So even brands that have made their name synonymous with a product will not be operating in a vacuum. Take, for instance, Hoover. They are so renowned for their vacuum cleaners. But a buyer is likely to compare them to, say, VAX or Dyson, or Samsung. So even Hoover doesn’t operate in a vacuum. I did intend that pun.

So if you have a list of competitors, great. If you don’t, there are ways that you can uncover competitors using SEO tools and look at competing domains. These tend to look at a share of common keywords, so I would delve into the site a little bit and just double-check that the product or service is equivalent or very similar to what you offer.

I would also look at challenger brands, so ones that may not be as big right now, but are trying to make waves within the industry. So, getting back to the vacuum example, Electrolux launched in 1910, the same year as Hoover. Hoover dominated the market until the ’30s, when Electrolux actually took the top spot.

Now, if Hoover hadn’t monitored Electrolux, they wouldn’t have known what to do to try and maintain that top spot or even take it back over. So it’s really important that you monitor these. Nowadays, there are tools, like Google Alerts or Alertmouse, that help you to monitor those newcomers in the industry. So I do recommend setting up alerts, and that’s to be able to spot those.

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