Here are some tips for how to put together a competitor profile:

1.  First write down a summary of your business. Include your company history, mission statements, financial analysis and a summary of your marketing plan and strategies.

2. Write an analysis of your weaknesses, strengths, opportunities and outside threats.

3. Now you can make a list of all your competitors. List all the companies that are a threat to you and your market.

4. Make a detailed analysis of each competitor's services or products. Describe their features, how the products are marketed, advertised and distributed. Also be sure to analyze the way customers perceive those companies.

5. Objectively study the weaknesses and strengths of your competitors. Analyze with their products are popular and find out if their customers are unhappy with the products in any way. If they are unhappy, find out why. Look at their target market. Is there an area of the target market that they have overlooked? If so, is this an area your business could capitalize on?

6. Analyze and research the strategies your competitors use and how they market themselves through advertising and press releases.

7. Make a complete analysis of your market. Investigate whether or not your market is becoming stale or if there is room for more growth. If the market is breaking into niches try to steer your company toward the niche that suits you best.

When you find your competitive advantage you should develop it to the maximum.

A good competitive analysis will help develop a new and improved marketing plan. Using all the information from your competitor profile, you can compare your company with your competitors in the areas of product, distribution, price, advertising, etc. You will see exactly how your business measures up to the competition.

Once you gather all the information and analyze it, you can help your business gain an advantage over all your competitors. 

This will create a better market for your product.

If there are specific niches that you can enter without much competition, take advantage of the opportunity to help your company grow.

Only after first understanding your competitors will you be able to formulate your own competitive strategy.

This necessitates that a thorough competitive analysis is conducted not only at the start of a business but even at other times during ongoing business.