Usually, when people think of branding, the first thing that comes to mind is visuals – the logo, the colours of choice, and maybe even fonts. While this wouldn’t be entirely wrong, there’s a lot more that goes into building a brand (or a good one!)
Branding is also about positioning, perception, and the story that an organisation tells. To help businesses understand where they sit, conducting a competitor analysis is one of the most important exercises, and it doesn’t have to take long either. Competitor analysis prevents “blind branding”, which means designing in isolation without understanding audience expectations or market norms. It’s a strategic foundation that clarifies opportunities and improves differentiation.
Why competitor analysis matters
Let’s go into a little more depth on the strategic value it provides:
Reveals the landscape your audience is already familiar with
Audiences interpret brands comparatively, and most of the time this happens subconsciously. Competitor patterns shape user expectations for tone, visual language, and information hierarchy. Competitor patterns shape everything, from:
- How formal or informal users expect the tone of voice to be
- What type of visual language feels “credible” in the space
- How information is typically structured or prioritised
- What they believe a product or service should include
By understanding these conventions, a brand can decide when to meet expectations and when to deliberately break them. It prevents the jarring experience of offering something users don’t recognise or presenting information in a way that feels unfamiliar or confusing. At the same time, it allows you to introduce novelty in areas where competitors feel stale. Ultimately, this helps shape a brand that feels both intuitive and distinctive.
Helps identify gaps and oversaturation
Without analysis, brands risk blending in. Competitor analysis exposes where competitors cluster (e.g., all using similar colours, tone, promises) and what a brand could be doing that others aren’t. If all competitors use:
- The same colour palette
- Similar taglines
- The same “safe” language
- Identical navigation structures
- Repetitive value propositions
Then there is clear whitespace for a brand to introduce a fresh narrative or a more compelling visual identity.
Equally important, competitor analysis helps you avoid entering an oversaturated territory. If every company claims “innovation” or “trust,” the words lose meaning. By identifying what is overused, brands can craft a message that cuts through the noise and resonates more effectively. This shifts branding from guesswork to a strategic act of positioning.
Reduces risk and improves decision-making
Branding decisions become stronger when they’re grounded in evidence rather than assumptions, and competitor analysis provides that foundation. It gives teams a clearer understanding of what is proven to work, what feels outdated, and where there is opportunity for differentiation.
This reduces risk in several ways:
- It prevents investing in a direction that already feels saturated or generic.
- It offers clarity on which strategic narratives will feel credible in the market.
- It allows teams to create visuals, messaging, and structures with confidence.
- It aligns internal stakeholders around shared insight, avoiding subjective debates.
By exposing the broader landscape, competitor analysis helps organisations make intentional choices rooted in real insight – strengthening both creative direction and verbal strategy. The result is a brand that feels distinctive and coherent, not arbitrary.
What to include in a competitor analysis
Before conducting one, it’s important to have a template ready. At Make it Clear, we suggest using Google Sheets or an Excel spreadsheet so that you can see all of the different areas against each other nicely. We’d also recommend creating a consistent scoring or observation framework.
Positioning and value proposition:
- What each competitor claims as their core offering
- Whether they lean on innovation, trust, affordability, expertise, etc (what’s their USP?)
Messaging and tone of voice:
- How they communicate with users
- The emotions they evoke
- How direct, technical, or human they are
Visual identity:
- Colour palettes
- Typography
- Iconography
- Layout patterns
- Imagery styles
Experience and interaction patterns:
- The UX conventions competitors set
- Navigation
- Structure
- Content hierarchy
- Calls to action
- Onboarding flows
Audience focus and product ecosystem:
- Which users they speak to
- What features, services, or content types they prioritise
Mistakes to avoid when conducting one
Copying competitor cues without context
Many organisations treat competitor analysis as a shopping list: they see what others are doing and replicate it. The problem is that those elements were created for their audience, their positioning, and their business goals, not yours. Copying without understanding the strategic reasoning behind a competitor’s choices leads to brands that feel interchangeable and lack a clear point of view. Instead of strengthening differentiation, it erodes it, making it harder for customers to understand why they should choose you over anyone else.
Overfocusing on visuals
A common misconception is that competitor analysis is primarily about colours, logos, and typography. While visual identity is important, branding is truly about perception, meaning, and market positioning. If an organisation focuses only on surface aesthetics, it risks missing deeper insights: how competitors communicate their value, the emotional tone they use, and how their services are structured. A visually unique brand that lacks strategic clarity won’t outperform a visually simple brand that has a strong value proposition.
Ignoring aspirational competitors outside the sector
Many businesses only look at organisations doing the same thing they do. But the strongest brands differentiate by looking upward and outward, learning from categories that excel in storytelling, user experience, and customer loyalty. For example, a financial-services brand can learn from hospitality brands about trust and reassurance, or from tech brands about simplicity and clarity. Ignoring these “aspirational competitors” limits creativity and can cause a business to mirror outdated industry norms instead of setting a new benchmark.
Failing to connect insights to user needs
Competitor analysis only becomes powerful when paired with real audience insight. Many teams compare brands, map differences, and identify trends, but never validate these findings with actual users. Without user input, brands risk solving the wrong problem or addressing a “gap” that users don’t value. Competitor insights should feed into user interviews, surveys, or testing to confirm which opportunities genuinely matter. The strongest brand strategies sit at the intersection of market gaps and user needs.
Treating competitor analysis as a one-off exercise
Markets shift quickly: new entrants appear, messaging trends evolve, and audience expectations change. Many organisations conduct competitor analysis only at the start of a rebrand and never revisit it, which means they miss emerging patterns or new opportunities. Competitor analysis should be iterative, forming part of an ongoing brand health process. Regular check-ins help brands stay relevant, avoid stagnation, and respond proactively to changes in their space rather than reactively.
Final thoughts
Competitor analysis reveals the patterns your audience sees before they ever meet you, helping you decide where to align and where to break the mould. It’s a powerful way to reduce risk and build a brand that truly resonates. Interestingly, the human brain recognises visual patterns in under 150 milliseconds – meaning your brand is being compared to competitors almost instantly. Competitor analysis gives brands the clarity to make smarter decisions, differentiate with purpose, and build identities that resonate.
Book a call
Make it Clear specialises in research-led competitor analysis for branding. If you’d like support shaping a clearer, stronger brand, book a call with our team here.
