Competitive landscape as an environment of enterprise existence and as a system of indicators in relation to which the competitiveness of an enterprise is revealed is the basic factor in the analysis of particular aspects of activity of an enterprise and its competitors in the context of frequently arising questions and general problems related to the necessity of explanation of motives for any actions. It is the level of competitive landscape activity which is the defining moment in building the marketing policy of an enterprise, in choice of the means and methods of competition.
Peculiarities of the competitive landscape of an enterprise are determined by the competition pattern in the market in question, the key characteristics describing the market conditions, such as the national policy, breakdown of manufacturers, possibility of appearance of new competitors, assignment of customers and their influence upon competitive intensity, threat on the part of substitute goods.
One of the major characteristics of an enterprise’s competitive landscape activity is the degree of competitors’ opposition in their competition for customers and new market niches, or competitive intensity.
In order to facilitate the benchmarking of competitive intensity in different markets (market segments) and assessment of their appeal (in terms of competition), we find it useful to operate a generalized characteristic of competitive intensity. Apart from the benchmark base, it enables us to specify the results of analysis of particular elements of an enterprise’s competitive landscape and approach the preparation of a special analytical report in a more consistent way.