case study analysis competition

UW Global Business Case Competition

Universities interested in competing in GBCC 2025 – Please Complete this Expression of Interest Form . Priority submissions will be reviewed in August.

Go to GBCC Site for access to competitor, schedule, and other information!

The UW Global Business Case Competition (UW GBCC) is a prominent international case competition, bringing together undergraduate students from within the United States and around the globe to compete in fast-paced and innovative business case studies. Starting in 1999 as the Global Business Challenge, UW GBCC turns 24 this year– cheers to that– and is one of the oldest of its kind.

UW GBCC enables students to build meaningful, cross-cultural relationships, experience what the city of Seattle has to offer and most importantly, challenges them with the task of analyzing and developing a business recommendation for two real-world case studies. The competition concludes with each team presenting their case solutions to a panel of industry-leading judges, who are tasked with the difficult decision of selecting the UW GBCC champion

Be sure to connect with the UW Global Business Case Competition on Instagram .

Participating teams can find rules and detailed schedule information on the exclusive GBCC website – please email  [email protected] for access.

GBCC Archived Finals Recordings

2024: Global Retail Expansion Focus with Tim Hortons and Costco

The Global Business Center is pleased to announce that National Chengchi University of Taipei, Taiwan, is the 2024 UW Global Business Case Competition (GBCC) champion! This week-long intensive experiential learning event challenged 11 undergraduate student teams from across the globe.

5-Hour Case For Tim Hortons, they tackled the popular chain’s expansion into China. Teams made of 3-4 students representing different universities each recommended two strategic differentiators that Tim Hortons should focus on over the next two years, and identify actions they could take over this period of time to build growth on those differentiators.

The winning team was comprised of students from Chulalongkorn University, Erasmus University RSM, University of Prince Edward Island, and Washington University – St. Louis.

24-Hour Case Students developed analysis for Costco Wholesale’s expansion opportunities in three new markets: India, Brazil, or the UAE. Teams were given 24 hours to develop market entry strategies, propose timelines for entry, and recommend whether Costco should adapt its business model and product offerings to customer preferences in each country.

Competing Universities:

• Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
• Erasmus University, The Netherlands
• Illinois State University, USA
• National Chengchi University, Taiwan
• The Ohio State University, USA
• Universidad Panamericana- Ciudad UP, Mexico
• University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
• University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
• University of Prince Edward Island, Canada
• University of Washington, USA
• Washington University, USA

The two case problems were developed for this competition by Foster School faculty. The Tim Horton’s case was adapted by Dr. Debra Glassman. The Costco case was co-authored by Dr. Debra Glassman and Dr. Suresh Kotha.

2023: Nestle’s Sustainability and Intel’s Semiconductor Supply Chains

The Global Business Center is pleased to announce that American University of Beirut (Lebanon) is the 2023 Global Business Case Competition (GBCC) champion! This powerhouse experiential learning event challenged 12 undergraduate student teams from across the globe to tackle current global business issues. This year they developed recommendations for issues faced by Nestle and Intel.

For Nestle, they worked for 5 hours (Short Case Challenge) on alternative packaging for KitKat candy bars that would help them meet their 2025 commitment for all packaging – 100% recyclable or reusable.

Teams had to:

• Recommend which KitKat packaging (plastic with recycled content OR paper) should be implemented on a global scale
• Suggest a strategy that would promote consumer recycling behavior
• Adding to the challenge, the teams were multinational ones who had never met each other. They were formed after arrival in Seattle and had to present, boardroom style with just one slide, to business executives. A truly unique learning experience that simultaneously builds community and cross-cultural competence. The short case winning team included Pan Karnjanaekarin (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand), Valentino Mollard (Erasmus University, Netherlands), Jade Joyce Ng (University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong), and Dominik Vlasak (University of Washington, USA).

24-Hour Case: Intel This time they had 24 hours to address how Intel can make its new foundry (chip manufacturing) services a success, especially given that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the world’s dominant manufacturer. More specifically, who are the potential customers and how can Intel persuade them to work with its foundry services rather than TSMC?

The champions are compiled below.

The two case problems were created specifically for this competition by Foster School faculty. The Nestle case was developed by Dr. Debra Glassman. The Intel Case was co-authored by Dr. Debra Glassman and Dr. Suresh Kotha.

2021: Tesla’s Global Expansion Strategy

By Suresh Kotha and Dr. Debra Glassman, University of Washington Foster School of Business, April 2021 Tesla is a revolutionary car company with a revolutionary leader, Elon Musk. It has upended conventional wisdom by successfully producing a line-up of battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs) with its own designs and many of its own components. Despite production challenges, Tesla is undertaking rapid global expansion, with a “Gigafactory” in Shanghai and another about to come online in Germany. The global EV market is growing rapidly, and Tesla is considering other locations for Gigafactories, including India. Is this a good idea? Is Tesla spreading itself too thin? With global competitors ramping up, can Tesla be profitable in the global markets that it is considering?

