What is a global competitive analysis? A step-by-step guide to conduct your own

Solid branding isn’t enough for global success. You have to understand your competitors: what they do well, where they fall short, and how they position themselves in the market. 

A comprehensive competitive analysis gives global brands the insight they need to navigate international markets with confidence and strategy. This guide will examine why competitive market research is so important and explain how to perform a global competitive analysis in six easy steps. 

What is a competitive market analysis?

A competitive analysis is a strategic research process that identifies competing businesses and evaluates their strengths and weaknesses. It highlights direct competitors and indirect competitors, what they’re doing right, and where you could fill their gaps.

The stakes are high for global brands that want to stand out. Beyond navigating your home market, you must account for international customer expectations and cultural differences. The competitive landscape includes global powerhouses and strong local players. A smart analysis process helps you find your footing, identify gaps in your strategy, and optimize for regional impact.

A global competitive analysis typically involves:

• Identifying and categorizing competitors
• Benchmarking pricing, marketing, and product features
• Assessing brand positioning and voice
• Analyzing customer feedback and sentiment
• Comparing operational strengths and weaknesses
• Exploring market share trends and innovation efforts

All of this research culminates in a competitive analysis report—a centralized document that guides your strategic decisions.

6 reasons why you should analyze competitor data

Analyzing your competitors goes far beyond knowing who they are. It helps you understand what’s working in your industry, where the opportunities lie, and how you can position your brand more effectively in international markets.

Here are six key benefits of digging into competitor data:

1. Identify market gaps

By mapping out the competitors in your space, you can uncover gaps they’ve missed. Maybe there’s a demographic they aren’t targeting or a service they haven’t localized. These gaps represent growth opportunities, especially for brands willing to localize and personalize their offerings.

Tip: Analyze competitive products and customer reviews to pinpoint areas of dissatisfaction. Use these to persuade people to try your business or develop new products and features with customer needs in mind.

2. Strengthen your unique value proposition

Seeing how other brands present their offerings helps you refine your own positioning. You can recognize what works and find ways to set yourself apart. Create a clear differentiation strategy to avoid copycat marketing and build a stronger, more distinct global identity.

Tip: It’s okay to aim high, but be realistic. Analyze a mix of top-tier and peer-level competitors to gain inspiration and see what benchmarks are attainable for you.

3. Improve your product or service

Tracking competitors’ updates and launches can offer inspiration for innovations like new products and campaigns. If your competitors are releasing features that customers love, it’s a cue to rethink your own roadmap. If their post-purchase support is a hit, look for ways to match it.

Tip: Include visual elements, like feature comparison tables, in your analysis. These can simplify data interpretation and uncover hidden insights.

4. Stay ahead of market trends

A market research approach to competitor analysis helps you monitor trends in real time. Are new pricing models emerging? Are there changes in tone or design? Proactive monitoring avoids surprises and sets you up to match the market.

Tip: Pay attention to subtle shifts in competitors’ tone, design, or messaging. They may be adapting to a trend before it reaches mainstream awareness.

5. Spot localization opportunities

Analyzing how competitors communicate in different regions can reveal where localization is lacking—or excelling. If a competitor isn’t offering localized content, imagery, or payment methods, that’s your signal to differentiate with authentic linguistic and cultural experiences.

Tip: Review competitors’ websites or apps to see where language coverage is limited or poorly adapted. These are opportunities to connect with audiences in ways that set your brand apart.

6. Minimize risk

Monitoring competitors’ activities lets you anticipate potential threats and challenges. You can learn from their mistakes, developing risk mitigation strategies to reduce—or avoid—painful situations. 

Tip: Analyze how competitors adapt to market shifts and regulatory changes. It’s a practical way to forecast and sidestep similar risks in your own strategy.

