The psychology behind this day
Relative Evaluation (Pre-Suasion, Ch. 6): Cialdini's research — people don't evaluate things in isolation. They evaluate in context. A ₹5,000 service feels expensive next to a ₹1,000 competitor and cheap next to a ₹20,000 one. Your positioning is never absolute — it's always relative to the alternatives your customer is comparing you against. Understanding those alternatives is understanding your competitive reality.
Competitive Blind Spots (Making Websites Win, Ch. 5): Blanks and Jesson's methodology includes systematic competitive analysis not to copy competitors, but to find their blind spots. When every competitor does the same thing the same way, that sameness is your opportunity — because it's the thing customers are bored of seeing.
Category Convention (Advertising Concept and Copy, Ch. 5): Felton's insight — every industry develops conventions that businesses follow unconsciously. Breaking a category convention is one of the most powerful positioning moves available, because it makes you the only one doing something different in a sea of sameness.
The Lesson
Your positioning doesn't exist in a vacuum. It exists relative to what your customers' alternatives are. You need to know exactly what they'll compare you against — and where you win.
This isn't about copying competitors. It's about understanding the landscape your customer sees when they're deciding.
Today's Exercise
- List your top 5 competitors (direct or indirect — include any alternative your customer might choose instead of you, even "doing nothing").
- For each, spend 3 minutes auditing their primary customer touchpoint — which might be their website, but might not. For a local restaurant, it's their Google Business listing and Instagram page. For a B2B consultant, it's their LinkedIn profile. For a retail store, it's the storefront and walk-in experience. For an e-commerce brand, it's the product listing page. Audit whatever the customer encounters first, and answer:
- What's their one-line pitch? (If they don't have one, note that — it's a gap you can exploit.)
- What's their primary proof? (Reviews, testimonials, logos, portfolio, foot traffic?)
- What's their weakest step in the four-step framework?
- Write down: What do ALL your competitors do the same? That sameness is your opportunity — because that's what your customer is bored of seeing.
AI-Assisted (Strategy folder — use Deep Research mode if available)
"You are a competitive strategy analyst who uses behavioural psychology to identify positioning gaps in crowded markets.
My business: [business type] in [location] My competitors: [list up to 5 with a one-line description of each] My ideal customer (from Day 8): [paste your customer profile]
Using the competitive positioning and consumer psychology frameworks in this project, do the following step by step:
1. For each competitor, analyse: their positioning statement (what they claim to be), their strongest trust signal (what makes a customer believe them), and their weakest point in the four-step customer journey (Find → Trust → Understand → Buy). 2. Identify the category conventions — what do all these competitors have in common in how they present themselves, what they offer, and how they sell? These conventions are the blind spots. 3. Find the gap: what are they all failing to do that my target customer would value? Use Felton's category convention principle — the opportunity is where everyone does the same thing the same way. 4. Recommend one specific positioning move I can make based on this gap.
Format: Give me a table with one row per competitor (columns: Positioning, Strongest Trust Signal, Weakest Step, Notable Blind Spot), then a summary paragraph with the common gap and recommended positioning move."
Output: A competitive landscape analysis with the common gap identified.