This case asks the student teams to identify and evaluate Tesla’s global expansion strategy and to present an implementation plan and forecast for the strategy that they recommend.

2019: Amazon Go Stores: New Directions in Grocery Retailing

By Dr. Debra Glassman, University of Washington Foster School of Business, April 2019

In January, 2018, the first Amazon Go store was opened to the public in Seattle. It featured a checkout-free experience. Upon entering, the customer scans a QR code on the Amazon Go phone app. As the customer shops, cameras track his or her movements. The shelves have weight sensors that detect when a product is removed from a shelf (or returned to it). The app keeps track of purchases and charges a credit card when the customer leaves. Amazon calls this Just Walk Out technology.

Amazon has plans for as many as 3,000 Amazon Go stores in the US by 2021. It has identified a site in London for the first overseas Amazon Go store. It is logical to think that Amazon will consider further overseas expansion, but it is not clear what form that should take. Cross-border expansion in the grocery sector is notoriously difficult, and other retailers are already launching cashierless grocery stores around the world, from the UK to China.

This case asks the student teams to identify and evaluate three global expansion strategies and to present an implementation plan for the strategy that they recommend. The champion and finalists’ presentations are compiled below.

2018: Amazon Web Services: Searching for Global Growth

By Suresh Kotha and Debra Glassman, University of Washington Foster School of Business, April 2018

The case focuses on Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world leader in provision of cloud computing services, from data storage to computing and applications. Moving to “the cloud” means that customers rent data center services from third-party providers via the internet rather than maintain their own data centers. The major cloud providers, such as AWS, Microsoft’s Azure and Google Cloud Platform, are rapidly building networks of very large (“hyperscale”) data centers, grouped in geographic Regions around the world.

This case asks the student teams to play the role of AWS managers who will recommend locations for new data center Regions to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and other top managers. The presentations must identify the top three criteria for location selection and recommend three new Region locations.

Read the student charge . The champion and finalists’ presentations are compiled below.

2017: Fitbit: The Business About Wrist

The case focuses on Fitbit, a company with a big share of the wrist-worn wearables market. The market has become increasingly competitive and is characterized by a convergence between the functions offered by fitness trackers (such as Fitbit) and smartwatches (such as Apple Watch). Due to this connectivity, there is a growing recognition of the privacy and security risks associated with the data generated by wearables. The teams in this competition were asked to play the role of Fitbit managers asked to recommend how to protect data from Fitbit devices. They were also asked to develop a plan for marketing Fitbit’s new data protection efforts.

Read the student charge . The champion and finalists’ presentations are compiled below.

2016: Volkswagen Group: The Emissions Scandal and the Costs of Deception

In 2007, Martin Winterkorn, the new CEO of the Volkswagen Group, led the adoption of Strategy 2018, a bold plan for the company to become the world’s number-one-selling automaker. By early 2015, the Volkswagen Group had achieved that goal, in part by increasing US car sales through offering “clean diesel” vehicles. The clean diesel engines allowed VW, Audi and Porsche cars to meet the strict US emissions rules on nitrogen oxides. Then, in September 2015, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced that VW diesels had cheated on the emissions tests with a “defeat device” – software that detected when a car’s emissions were being tested. The device reduced emissions during testing, but allowed emissions as much as 40 times higher during regular driving. Eventually it was revealed that the company had installed defeat devices in 11 million VWs, Audis and Porsches worldwide, including 600,000 in the US. Winterkorn was forced to resign and governments and customers around the world launched recalls and lawsuits. The VW Group is facing huge potential costs, as well as damage to its reputation. As new CEO Mathias Muller revises the Group’s strategy, he must address these questions: What will be the total costs of the cheating scandal, and how will they constrain the VW Group’s strategic options in the future?

2015: First Solar Inc. in 2013

Each of the GBCC teams spent 48 hours analyzing a business case on First Solar Inc. In 2010, First Solar was the global leader in production of solar panels. However, by 2013, Chinese producers dominated the world market, helped by generous government subsidies. First Solar was also challenged by falling prices for solar panels made with a competing technology. First Solar responded by vertically integrating into the solar systems business, making the company a “one-stop shop” for utility customers. First Solar’s sales have been concentrated in the US market, but they are exploring opportunities outside the US. The GBCC student teams were tasked with identifying the external forces affecting First Solar’s business over the next five years and then prioritizing the non-US target markets.

Read the case study on the Harvard Business School website . Find the student charge . The champion and finalists’ presentations are compiled below.

2014: Nike: Sustainability and Labor Practices 2008-2013

Acting as Nike mangers, students examine Nike’s sustainability and labor practices from 1998 to 2013 and provide recommendations on three case questions: 1) Where should Nike move its collegiate apparel production? 2) What is a feasible way for Nike’s supply chain to be more transparent? and 3) How can Nike build consumer awareness concerning its improved labor sustainability projects?

Read the case study on the Harvard Business School website. Find the student charge . The champion and finalists’ presentations are compiled below.

