{"id":15799,"date":"2024-01-04T20:49:50","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T20:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.growthink.com\/?page_id=15799"},"modified":"2024-02-16T11:02:56","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T11:02:56","slug":"competitive-analysis","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.growthink.com\/businessplan\/help-center\/catering-business-plan\/competitive-analysis","title":{"rendered":"Catering Business Plan Competitive Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"font-size: 35px;\"><strong>Catering Competitive Analysis<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Your competitive analysis should identify your indirect and direct competitors and then focus on the latter.<\/p>\n<p><em>Direct competitors<\/em>\u00a0are other catering businesses.<\/p>\n<p><em>Indirect competitors<\/em>\u00a0are other options that customers have to purchase from you that aren\u2019t direct competitors. This includes restaurants, delis, supermarkets and customers preparing food for events themselves at home. You need to mention such competition to show you understand that not everyone who caters and event uses a catering business.<\/p>\n<p>With regards to direct competition, you want to detail the other catering business with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be catering business located in your same geographic location.<\/p>\n<p>For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors\u2019 businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What types of customers do they serve?<\/li>\n<li>What products do they offer?<\/li>\n<li>What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?<\/li>\n<li>What are they good at?<\/li>\n<li>What are their weaknesses?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"greyBG\" style=\"margin-bottom: 15px;\"><b><a href=\"https:\/\/businessplantemplate.growthink.com\/catering\/?utm_source=catering-business-plan&#038;utm_medium=NA&#038;utm_campaign=seo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"color: #008cba;\">You can download our Catering Business Plan Template (including a full, customizable financial model) to your computer here.<\/span><\/a><\/b><\/div>\n<p>With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers\u2019 perspective. And don\u2019t be afraid to call and speak with customers you know have used your competition regarding what they like most and least about them.<\/p>\n<p>The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Will you provide unique food items and\/or cuisines?<\/li>\n<li>Will you provide catering items that your competitors don\u2019t offer (e.g., ice statues)?<\/li>\n<li>Will you make it easier or faster for customers to purchase your services?<\/li>\n<li>Will you provide better customer service?<\/li>\n<li>Will you offer better pricing?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.<\/p>\n<div>\n    <button class=\"btn-right\" onclick=\"window.location.href='\/businessplan\/help-center\/catering-business-plan\/customer-analysis';\">< Previous: Customer Analysis<\/button>             <button class=\"btn-right\" style=\"float: right;\" onclick=\"window.location.href='\/businessplan\/help-center\/catering-business-plan\/marketing-plan';\">Next: Marketing Plan ><\/button>\n<\/div>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/code.jquery.com\/jquery-1.8.3.min.js\"><\/script><script>$(function(){  $('a').each(function() {    if ($(this).prop('href') == window.location.href) {      $(this).parent().addClass('current');    }  });});<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Catering Competitive Analysis Your competitive analysis should identify your indirect and direct competitors and then focus on the latter. Direct competitors\u00a0are other catering businesses. Indirect competitors\u00a0are other options that customers have to purchase from you that aren\u2019t direct competitors. This includes restaurants, delis, supermarkets and customers preparing food for events themselves at home. You need [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29264,"featured_media":0,"parent":8540,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-15799","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.7 (Yoast SEO v26.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Catering Business Plan Competitive Analysis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here&#039;s how to create the Competitive Analysis section for your catering business plan.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.growthink.com\/businessplan\/help-center\/catering-business-plan\/competitive-analysis\" \/>\n<meta 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