Competitors¶
How to be visible and relevant to your market ?
Analysis of competitors and positioning proposition (competitive advantage)¶
Competitor: company trying to solve the same pain as your company. Direct and indirect competitors can be identified when the solution to the pain is very similar to the product you are developping.
Relevant attribute: factors that consciously or unconsciously influence the purchase decision.
Need to understand what kind of different attributes will influence the purchase decision of custommer. Those influences depend on the market and even on the situation. THOSE ATTRIBUTES ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO IDENTIFY. Then, it is necessary to range those attributes and rank them in the order from the most to the less relevant. Then ask the custommers (early evangelists) what solutions they have at the moment (competitors). Then, for each attribute, the custommer has to give a mark to each of the competitor. Then, we can make a bar chart and positionning map ! Be careful to also put your own proposal in the table/chart/map and rank yourself according to each relevant attribute!
These kind of charts allow to identify where our product can be different from the others and identified as better than the others. Positionning map can also allow compare two different relevant attributes and to discover places where no-one is fighting yet which is the "blue ocean space". On the other hand, when every competitor are in the same space, it is called a "red ocean space" and the only solution for survival is to decrease the prices.
Positionning proposition: brief and clear explanation of your competitive advantage considering the important attributes for your customer segment and justifying why your proposal is more suitable for them than the competitor's.
Blue oceans strategy¶
Blue-ocean strategy is about making the competitors irrelevant and to decrease the cost. One of the best examples are the cirque du soleil and andré rieu's orchestra.
As we can see in those examples, it is very important to identify the best relevant attributes and that can at the same time reduce the costs.
- Strategy canvas
The strategy canvas is both a diagnostic and an action framework for building a compelling blue ocean strategy. It allows ou to understand the competition. It is also important to identify which attributes were relevant in the past and not anymore now!
- Identification of the weak points of the current solutions
What is ceasing to be relevant to the market but generates a lot of costs yet ? (ownership vs use) What is still a production and maintenance problem? Can it be removed or changed? (telematic health care, teleworking) What consumer trends are emerging and no one is currently responding? (#circular #metoo #vegan) What was loved and/or accepted in the past but now produces rejection in the market? (plastic, commodifying animals...)
- Grid of innovation: eliminate - reduce - increase and create.
New technological opportunities¶
To remain competitive in the long term, companies have to attract the new generation of consumers. This can be done by integrating new technologies, improving their interactive content or implementing it in their marketing strategies. Thanks to technology (internet of things, virtual and augmented reality, machine learning and artificial intelligence), the different industries are changing deeply and making the consumer experience more enjoyable and easier than before.
Homework: do all that for my own project.¶
Mycelium leather producers
| Name | Concept |
|---|---|
| Mycoworks | USA. 60 patents. Their products have been used by Hermès. |
| MOGU | Mycelium company for arquitecture (floors, wall panels). Offer a service of recovering your waste and biodegrading it. Based in Italy. |
| Ecovative | Mycelium materials company, very polyvalent (foam, leather, packaging, food, beauty, for all fashion, packaging and automobile industry). Very technical, biological engineering and research to make better mycelium materials. Based in San Fransico. |
| MycoTex | Uprising mycelium textiles company, with only projects but no product yet. Based in Belgium. |
| BoltThreads | Stella McCartney, lululemon and Adidas have all announced partnerships with Bolt Threads, the innovative fabric-makers behind Mylo. Mercedes-Benz and Bentley are also on board with the eco-friendly materials and have begun making mushroom leather car seats in some new models. |
| Mycotech | Mycelium leather company based in Indonesia. More natural growing process and more natural look. |
Other leather substitutes producers
| Name | Concept |
|---|---|
| ZOA by Modern Meadow | Zoa™, launched by Modern Meadow, is the world’s first bio-leather material brand. Able to be any density. Hold to any mold. Create any shape. Take on any texture. Combine with any other material. Be any size, seamlessly. A liquid. A solid. An anomaly. Grown with the intention for making things of real value, that exist not just to serve humans, but to co-exist with everything. |
| PiñaTex | Leather made out of pineapple leaf waste from the Philippines. Fibers are extracted from the leaves and then used to create a non-woven. Created by London-based company Ananas Anam, it is the most affordable, plant-based leather option and has appeared in hundreds of products, including those made by Hugo Boss. Existing versions are coated with a synthetic material to give it the leather-like look, though Ananas Anam says it’s working on a biodegradable alternative. Another drawback is its texture is similar to crinkled cardboard, which can turn off designers. |
| Frumat | Apple leather combining waste from processing apples in the Italian Alps with PU. Used to make sneakers by the brand Womsh and bag brand LaBante. Twice as expensive as animal leather for the moment. |
| Mirum | Created by Natural Fiber Welding, Illinois, the startup uses natural ingredients such as waste cork, hemp, coconut and vegetable oil to create biodegradable composites. The fibrous mixtures are compressed with a mould to create the pattern and texture of leather. Brands can even send patterned textiles to Natural Fiber Welding to be turned into customised, leather-like products. |
| CUSO | Salmon leather, salmon skins that are wastes are revalorized and used for the making of jewelery and others. The leather looks like snake leather. |
| Desserto | Cactus leather. Vegan. Cactus are shredded and then a pulp is casted. |
Among the competitors, one way to find my competitive advantage could be to offer a pre-consumer waste recovery and discount !