2013: Frog’s Leap Winery in 2011: The Sustainability Agenda Case

From 2000-2010, John Williams, co-founder of Frog’s Leap Winery in California, invested in dry farming, organic, and biodynamic agriculture; geothermal and solar power; year-round employment and benefits for immigrant workers; and the industry’s first LEED-certified tasting room. Despite static production, inventory and debt load grew. Students were tasked with finding solutions to help Frog Leap increase sales and become more sustainable while remaining a small winery.

Read the case study on the Harvard Business School website . Download the student charge . The champion and finalists’ presentations are compiled below.

2012: Li & Fung 2012, Harvard Business School

Students act as the top executives at Li & Fung in the midst of preparing an important presentation to stock market investors and analysts. During the presentations, executives (students) will explain the strategies that will be implemented to achieve a goal of $1.5 B. core operating profit in 2013.

2011: Urban Water Partners (A), Harvard Business School, October 2010

Students teams took on the role of the founders and executives at Urban Water Partners. Each team was asked to develop a business plan and subsequent presentation outlining possible business expansion and possible risks.

What are the Top Undergraduate Case Competitions?

List of the top undergraduate case competitions:, additional resources, undergraduate case competitions.

Compete to be the best and win prizes!

Undergraduate case competitions require students to take the information provided in a case study and produce some type of analysis, which they must then present or submit for scoring. Case competitions exist for a wide range of fields, including business, science (physics, chemistry, etc.), math, humanities, and more. For example, the CFI Financial Modeling World Championships is open to undergraduate students and has $10,000 in cash prizes.

National Investment Banking Competition

Global case competition at harvard, kpmg international case competition, asia investment banking competition, mcgill management international case competition, cfi financial modeling case competition.

The National Investment Banking Competition (NIBC) is one of the top undergraduate case competitions for business students and aspiring investment bankers. The event separates contestants into undergraduate and graduate streams where teams must create a pitchbook with recommendations related to a corporate transaction such as a merger, acquisition, capital raising, or another strategic alternative.

Prizes: $10,000 (across winning teams)

Entries: Undergraduate, MBA students

The Global Case Competition at Harvard is on a mission to provide a learning experience that uses hands-on business cases and provides networking opportunities for students and professionals. Learning opportunities include teamwork, communication, and presentation skills. In addition to the case competition, there is also a workshop series.

Entries: Undergraduate

The KPMG Case Competition is an opportunity to discover the world of casework and challenge yourself to develop innovative business solutions by participating in a challenging and fun learning experience. Teams will compete with other students from around the globe, gaining insights into the world of consulting and advisory work with clients. Finalists will be sent on a free trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the final round.

Prizes: The winning team gets a prize, but it is undisclosed

Entries: Undergraduates, by country

The Asia Investment Banking Competition is an opportunity for undergraduates and MBA students to compete in a Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) case where contestants are placed in the position of an M&A analyst and must create a pitchbook, testing their analytical skills and ability to work as a team and make a presentation. Contestants must create a PowerPoint presentation about the acquisition target, based on the information provided in the case. The competition is held in Hong Kong.

Entries: Undergraduates, and graduate students

The McGill Management International Case Competition is an undergraduate student competition that uses cases based on globalization and requires multi-disciplinary approaches. The competition is 32 hours long, over a three-day period. It starts with a business problem and all teams must develop a strategy and create a presentation to address the issue. Contestants work in the hotel on the case for 32 hours.

Prizes: Trophies for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place

The CFI Financial Modeling Case Competition challenges participants to build a financial model for a business and value the company. It is based on a private equity case study, where contestants receive a Confidential Information Memorandum and must build a model, make recommendations, and create a pitch to the judges on whether or not they recommend investing in the business. Visit the  CFI Financial Modeling Case Competition website to learn more!

Entries: Undergraduate, graduate, and professional

Visit the  CFI Financial Modeling Case Competition website to learn more!

Thank you for reading this guide to the top undergraduate case competitions in business and finance. To be well prepared for the big event, these additional CFI resources will be helpful:

• Financial Modeling Guide
• Business Valuation Methods
• Pitchbook Template
• MBA Case Competitions
• See all career resources
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Six Strategies for Winning Case Competitions

• Strategy and Operations

by Lauren Meyer and Sarah Consagra, both MMM 2020 

This content was originally published in Poets&Quants .

To prepare for business school, students gear up for lecture room cold-calling, months of career recruiting, and enough networking to last a lifetime. What many MBA students don’t anticipate are case competitions.

An often-underrated way to derive value from your business school education, case competitions offer students the opportunity to consult for real clients, helping to solve pressing business problems. These competitions have become almost a rite of passage at graduate schools across the nation. Plus, they tend to pay generously – a perk always welcome on an MBA budget.

Over two weeks, our team designed a platform aimed at educating and empowering primary care physicians to directly treat patients with HCV, a task typically reserved for specialists. We were thrilled to win the competition, and even more excited to know that our ideas will further AbbVie’s mission to eradicate a stigmatized and often overlooked disease.

