Richard Bush

According to Sun Tzu, the Chinese philosopher and author of the 2300-year-old treatise The Art of War, “If you know yourself but not your enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.” Or, in other words, if you want to be consistently successful you need to understand your competition.

Marketing is an inherently competitive activity – we are here to take market share from direct or indirect competitors. Yet competitor analysis is frequently overlooked by B2B marketers.

Richard Bush, MD at B2B marketing agency Base One, says, “It’s amazing how often prospective clients tell us they don’t know much about their competitors. At best, they’ll give us a list of websites; at worst they’ll say they don’t even know who their competitors are.”