Mapping the competition in your city

Clients compare you with other vendors, with cheaper substitutes and with doing it themselves. Learn how to find your real competitors, record them on a simple grid, plot them on a positioning map and spot the gaps where your business can stand out.

Read the transcript

Mapping the competition in your city.

Every client who inquires is comparing you with someone.

Sometimes it is the vendor down the road.

Three kinds of competition.

Most vendors only look at businesses that sell exactly what they sell, and miss the alternatives that win far more often.

Your marketing has to answer all three.

Finding your real competitors.

Your real competitors are the ones your clients actually considered, not the ones you worry about.

Use several sources and note where each name came from.

The competitor grid.

Record each competitor on one row.

Use only public information and what clients told you.

Worked example: Lantern and Lane's map.

Marco built a grid of 14 wedding planners serving Toronto's west end and the west GTA.

It took about five hours over two evenings.

Building your own positioning map.

Choose two axes that matter to your clients, based on interviews. Good axes are things clients choose on: price level, specialization, style, size of event, speed, formality, the area served.

Avoid axes where everyone claims the top, like quality or reliability. Nobody positions themselves as low quality.

That is the lesson. The worksheet and the quiz are just below this video.

What you will be able to do

• Identify direct competitors, substitutes and the do-it-yourself option for your main service
• Build a competitor grid of eight to fifteen businesses using public information and client feedback
• Plot competitors on a two-axis map and describe one open position your business could own

Every client who inquires is comparing you with someone. Sometimes it is the vendor down the road. Sometimes it is a cheaper substitute, like the venue’s in-house coordinator, a cousin with a good camera or a speaker rented from a hardware store. And often it is the option of doing nothing special at all. If you do not know who you are being compared with, you cannot explain why you are the better choice. A competitor map is how you find out.

Three kinds of competition

Start broad. Most vendors only look at businesses that sell exactly what they sell, and miss the alternatives that win far more often.

Your marketing has to answer all three. Against direct competitors, you explain why you. Against substitutes, you explain why a specialist. Against do-it-yourself, you explain why hire anyone, which is often the most important argument of the three.

Finding your real competitors

Your real competitors are the ones your clients actually considered, not the ones you worry about. Use several sources and note where each name came from.

• Your interviews. Ask every client and lost lead which other options they seriously considered. These names count double.
• Search. Search your main service phrases with your city and neighbourhood, such as “wedding planner Etobicoke” or “corporate caterer Mississauga”. Note the businesses in the map results and on the first page.
• Listing platforms. Look at your category on the platforms your clients use, such as The Knot, WeddingWire or Zola for weddings.
• Venue lists. Many venues hand out a preferred vendor list. Ask coordinators which names appear most often.
• Social platforms. Look at who is tagged in posts from the venues you work at and the planners you know.
• Shows and events. Walk the floor at a wedding show or a business networking event and note who exhibits.

Aim for eight to fifteen businesses. Fewer and you miss the pattern. More and you will never finish.

The competitor grid

Record each competitor on one row. Use only public information and what clients told you.

• Name and where you found them.
• Their one-line pitch. What does their home page headline actually say?
• Services and packages.
• Starting price shown? Yes with the figure, or no.
• Areas served.
• Proof. Number of Google reviews and the average rating, plus the themes clients praise and complain about.
• Specialty. Do they own a niche, a style or a client type?
• Main channels. Where do they seem to get clients: search, listings, Instagram, venues?
• What clients said. Anything you heard in interviews.

Then add a final column: what they leave open. That is the column that matters.

Worked example: Lantern & Lane’s map

Marco built a grid of 14 wedding planners serving Toronto’s west end and the west GTA. It took about five hours over two evenings. Here is what the summary rows showed. These figures are illustrative.

• Starting prices shown: 5 of 14 published a starting price. The other 9 said “contact us”.
• Review counts: the median was 40 Google reviews. Two firms had more than 100. Lantern & Lane had 38.
• Headlines: 11 of 14 used some version of “stress-free”, “unforgettable” or “your dream day”.
• Specialty: 3 claimed a specialty, all luxury. None mentioned weddings that combine two cultural or religious traditions, although two of the lost leads Priya interviewed had been comparing planners for exactly that kind of wedding.

He then plotted the 14 on a simple map. The horizontal axis ran from “general” to “specialist”. The vertical axis ran from “price hidden” to “price shown”. Most firms clustered in the corner of general and hidden. The luxury specialists sat at specialist and hidden. The corner of specialist and price shown was empty.

That gap became Lantern & Lane’s position: the two-tradition specialists who show their prices. It used the evidence from interviews, it used what the studio was already good at, and nobody else was standing there. Module 3 builds the positioning statement from it.