Among busy MBA schedules, making time for a case competition may be difficult. However, it can be one of the most rewarding experiences of business school. After competing and succeeding in several during our first year at Kellogg, we’ve gleaned some helpful tips and tricks for designing a “winning” solution and getting the most out of the case competition experience.

1. Make it human-centered.

Get out there and talk to people! Secondary research is important. Where possible, your ideas should also be informed by robust primary research. Judges will be impressed when you are able to cite conversations with people who are “living the problem.” Through our conversations with doctors, nurses, and social workers, we unearthed unique pain points related to HCV treatment that we would have missed entirely by relying on the internet. One nurse reminded us that “doctors are people, too,” and that their own unconscious biases and busy schedules might prevent them from treating certain diseases with urgency.

2. Keep it laser-focused.

When solving an innovation challenge, there are typically a number of exciting possible solutions. We’ve found it is most effective to select the one solution you think is most compelling Then, tell the audience  why  you chose it, and build it out in detail. The audience will be much more impressed by a single, deep and well-studied solution than a set of broad and shallow ones. In our presentation, we recommended launching the education platform with primary care physicians covered by Medicare Advantage, a group we believed was uniquely poised to adopt the education platform. By honing in on one of many existing pain points, we were able to demonstrate that we had done the hard work of prioritizing the biggest win for our client.

3. Make it beautiful.

The value of an aesthetically compelling presentation cannot be overstated. This will keep your audience alert and engaged. Straightforward, crisp slides with simple design elements will go a long way. If you want to take it one step further, don’t be afraid to get creative by adding illustrations and vivid imagery. Our team used hand-drawn illustrations (just stick figures – nothing fancy) to bring a typical HCV patient’s journey to life for the judging panel.

4. Know your numbers.

When it comes to Q&A time, it’s always satisfying to respond to a judge’s doubting question with, “Yes, and we have data to support that.” If you’re going to whip out that reply, make sure you’ve done your homework. While only key numbers should be presented, an appendix is a helpful add-on for all the numerical content that you may want to pull out of your arsenal during follow-up questioning. Make sure you practice speaking confidently about how you arrived at those final numbers as well.

5. Make it actionable.

Ultimately, judges want solutions that feel tangible – ones they can execute readily, with existing budget, and feel excited to promote to internal stakeholders. Craft a clear outline for how you’ll launch your idea, what money you’ll leverage, and what existing resources you can draw on. If you want to add some glitz, you can always build out a roadmap for how your solution might evolve and grow as you scale (three, five, or ten years down the line). In our presentation, we focused on a “pilot program,” and then shared a window into what a “full-scale” version might look like. This helped the judges understand our solution’s potential for immediate effect, and how that might translate into something bigger and more impactful.

6. Tell a story.

Business jargon and charts might seem impressive, but if the judges aren’t hooked they may miss the genius of your solution. Storytelling can be a critical lever for standing out and connecting with your audience. Share emotional and powerful stories of personas or real people you spoke with to demonstrate how this solution will transform the lives of customers and stakeholders. Coming full circle to our first tip: speaking with people out in the world will enable you to deliver compelling human stories.

One bonus tip to remember : be sure to make it fun! That may sound cheesy, but it’s hard to envision and build out a business solution under time constraints if you’re not curious about the subject matter. Find teammates you enjoy spending time with, and let your enthusiasm shine when pitch day rolls around.

Student case competitions

Case competitions can play a role in highlighting the many skills involved in case writing, teaching and learning. They can benefit faculty, researchers and students and offer the opportunity to showcase expertise at business schools and universities.

This page provides details of current student case competitions. We're always interested to hear about new case competitions, so if yours isn't listed please get in touch.

We also have a page that lists information about case writing competitions .

Promote your competition

If you would like your student case competition promoted on this page please contact Paddy.

Competition currently closed

Aarhus Case Competition is an annual case competition founded in 2011. It is the largest case competition in the Nordics with over 650 participants, divided into two case tracks, Advanced and Aspire. The first track is Advanced, which consists of 27 top students divided into nine teams. They are recruited from all around the world to compete in creating the best case solutions. The other track is Aspire Case Camp, open for all students at Aarhus University, both experienced case solvers and people who are new to case solving. Throughout the week, Aspire and Advanced will solve the same three cases presented to them by the case company as if they were real-life consultants.

At Aarhus Case Competition, our mission is to prepare business students for a business career, which we believe is best accomplished through hands-on experience and collaboration with our partners.

Further information

Visit the competition website

List of winners

Amsterdam Case Competition is a new competition organised by the University of Amsterdam and student organisation SEFA. We organise a week-long competition for top universities around the world! Our competition includes an eight-hour case, a 24-hour case, as well as several two-hour cases and countless social and networking opportunities.

Students can expect top companies from the Netherlands and the world to be involved, thus providing them with experience of real life problems of top businesses, as well as opportunities to network and meet the business leaders of today.

