The Landscape
Competitive intelligence through multi-lens analysis.
"Category conventions are invisible until you see everyone following them. White space only appears when you map where no one stands."
The Core Insight
The Landscape provides rapid competitive mapping that surfaces three things: how brands position themselves, what sector messaging conventions everyone follows, and where unoccupied space might exist.
This is strategic sense-making, not exhaustive research. 15-minute category scan, not 15-day project.
Why This Tool Exists
Traditional competitive analysis suffers from:
- Selection bias: Analysing competitors you already know
- Confirmation bias: Analysis confirms existing beliefs
- Presentation bias: Findings shaped to support predetermined recommendations
The Landscape addresses these by starting with AI-suggested brands and using structured frameworks.
The Four Positioning Lenses
Matching The Message's framework for direct comparison:
| Lens | Axes | Territories |
|---|---|---|
| Price vs Quality | Budget ↔ Premium Basic ↔ Superior |
Value, Sweet Spot, Overpriced, Luxury |
| Heritage vs Innovation | Traditional ↔ Innovative Emerging ↔ Established |
Newcomer, Disruptor, Legacy, Pioneer |
| Mass vs Premium | Mass Market ↔ Premium Functional ↔ Aspirational |
Commodity, Accessible Premium, Everyday Luxury, Prestige |
| Functional vs Emotional | Rational ↔ Emotional Practical ↔ Expressive |
Utility, Performance, Lifestyle, Identity |
The Voice Sliders
Each brand is profiled on four communication dimensions (0-100 scale):
| Slider | What It Measures |
|---|---|
| Tone | Serious to playful - the emotional register of communications |
| Edge | Safe to provocative - how challenging the brand plays |
| Era | Heritage to contemporary - temporal orientation of brand stories |
| Energy | Restrained to bold - intensity and presence of creative work |
When most competitors cluster in similar ranges, that's the sector messaging convention. Outliers may signal differentiation opportunities.
View Modes
The Landscape offers multiple ways to view the analysis:
- Cards: Brand-by-brand breakdown with core message, tone tags, visual style, target signal, and distinctive assets
- Sliders: Side-by-side voice comparison across all brands
- Map: 2×2 positioning grid with brands plotted (toggle between lenses)
- Convention: The synthesised sector messaging convention statement
- White Space: Identified positioning opportunities with risk assessment
Output
Brand Voice Cards: Core message, tone, visual style, target signal, distinctive assets per brand
Slider Profiles: Tone, Edge, Era, Energy scores for each competitor
Positioning Maps: Brands plotted across four lenses
Sector Messaging Convention: The invisible rules everyone follows
White Space Opportunities: Unoccupied positions with evidence and risk assessment
Lens Insights: Strategic observations per positioning lens
Sector Messaging Convention
The convention statement identifies the unwritten rules of the category - what everyone assumes and does without questioning. This becomes input for finding differentiation opportunities.
White Space Analysis
Each white space opportunity includes:
- Opportunity: The specific territory that is unoccupied
- Evidence: What the positioning maps show
- Risk: Why competitors may be avoiding this space
Not all white space is valuable - some positions are empty for good reason.
How It Fits The Suite
- Standalone: Quick competitive scan for any category
- Pre-Story: Convention output informs problem framing
- Pre-Message: White space analysis informs positioning decisions
- Reference: Voice profiles inform creative direction
Best Practices
- Include 5-8 competitors for meaningful pattern recognition
- Add a focus brand to see how it compares to the set
- Upload additional context (reports, articles) to improve accuracy
- Look for clusters - where brands crowd together reveals convention
"Competitive analysis is not about knowing everything. It's about knowing enough to see what everyone else misses."
Exporting Analysis
The Landscape provides Word document export with complete analysis:
Word Document Export (DOCX)
- Market overview with category and region details
- Data reliability score and assessment
- Category convention (forced output)
- White space opportunities (if generated)
- Competitive set with all analyzed brands
- Professional formatting for client delivery
Note: The positioning map can be exported as PNG by clicking the download icon on the map. The DOCX export includes all text analysis and insights.
How to export: Click the Export button after completing analysis, then choose Export DOCX.