You probably already know all about SWOT analysis. You can even have your oppositions to demographics, market share, and sales figures handy. But have you ever applied the same kind of strict methodology to analyze the visual presence of your competitors in the market? A graphic design audit is a fantastic and relatively easy way to get a clear picture of how your competitors are perceived, what key messages they are communicating, and what it looks like when you stand next to them. It is also a valuable exercise that informs you about the type of communication that your customers regularly receive from your key competitors.
So how do you do it?
The first step to a graphic design audit is to collect all the sales and marketing guarantees you can find from the competition. This includes crawling their website and taking screenshots of key pages, subscribing to their mailing lists, getting their brochures, purchasing their products so you can see the packaging, etc. etc.
According to Peter L. Phillips, author of “Creating the Perfect Design Brief: Managing Design for Strategic Advantage,” one of the best, least expensive, and fastest methods is to attend every industry trade show. There is nothing illegal, unprofessional, or immoral about this practice. Business is simply a game that we are playing to win after all!
Phillips also suggests using members of your sales force to find out what your competition is doing.
As they come into direct contact with customers every day, they can often get competitive customer literature. They just need to know what you need and of course why you need it.
So once you’ve collected the information, what do you do with it?
The best way to start is by putting your competitors’ information on the wall and analyzing them one by one. Invite as many people as possible from your sales, marketing, and business teams to give their individual input on what design elements work great for the competition and what weaknesses they can see. By beginning your competitor analysis first, you will build up a bit of objectivity and then turn the same critical toughness on yourself.
Look for the ways that layout and language make a document unique. Do they have a friendly appearance that reflects a more personalized service? Do they seem more professional than you? Why? Is it because the page is less cluttered, the colors are dimmer, or for some other reason? Is their website easier to navigate than yours? What do you think were your reasons behind these elections? Is there anything you can learn from them? More importantly, how do these competitors use design to gain a competitive advantage?
Now for the hard part: use the same analysis on yourself. Assure your staff that this is not an exercise in which they need to defend their work, it is simply a way to obtain useful information that could give you a competitive advantage that improves your results. This aspect of the audit is sometimes a bit tricky, so you may need an independent opinion from a graphic design company who understands the process to help you.
The amount of strategic information that this process can generate is surprising. It will give you fresh ideas and a fresh perspective that can influence the entire way you approach your marketing for the year. And considering that many companies think of graphic design as an annoying inconvenience, if you are the first to use this more strategic approach, you will find that it is another tool that will help you stay one step ahead of the competition.