At Amsterdam Case Competition, our goal is to gather bright minds from all over the world to compete on competitive cases. By doing so we strive to create value, but also link aspiring consultants together from all over the world.

Competition currently closed 

CaseIT is the world's premier international undergraduate Management Information System (MIS) case competition, hosted annually in collaboration with the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University (SFU). The brightest business students from across the globe converge to Vancouver, B.C. to put their case analysis skills to the test in this week-long event. With opportunities to network, explore, and learn, the CaseIT experience is one that you will never forget.

Visit competition website

List of winners 

 Competition currently closed 

We connect students and companies in solving real-life challenges. By organising two of the world's most prominent case competitions, we have built a platform for students across the globe to exercise their current skillsets while simultaneously gaining new inspiration and expanding their toolboxes. In everything that we do, we aim to provide life-time experiences.

  Submission deadline: 8 September 2024

The impact of globalisation on business, both locally and globally, is immense and ignoring it would be a catastrophic undertaking. The goal of the case competition is to identify and answer questions that real businesses and managers are posing today in relation to Emerging Markets. The growing role of Emerging Market Multinationals in the business world continues to evolve and this case competition seeks to challenge us to come up with win-win solutions for expanding stakeholders.

The Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (PARCC) at the Syracuse University Maxwell School is sponsoring its 16 th annual E-PARCC competition to further stimulate the creation of effective and innovative teaching cases and simulations. 

Submission deadline: 10 August 2024

Launched in 2022, the ESSEC Case Competition for High School Future Leaders 2024 offers a platform for high school students to experience the teaching of a top-level business school while engaging in a real-life case challenge. Open to all high school students aged 14-18 worldwide, this year's competition focuses on the realms of business, entrepreneurship and sustainability. Over the course of two weeks, students will experience ESSEC's teaching methods through seven online academic workshops and two coaching sessions led by our esteemed faculty and industry experts. On September 14, participants will present their final proposals to the jury, either online or in-person in Singapore for those based locally.

If you are eager to enhance your business acumen and problem-solving skills, form your teams now and stand a chance to win exciting prizes in this competition. Gather a team of three to six members and submit a three-minute video proposing your ideas to reduce plastic use in your school or community. Only teams that have passed this mini-challenge will be invited to participate in the case competition. Registration is now open until 10 August 2024 (SGT) .

Visit company website 

The event brings together students and faculty from all of Hong Kong’s universities as well as top universities from the Asia-Pacific region. Teams of four undergraduates compete in business strategy-making and presentation, and are judged by senior international business executives. Students also have the opportunity to interact with some of Asia's brightest talents and experience Hong Kong's unique international culture.

Entries open for 2024

Are you ready for the challenge? This globally popular Institute of Management Accountants Middle East and India Student Case Competition invites university students to think strategically and stretch their analytical skills to solve a finance business case on “Determening How to Classify Stock Investments: The Case of Unbekannt, Inc.”

Put your business acumen to the test and present your team’s analysis in front of leading business heads. This year’s case gives you and your team the chance to get selected for the Grand Finals, where you will compete with peers from around the world.

Please note that this competition is only open to students across the Middle East, Africa and India.

In 2024, ISM-HK worked with HKU Asia Case Research Center and Cathay Pacific on a real-life case on supplier risk management and sustainability as the key theme.

Prizes and recognition:  - Internship opportunities (sponsored by Richemont, MTR Corporation) - $8000 cash prize - Asia miles (sponsored by Cathay Pacific) - Xbox (sponsored by Microsoft) - Mentorship program (sponsored by Argon & Co, ISM, Lululemon, Mars, etc.) - APSM digital pack (sponsored by ISM Global) - Company visit (sponsored by HSBC, Richemont and Schneider Electric)

Entries open for 2025

The John Molson MBA International Case Competition is the largest, oldest and most prestigious MBA case competition in the world.

This is your chance to showcase your school’s talent, gain top-level exposure and network with fellow MBA students from around the globe. First place winners walk away with the highly coveted Concordia Cup as well as prize money of $10,000 CAD.

KeyBank and Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University host an annual Minority MBA Student Case Competition. The  KeyBank  Foundation supervises the selection of a contemporary and never-before-used case topic that addresses business issues with varied implications at either a national or international level. Teams of three presenters are invited from universities and colleges across the country to compete. Each team benefits from the opportunity to develop important professional skills such as analyzing and responding quickly to often-complex business issues. Also, teams have a chance to hone their communication and team-building talents while learning from the expertise of business executive judges and moderators.

The NIBS Worldwide Case Competition - one of the oldest undergraduate case competitions in the world - is a test of problem-solving ability, business acumen, cultural insight, communication skills, and teamwork. Teams of four undergraduate students compete on behalf of their respective universities. They receive written case studies focused on international business issues, and have a limited time to assess the challenges facing the organisation and recommend a specific course of action to panels of senior managers, policymakers and academics.

All NIBS member institutions are eligible to enter the competition. Each participating school is represented by a single team, chosen by the school and consisting of four students and a faculty coach or coaches.

