Competitive benchmarking technology for a regional company entering a new market

Competitive benchmarking constitutes a systematic inquiry into rival companies to identify best practices. The results enable firms to pinpoint effective marketing practices, learn from competitors’ mistakes, examine market participants’ business models and sources of competitive advantage, and refine their understanding of the target audience. Particular attention should be devoted to the marketing mix, competitors’ market positioning, and their value propositions. For these reasons, benchmarking- based competitor analysis is a critical stage in preparing a company to enter a new market. Despite its widespread use and a well-developed scholarly literature, practical implementation poses numerous challenges. The paper presents the authors’ methodology for conducting competitive benchmarking in consumer markets, from research planning through the development of practical recommendations for the client company. The core elements include: problem–goal analysis culminating in the formal specification of the managerial problem under investigation; justification for the choice of the object and subject of benchmarking; articulation of the study’s aim and objectives; systematic selection of competing firms as units of analysis; explicit delineation of the relevant product market and its geographic scope; and methodical identification of data-analytic tools and sources. The methodology was empirically validated on the Russian coffeecapsule market as a case study, and the paper reports the principal findings of this investigation.