CENTRAL HUB OF VIETNAM

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY

HANDS-ON TRAINING | INDUSTRY NETWORKING | GLOBAL EXPOSURE

COMPETITOR REVIEW
SESSION 1: THEORY
TABLE OF CONTENT
1. What and why we do it?
2. Basic principles and crucial steps to do competitor review
3. Types of competitor review and suggested structures
4. Your homework
1. What and why we do it?
This is how people in agency see it. How about you?

ACCOUNT PLANNER CREATIVE

● The most painful task ● The result of being a ● The valuable

to kickoff a project. jury of a creative document to have
● The most competition sense about the taste
time-consuming task ● The must-have-to-read of the market.
need to be done every document to draw any ● It is also the
month/ quarter for kinds of mapping benchmark of the
retainers account team in the
internal review
What is it?

A review with reflection &

implication on what
Competitors/Players have been
doing in term of Marketing or
Communications
Why we do it?
NEW PITCH
To understand the key drivers of the
category, competitors’ product
portfolio, pricing segmentation,
distribution and anticipate the
communication strategy they are
likely to use.
RETAINER CLIENT
To keep track of updated changes or
movement of competitors in terms
of communication on a regular basis
(monthly, quarterly, bi-annually or
annually)
EXERCISE 1:
Can you guess which format is for new client/ retainer client?
2. Basic principles and crucial steps to do
competitor review
Principles to do the competitor review

● Pick the right competitors to analyze

● Know which aspects of your competitors’ business
are worth analyzing
● Know where to look for the data
● Understand how you can use the competitor insights
to improve your own business.
EXERCISE 2:
Write down which aspects of competitors’ communication are worth
analyzing
A brief of launching new positioning of A brief of creating a TVC to launch new
e-commerce brand ready-to-drink tea
EXERCISE 2:
Write down which aspects of competitors’ communication are worth
analyzing
A brief of launching new positioning of A brief of creating a TVC to launch new
e-commerce brand ready-to-drink tea
 Crucial steps to do the competitor review
Evaluate the impact/
Track all creative engagement/ brand
assets and activities 04 distinctive of a
of available media. campaign, key
Source of Tracking: highlight or key
• Competitors’ owned media
• Point of sales
learning for other
• Media agency specific brief
• Media bank tracking (Isentia) 01 03
• Client’s

Label creative assets Group creative

& activities with the 02 assets & activities of
right disciplines, same campaign into
media/channel and a communication
tracking time framework (if any)
3. Types of competitor review and
suggested structure
Types of competitor review

CATEGORY
CATEGORY
UNDERSTANDING

BRAND
REVIEW COMPETITOR BY
PLATFORMS (ONAIR, ON
GROUND AND ONLINE)

CAMPAIGN
REVIEW COMPETITOR BY
CAMPAIGNS
Type 1: CATEGORY UNDERSTANDING

+ Market size
+ Market share
+ Growth Rate
+ Key drivers of category (based on the latest innovation and
evaluation of expert, research agencies)
+ Category product portfolio
+ Price mapping
+ Distribution
+ Communication activities by campaigns or always-on content
Type 1: CATEGORY UNDERSTANDING
Type 1: CATEGORY UNDERSTANDING
Type 2: REVIEW COMPETITOR BY PLATFORMS
Type 2: REVIEW COMPETITOR BY PLATFORMS
Type 2: REVIEW COMPETITOR BY PLATFORMS
Type 3: REVIEW COMPETITORS BY CAMPAIGNS
Part 1: Campaign timelines (provide quick information of campaign types, key message, products,
time or campaign duration)

Part 2: Review each campaign in detail. You need to cover at least those information
+ Campaign context
+ Objectives
+ Campaign tagline
+ Communication strategy (Do what/ Say what - To whom - By how)
+ Creative assets
+ Activities by campaign objective (Reach, Educate, Convert) / forms of communication (PR,
social, promotion, event ...)/ by medium (ATL/ BTL/ Social and Digital)
NOTE: It is nice to break competitor campaign to phases if the signal is clear

Part 3: Evaluate the impact/ engagement/ brand distinctive (requires moderate brand knowledge)
of each campaign

Part 4: Communication convention/ key taken points/ implication about communication strategy
or approach
Type 3: REVIEW COMPETITORS BY CAMPAIGNS

PART 1

This is how
campaign timeline in
reality looks like!
Type 3: REVIEW COMPETITORS BY CAMPAIGNS

PART 2

Campaign activities
are classified by
objectives
Type 3: REVIEW COMPETITORS BY CAMPAIGNS

PART 3

Criteria to evaluate a
campaign
EXERCISE 3:
Evaluate those campaign by impact/ engagement/ brand distinctive by scoring
from 1 to 5. 1 is the lowest score and 5 is the highest. Explain your choice

IMPACT: …./5

ENGAGEMENT: .../5

BRAND DISTINCTIVE: .../5

EXERCISE 3:
Evaluate those campaign by impact/ engagement/ brand distinctive by scoring
from 1 to 5. 1 is the lowest score and 5 is the highest. Explain your choice

IMPACT: …./5

ENGAGEMENT: .../5

BRAND DISTINCTIVE: .../5

EXERCISE 3:
Evaluate those campaign by impact/ engagement/ brand distinctive by scoring
from 1 to 5. 1 is the lowest score and 5 is the highest. Explain your choice

IMPACT: …./5

ENGAGEMENT: .../5

BRAND DISTINCTIVE: .../5

 Type 3: REVIEW COMPETITORS BY CAMPAIGNS

PART 4

Communication Convention

Communication Key Taken Points

4. Your homework
Homework

1. Task:
a. Define key competitors in bouillon category
b. Conduct a competitor review within 1 or 2 years by campaigns
2. Deliverable: PPT format
3. Deadline: 03 Dec 2019
4. Time for presentation: 30 minutes per team
GIFT FOR YOU: Brand communication structure or
territory of two key competitors
THANK YOU
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