Be part of an award-winning international student competition.

The Risk Management Challenge, a case competition of the  PRMIA Institute , empowers undergraduate and graduate students by taking them beyond the classroom and giving them exposure to real-world business situations.

The Challenge offers students the opportunity to apply the concepts they have learned and showcase their knowledge, critical thinking skills, leadership, and presentation abilities.

Entries closed for 2024

The NASBITE International Student Case Competition is an exciting learning and networking opportunity for undergraduate students attending two-year and four-year colleges and universities that offer an academic business programme. 

In 2024, the Competition will provide an opportunity for both undergraduate international business students as well as graduate business students to solve a real-world challenge posed by a US-based exporter. 

The annual Schlesinger Global Family Enterprise Case Competition (SG-FECC) prepares participants to understand the critical issues that are unique to family enterprise by applying the knowledge and expertise they have developed in the classroom towards solving complex family business cases.

During four tough rounds of competition, teams present their case to a distinguished panel of judges who will determine which group best understood, analysed and presented the case.

To participate in this competition, organised by Tsinghua University, students are required to select a topic related to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals - set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 - that aligns with their research interests and expertise, and conduct public policy case studies focusing on real-world scenarios and practices.

Participants have the option to explore case stories within local communities or those that impact global populations. The chosen topic should allow for a comprehensive discussion of the issue from multiple perspectives, while avoiding overly broad scopes. The competition seeks case studies that effectively blend narrative storytelling with sufficient data, showcasing participants’ solid policy knowledge and exceptional analytical capabilities.

The first prize is worth $3,000.

Visit the competition website  

Learning with cases can be a challenging experience.

Our interactive study guide will take you through the process, providing practical tips, tricks and tools.

Discover more

Business Case Competitions: Purpose, Types and Rules

A Guide to Case Studies and Case Study Analysis

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Business Cases in Business School Curriculum

Business cases are frequently used as teaching tools in business school classes, particularly in MBA or other graduate business programs. Not every business school uses the case method as a teaching approach, but many of them do. Nearly 20 of the 25 top business schools ranked by Bloomberg Businessweek  utilize cases as a primary method of teaching, spending as much as 75 to 80 percent of class time on them. 

Business cases are detailed accounts of companies, industries, people and projects. The content within a case study may include information about company objectives, strategies, challenges, results, recommendations, and more. Business case studies can be brief or extensive and may range from two pages to 30 pages or more. To learn more about case study format, check out a few  free case study samples .

While you are in business school, you will probably be asked to analyze multiple case studies. Case study analysis is meant to give you the opportunity to analyze the steps other business professionals have taken to address specific markets, problems and challenges. Some schools also offer on-site and off-site case competitions so that business students can show off what they have learned.

What Is a Business Case Competition?

A business case competition is a type of academic contest for business school students. These competitions originated in the United States, but are now held all over the world. To compete, students typically break into teams of two or more people.

The teams then read a business case and provide a solution for the problem or situation presented in the case. This solution is typically presented to judges in the form of a verbal or written analysis. In some cases, the solution may needed to be defended. The team with the best solution wins the competition.

Purpose of a Case Competition

As with the case method , case competitions are often sold as a learning tool. When you participate in a case competition, you get the opportunity to learn in a high pressure situation involving a real-world scenario. You can learn from students on your team and students on other teams. Some case competitions also provide verbal or written evaluations of your analysis and solution from the competition judges so that you have feedback on your performance and decision-making skills. 

Business case competitions also provide other perks, like the opportunity to network with executives and other people in your field as well as the chance to earn bragging rights and prize winnings, which are typically in the form of money. Some prizes are worth thousands of dollars. 

Types of Business Case Competitions

There are two basic types of business case competitions: invitation-only competitions and competitions that are by application. You must be invited to an invitation-only business case competition. The application-based competition allows students to apply to be a participant. Application doesn't necessarily guarantee you a spot in the competition.

Many business case competitions also have a theme. For example, the competition may focus on a case related to supply chains or global business. There might also be a focus on a particular topic in a particular industry, such as corporate social responsibility in the energy industry.

Rules for Business Case Competitions

Although competition rules can vary, most business case competitions have time limits and other parameters. For example, the competition may be split into rounds. The competition could be limited to two teams or multiple teams. Students might compete with other students at their school or with students from another school.

Students may be required to have a minimum GPA to participate. Most business case competitions also have rules governing access to assistance. For example, students may be allowed to get help when it comes to finding research materials, but help from outside sources, like professors or students who are not participating in the competition might be strictly forbidden. 

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Business Case Studies

• Getting Started
• Case Analysis
• Finding Case Studies in the Library
• Free Case Studies
• Buying Cases
• Writing Case Studies

About Case Competitions

Preparing for case competitions, case competitions library resources.

• Case Interviews
• Case Method (Teaching)

Business schools and organizations host case competitions, where teams present solutions to diverse business cases.