The same method works for any vendor. A party rental company in Durham that maps eleven competitors might find that every one requires a $500 minimum order and two weeks’ notice, and that none offers same-week delivery for small backyard parties. That is a gap worth testing, provided the company can actually staff it.

Finish the grid by writing one sentence for each important competitor, using this template: [Competitor] wins when the client wants [what they do best]; they lose when the client needs [what they leave open]. For example: “The luxury studio wins when the client wants a magazine-style wedding and has a large budget; it loses when the client needs to see a price before calling.” Ten sentences like that tell you more than any amount of browsing.

Building your own positioning map

1. Choose two axes that matter to your clients, based on interviews. Good axes are things clients choose on: price level, specialization, style, size of event, speed, formality, the area served.
2. Avoid axes where everyone claims the top, like quality or reliability. Nobody positions themselves as low quality.
3. Place each competitor using evidence from the grid, not your opinion of them.
4. Place yourself honestly, where clients would put you today.
5. Look for empty space. Then ask: is anyone in that space? Do clients want it? Can I credibly stand there?

An empty corner is not always an opportunity. Sometimes it is empty because no client wants it. A budget luxury caterer is an empty position for good reason. Check the gap against your interview themes and your numbers before you move into it.

Keep it current, and keep it fair

Update the grid once a year, and whenever a lost lead names a competitor you have not seen. Note new entrants, price changes and businesses that have closed. Learn from competitors, but do not copy their words, photos or packages. Clients notice, and copying makes you look interchangeable, which is the opposite of the point.

In Canada and the GTA

Your competition is regional. The GTA is one large market joined by highways, and clients compare across municipal lines. A photographer in Hamilton and one in Toronto may quote the same Oakville wedding. A caterer in Vaughan may compete for a downtown corporate lunch. A DJ from Brampton may play a Scarborough banquet hall. When you build your grid, include vendors from neighbouring regions who regularly work where you do. Google’s own rules for Business Profiles say a service area should not extend farther than about two hours of driving time from the business’s base, which gives you a sensible outer limit for who counts as local competition.

Substitutes are strong here. Many large GTA banquet halls and hotels bundle in-house catering, décor, AV and coordination. For a planner, a décor company or an AV firm, the venue package is often the biggest competitor, and the argument you need is about what a specialist adds. Cultural communities often have trusted family vendors, sometimes informal, who are booked by word of mouth inside a temple, church or community association. You will not find them on Google, but your interviews will name them.

Competitors are also partners. In the event industry, a competing planner may refer you a date they cannot take, and a photographer who competes with you for weddings may recommend you for corporate work. Map them as competitors, treat them as colleagues. A reputation for generosity travels quickly in a market where the same coordinators, florists and DJs work together every weekend.

The rules on comparing yourself

A competitor map is research. When you use what you learn in public, the rules on advertising apply.

Comparative claims must be true and fair. The Competition Act makes it reviewable conduct to make a representation to the public that is false or misleading in a material respect, and the general impression counts as well as the literal words. A claim such as “the only planner in Toronto who shows prices” must be true when you publish it and stay true while it is up. The Canadian Code of Advertising Standards, administered by Ad Standards, has a specific clause on comparative advertising, and its accuracy clause says disclaimers must not contradict the more prominent parts of a message. The safest comparison is usually no comparison: describe what you do, clearly, and let clients make the comparison themselves. The Competition Bureau’s overview of deceptive marketing practices explains the main rules and penalties.

Reviews of competitors are off limits. The Competition Bureau has warned that anyone who writes or permits reviews that give a false or misleading impression to consumers could be liable, and that employees must disclose their connection when reviewing their employer or its competitors. If the connection cannot be shown clearly, as with a star rating alone, they should not post the review. Google’s contribution policy separately prohibits content based on a conflict of interest. Never review a competitor, never ask staff, friends or family to, and never respond to a bad review of your own by attacking a rival. The Bureau’s 2024 notice on reviews is short and clear.

Research honestly. Reading a competitor’s website, reviews and published prices is fair. Sending fake inquiries to collect their proposals wastes a small business’s time and puts you in a position you would not want to explain. Ask clients and lost leads what they were quoted instead; many will tell you.

Respect their work. Competitors’ photos, text and designs are protected by copyright from the moment they are created. Under the Copyright Act, the author is the first owner of copyright, so a competitor’s portfolio photos generally belong to them or to their photographer. Do not reuse them in your research decks, mood boards for clients or marketing.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check the official sources named here, or ask a lawyer, for your own situation.

Worksheet

Download the worksheet and complete it for your own business, using Lantern & Lane as the model where it helps. Keep it with your marketing plan. It takes about 10 minutes.

Download the worksheet (PDF)