6 steps to guide your competitive analysis and strategy with a global mindset

Conducting a brand competitive analysis with a global mindset means adapting your research to account for diverse customer needs, cultural nuances, and market dynamics. These six steps provide a structured approach to building a strong, scalable strategy across borders:

1. Define your objectives

What do you want your competitive marketing analysis to achieve? Maybe you’re launching in a new region or planning a global rebrand. Clear objectives shape the type of data you gather and how you interpret it.

• Goal: A focused research process aligned with your strategic goals
• Data needed: Business objectives, key performance indicators (KPIs), timelines

2. Identify your competitors

Start by dividing your list into direct competitors (those offering similar products to the same audience) and indirect competitors (those solving the same problem in a different way). Include both startups and seasoned businesses to further diversify your analysis. Don’t forget regional players who may dominate specific markets.

• Goal: A well-rounded picture of the competition
• Data needed: Competitor names, websites, offerings, presence in various regions

3. Conduct a SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis maps out each competitor’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Consider communication factors like translation quality and customer service. A nuanced SWOT analysis might reveal that a competitor has excellent product features but poor multilingual support, offering a path to outperform them.

• Goal: Understand where each competitor thrives or struggles
• Data needed: Product reviews, social proof, market positioning, localization quality

4. Analyze their content and messaging

Effective communication can make or break success for global brands. Are your competitors’ marketing strategies tailored to local audiences? Are their websites and ad campaigns culturally relevant and consistent? Understand what each competitor promises to their customers and what channels they’re prioritizing. 

Localization increases cultural relevance and nurtures a steady brand voice across international markets. With Smartling’s marketing translation services, global brands can create polished, on-brand multilingual marketing campaigns for each market.

• Goal: Understand tone, positioning, and branding strategy
• Data needed: Website copy, ad campaigns, social media posts, translated content

5. Evaluate their customer experience

From mobile UX to customer support, every touchpoint matters, so look at competitors’ entire customer experiences. If they’re weak on after-sales service, make it a pillar of your strategy. Expanded content localization and support options can differentiate your brand and draw in disillusioned customers. 

• Goal: Benchmark overall customer satisfaction and UX effectiveness
• Data needed: Support documentation, customer feedback, user testing data

6. Synthesize your findings and plan your strategy

Finally, distill your data into an actionable marketing strategy with a roadmap for implementation. Identify areas for differentiation, customer acquisition, and campaign refinement. Consider creating playbooks for regional rollouts based on your findings, and prioritize strategies where your brand can win quickly. The goal isn’t just insight—it’s execution.

• Goal: A tactical plan rooted in real-world insights
• Data needed: Summary of above analyses, key strategic takeaways, success metrics

How to gain an edge over your competitors as a global brand

Insights alone aren’t enough. You have to act on them. Competitive analysis is the first step in a larger playbook: moving faster, positioning smarter, and reaching new markets effectively.

Localization is one of the clearest and most often overlooked ways to gain a competitive edge. Global consumers want content and support in their own language, delivered in a way that feels local and authentic. If your competitors are slow to adapt, you can leap ahead by being faster, more consistent, and more culturally aware.

Smartling’s platform helps brands localize faster and at scale, creating consistent messaging across regions without sacrificing brand integrity. The result is faster market entry, more conversions, and deeper audience trust.

Need inspiration? Learn how Coca-Cola used localization to fuel global marketing success.

Expand globally with Smartling’s cutting-edge localization solutions

Turning insights into action requires a partner who understands the complexity of international expansion. That’s where Smartling comes in.

Smartling’s AI-powered translation services help brands implement global marketing strategies with speed and scale, delivering high-quality translations faster and more affordably. Whether you’re updating your website, launching multilingual marketing campaigns, or localizing support documentation, we simplify the process while protecting your brand voice.

Want to make sure you’re choosing the best translation solution? Download our free eBook, “What To Look for in a Translation Solution: A Buyer’s Guide.” Learn what features to seek (and what questions to ask) to achieve high-performing outcomes and succeed on a global scale.