• Sauder's CUS Case Competition Club Provides support to undergraduate students who are interesting in becoming case solvers. The club has internal competitions, as well as a current list of external competitions subsidized by the CUS and the Dean's Office.

If you are competing, it is useful to find out about the case competition in which you are participating. Use Google to search for your case competition, and explore the website fully, looking for terms like Archives , Resources , Press Releases , or Media to find information about previous cases and competition winners. YouTube may also have highlights from past competitions.

Below is a selective list of case competitions:

• Case Competitions / The Case Centre Annotated list of case study competitions, including deadlines for submission and lists of past winners.
• Copenhagen Business School. CBS Case Competition Includes links to case solving tools and and cases from 2008 to present.
• McGill Management International Case Competition Content varies, but archives contain a synopsis of the case and some of the presentation slides of case winners.
• Foster School of Business, University of Washington. Global Business Case Competition.
• American Marketing Association. AMA Collegiate Awards & Competitions
• USC Marshall School of Business. Marshall International Case Competition
• Eller College of Management. Collegiate Ethics Case Competition
• Business Source Ultimate Additionally, use article databases like Business Source Ultimate and search by the name of your case competition.
• John Molson MBA International Case Competition Guide (2018)

It is a good idea to get familiar with library resources that can help you analyze cases. The business school that hosts a case competition will often have many of the same resources to which UBC Library subscribes.  

Explore the following research guides for basic strategies and resources:

• Company Research (Pay attention to the pages for Annual Reports, Profiles, Finance/Analyst Reports, SWOT.)
• Industry & Market Research (Pay attention to the Industry Overviews page.)
• International Business
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• Last Updated: Jan 17, 2024 11:02 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.ubc.ca/businesscases

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The IMA Student Case Competition challenges your team to think analytically and strategically to solve a global business case.

View the 2024 Case

How to get started.

Form a team of 3-5 members.

Present your best strategic analysis.

Submit your case for a chance to win great prizes.

Form your team and compete to win.

• This is your opportunity to showcase your business acumen, present in front of leading business professionals, and win prestigious awards and other great prizes. 
• The competition is open to teams of 3-5 students from the same college or university. Multiple teams may enter from each school. Each team must have a faculty advisor. 
• IMA will select four teams to present virtually or in person at your regional finals.

Registration and contest deadlines differ in each region. Please see complete regional information on submission deadlines, competition rules, and case submission requirements to register a team. You may only register a team in your region.

Please read the competition rules carefully as some have changed.

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Register to compete in your region, middle east, ima student case competition winners.

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[Updated 2023] Top 10 Winning Case Study Competition Presentations [and 10 Vexing Business Issues They Can Help You Solve]

A case study competition is a formal exercise that tests the participants’ mettle in decision-making, collaboration, and presentation skills. As a key driver of industry-specific analysis focused on the problem-solving acumen of the researchers, case study competitions have become an integral part of corporate brainstorming as well as high-end B-school programs.

In the most basic sense, a case study competition aka a case competition seeks to give students or researchers a chance to analyze various aspects of a company and then come up with solutions to its problems. Based on the complexity of the subject involved, the participants are given a certain time limit to examine the subject and its market situation, find out loopholes that result in a problem, and then propose the solution in the form of a presentation.

Now ideally, the analysis and research phase of a case study competition demands a diverse team to work in unison and think on their feet. Some tasks may also require the contestants to work out an entire roadmap for the organization. These roadmaps can address issues at every managerial level of the organization right up to the director.

However, what makes or breaks a participating team’s chances of winning the competition is the presentation of the case study. A well-defined and logically structured presentation can enable a power-packed performance, ultimately helping you become the star of the competition.

Therefore, this blog puts together 10 of SlideTeam’s best case study competition presentation templates in context with 10 major business issues that they can help analyze and solve. Take a look, download the ones you like, and get cracking with your presentation.

Templates to use for your case study competition 

The corporate landscape is susceptible to occasional crises. Therefore, examining a subject for your case study competition requires a fine eye for detail that sees beyond the corporate veneer. And while this research and collective thinking can take up a lot of your deadline time, you may not want to fumble last minute to prepare a half-baked presentation that lays waste to your hard work.

Therefore, here are 10 case study competition presentation templates prepared by SlideTeam experts that solve 10 significant issues that the subject can face. These templates carry detailed information on how the subject matter resolved the problems and fit any criteria assigned by the judges of your case study competition. So when you find your perfect fit, just click on the template and incorporate it to save precious time.    

Problem 1: Opening up new revenue streams in a stagnant market

A dormant market is a businessperson’s nightmare. Plummeting profits in the then lucrative ecosystem can make even the most well-established company jittery. However, opening up new revenue streams in such an ecosystem can be a challenge as well as an opportunity. If you figure out the challenge, you can exploit the opportunity.

Notably, this is quite a popular topic assigned as a challenge in a case study competition. It tests how the participants understand revenue generation and how to diversify a company’s portfolio with appropriate techniques. Here’s an actionable template that accomplishes that with ease.

