The ‘competition’ is something that every business needs to take into account. However, as a topic, it is a vast area, and the reason for this is because it covers two different yet related types of analysis and strategy.

Competitor analysis is where you want to analyze your competitors at a business or corporate level — for example; you might be comparing the level of innovation at Adidas and Nike. 

Competitive analysis is where you analyze your competition at a product level — for example; you might be drilling down into comparing the functionality of the shoes.

Understanding what we are dealing with is essential when developing a strategy. We have to be prepared to do the necessary research. 

When communicating strategy, we need to avoid over-complication. So, rather than talk about ‘competition’ as one big subject, we need to be able to break it down into much smaller pieces depending on our audience. Creating separate competitor and competitive strategies can, therefore, help us enormously.