Market Sructure and Competition

Competitors are not really a trouble if they are dealt with and understood pro-actively.  They give insights of your current position relative to them and when do you need to make changes in your management to outrun them. Competition makes the companies want to stay out of their comfort zone and put efforts in delivering exceptionally. If you know your competitor well, it can help you make assumptions about their futuristic decisions and guesses and act accordingly.

Competition analysis is a learning process which helps you knowing about your competitors in and out. Parachute, despite being the world’s largest selling coconut hair oil, is subject to competition. 

Here are the competitors of Parachute:

                                                                     Source

Direct competitors are competitors who compete against the brand in same product category while indirect competitors are competitors who can act as a substitute for a product. Parachute coconut oil is facing direct competition from Vatica Enriched Coconut hair oil since both are in the same category. Now, brands like Bajaj Brahmi Amla oil, Dabur Amla hair oil, Bajaj Almond drops et cetera are substitutes for Parachute coconut oil since they also offer hair care, but with different type of oil. If customer prefers other types of oil and is unhappy with Parachute’s sticky oil, they might just shift their preference to any substitute.

This is how the competitors differ with each other.

The demand for hair oil is very elastic, hence product differentiation and positioning plays a very important role in carving out a niche and eliminating competition, thereby increasing market share.