Basi Energy Drink 75 Metallic Caffeine Taurine Party 300 ml can
c 3 Carbonated Guarana
Cou
Energy Drink 85 Apple Taurine Natural 250 ml can
rse 40 Carbonated Guarana 180 ml can
4
in
Ent Energy Drink 20 Fruity Guarana Green 200 ml pouch
rep 5 Natural
ren
eur
Use the tables below to capture your customer responses on the validation of your product benefits as
shi
p well as how they think competition is doing against those benefits.

Customer 1:

Accessibility Time Process Features Price

PHBus I need to book It really depends on It was easy to book I have a lot of It's almost the
using a desktopmy internet a ticket because the choices for bus same. I don't really
computer connection but only thing you'll do companies that I mind paying few
because it's a usually I can book is fill the want to ride since more peso if it
website and it's
a ticket under 5 information. No it's a website that means avoiding
kinda hard to mins. click or going to features a lot of long lines in the
book using a some other tabs that provincial buses. bus terminal.
smarthphone could be confusing.
Biyaheroes I can book a The process is same Although they
ticket through It was really quick with other websites. Modes of payment have online fee its
their website to book a ticket. But I still have to are really reliable okay, at least I was
using my You just need a fast present my voucher and have many able to save time
smartphone. internet connection. to the cashier of the choices. and money from
terminal and have travelling all the
them give me an way to the
actual ticket. terminal.
So when there are a
lot of people I still
have to wait.
Iwant SEATS You can book a I think it depends I barely used this There's a 30.00
ticket using too, with your Relatively easy app because they pesos booking fee.
your desktop internet access have no refund
computer features. You can
cancel but once
you paid for your
trip, you cannot get
your money back
even if you didn't
 attend to your
departure.
Pinoy Travel

Customer 2:

Accessibility Time Process Features Price

PHBus It is accessible I can book very fast It needs another It easier to book The price is fair
for me because whenever I use their feature like the time tickets here and acceptable to
I always have mobile application. of arrival of the next compared to other what they offer.
my smartphone bus. For me it can booking system
with me and help customer to be because it was
always have relax because they mainly designed
the way to are aware. for mobile.
access the
internet
Byaheroes Although I When I am booking What also I like in For me, the For me when it
have my through their this website is they process is a little comes to pricing
smartphone, it website it is still value the loyalty of bit difficult this cost much
is hard when faster to have a their customer by because I get higher than other
booking ticket compared giving freebies and confuse when booking system but
through when I do walk-in rewards points. using their it is worth it.
website using booking. website.
the smartphone
but still it’s a
better choice.
Iwant SEATS
Pinoy Travel
 Customer 3:

Accessibility Time Process Features Price

PHBus It’s not easy to The booking on this You need to fill the The way I pay is The price is advis-
book this kind app is fast but it information given, better and easily able for those who
through depends to your and follow the to access travel in province
smartphone, internet. transaction policy. regularly
you need to
find a PC or
laptop to book.
Byaheroes
Basi Iwant SEATS I can easily It depend to my the It's easily to have an For me this app There are added
book and pay internet to access in transaction to this need to improve 30ph fee in book-
c through online this app app the mode of ing.
Cou without hassle payment
rse
in Pinoy Travel
Ent
rep
ren Customer 4:
eur
shi Accessibility Time Process Features Price
p PHBus
Byaheroes It was easy to I can book quickly The website is easy While browsing In my first time
use because I when the internet to use and the there’s their website I booking, I only
used my laptop connection is fast. a lot of payment found out that booked for 1 per-
to access the option but the they have points son the total book-
website of bi- voucher is not the reward that can be ing fee should be
yaheroes actual ticket. earn by P100 = P1 P481 only but with
when signing up the service charge
and freebies after of P50 I paid P531.
booking also real For the second
time updates and time I booked for 4
pet were allowed persons the added
but needed per- service charge is
mits. The payment 10% of the total
transaction was booking fee.
easy.

Iwant SEATS
Pinoy Travel I also used my It is faster booking The website is easy There's no special A little bit higher
laptop to access through online to use but the con- feature in this than the other
the website of compared to walk- firmation in booking website booking site be-
pinoytravel it in. is 24hrs. cause the service
was convenient charge is already
to use. added.

B. Report
Write your observations under the following headings:
 Competitors identified
 Product benefits identified and validated by customers
 Customer perception of these benefits offered by competitors
Make a table similar to the one on energy drinks to summarize your findings.
Competitors Product Benefits
Accessibility Time Process Features Price
PHBus A lot easier to Can book quickly Does not Easy to pay and lot The price is
access using but depends on the consumes too of choice in bus. reasonable to all
laptop/personal internet connection much of time. travelers and
computer than commuters. The
smartphone Service charge was
indicated.
Biyaheroes A lot easier to Can book quickly Does not There are lots of The price is
access using but depends on the consumes too added features and reasonable to all
laptop/personal internet connection much of time. easy transaction. travelers and
computer than commuters.
smartphone Service charge is
indicated.
IwantSeats A lot easier to Can book quickly Does not It needs The price is
access using but depends on the consumes too improvement in reasonable to all
laptop/personal internet connection much of time. their payment travelers and
computer than mode. commuters.
smartphone Service charge is
indicated.
Pinoytravel A lot easier to Can book quickly Does not No added feature. A little bit higher
access using but depends on the consumes too but the service
laptop/personal internet connection much of time but charge is not
computer than 24hrs confirmation indicated.
smartphone for tickets

C. Submission
You should fill it up and submit it along with your report. You can submit your assignment report, as
instructed by your facilitator, in any of the following formats: handwritten on A4 sheet/typed and
printed/soft copy. You can also download this handout from LearnWise.

How will you be evaluated?

You will receive a score out of 100 in this assignment. Please contact your facilitator for any further
questions.