The template solution

The following PowerPoint template takes a beer company as a case study. The company is generating stagnant revenue in the North American region and, therefore, wants to attract more customers and develop new revenue streams in the area. So the template methodically addresses the issues with appropriate profiling and SWOT analysis of the company.

Additionally, the template explores the development and marketing of a new product range for the company including premium, specialty, and healthier products. This is supported with suitable cost and risk analyses while exploring possibilities of future growth. Just click and download the template and infuse it with your subject-specific information.

Download this template   

Problem 2: Declining user base

Call it the effect of intense competition or lack of engaging prospects; customers tend to wean off a brand if nothing excites them anymore. The result is a grueling loss of revenue and, sometimes, even a complete downfall. The challenge in this situation is more about acting fast and thinking out of the box rather than fixing the mundane.

Ideally, the peak and plateau of the subscriber base of a business depend on how its client communication channels are performing. The peak is when the company is giving its best to acquiring more customers, and the plateau is when this activity falls stagnant. The following PowerPoint template provides a comprehensive to-do list for addressing this issue.

The following PowerPoint template takes a telecom company as the case study. It evaluates the current domestic and international market presence of the company and then suggests solutions.

Notably, this template displays a four-pronged approach to growing the company’s user base. This includes tracking customer-related metrics, promoting the launch of new products on social media for better reach, resolving service issues more quickly, and providing personalized services to the customers.

One can also depict how measuring the KPIs after applying better expansion, technological and promotional strategies shows promising results. Ultimately, one can use the tabulated models in the template to show how a strategic overhaul grows the company’s user base over the years.

Download this template

Problem 3: Customer retention rate optimization

Consumer loyalty towards a company depends on several spontaneous factors ranging from special offers and support. This loyalty, or customer retention rate as it is called, has to be in high figures for a company to thrive in a world full of replicable ideas. If companies ignore what their competitors listen to, customer loyalty is out the window then and there. This applies specifically to those relying on digital platforms for their bread and butter.

Often the biggest challenge for online companies is to get the maximum value out of their association with the customers. Ideally, with practical techniques of customer retention rate optimization, loyal customers become advocates for the brand. Here’s the template solution to prepare a winning case study.     

This PowerPoint template analyzes the declining customer retention rate of an e-commerce company over five years. Besides taking stock of the current situation, the template also offers a comprehensive view of the company’s five major problems. These include increased customer churn rate, decline in sales, reduced repeat order rate, decreased customer loyalty level, and falling Net Promoter Score (NPS).

The template depicts a systematic approach to solving these problems. It illustrates loyalty programs, social media presence, and customized services to increase the company’s KPIs. Additionally, you can also discuss the risk management strategies to make a convincing point in your case study competition. 

Download this template    

Problem 4: Growing the market share

Growing their market share is quite an uphill battle for companies. The underlying reason is the global shift in market trends that may push the company to lose a significant chunk of its market share. Besides, business owners find themselves constantly juxtaposing their strategies in the face of a crumbling market share, finding it hard to churn out the right solution.

Moreover, strategic myopia is another roadblock in claiming a more significant share in the industry. Here’s a suitable PowerPoint template that will help you establish a credible solution for a case study.

The following PowerPoint template provides an unbiased view of the case study of an energy company facing a decline in market share. Though enjoying a stellar reputation in its region of operation, the company faces the challenge of increasing its market share with its offshore wind expansion strategy. The template uncovers how the organization attains this with renewable energy applications.

Moreover, the template also defines how the strategy will unfold in three stages — “feel the breeze”, “catch the wind”, and “take off”. You will also find techniques of overcoming the intense commoditized competition in this PPT template, making it a handy tool to help you triumph in the case study competition. 

Problem 5: Personnel shortage

While hiring the right talent is one of the biggest challenges for startups and corporations alike, personnel shortage can invite crisis galore. With staff crunch comes dwindling productivity and revenue, putting companies in a fix. Personnel shortage is often the assignment targeted in several case study competitions. From the perspective of human resources, a shortage of specialized staff makes it more challenging to keep the business afloat.

So here’s a template solution that offers an outline of the strategic initiatives needed to tide over the crisis and help the subject reclaim a better position.  

The case study presented in this PowerPoint template addresses pilot shortage in an airline company. It illustrates the critical facts about the company first, such as the revenue, total passengers, and net profits. After that, it depicts the pilot shortage data over the years, attributed to retirements of old experienced pilots and cost of training new pilots.

Using this template, you can showcase the company’s financial position and three key strategies to enhance human capital. These include establishing a training academy with regulated costs, promoting the benefits of joining the pilot training, and increasing the R&D and innovation efforts for better market positioning. Click below to download and deploy.

Download this template          

Problem 6: Declining sales

One of the most vexing concerns for a company is declining sales figures. The key drivers of sales are high demand for the product, better market positioning, and customer sentiment. If any of these falls out of balance, the consequences are detrimental. Corporate think-tanks today have to face this challenge with strategic vision and analyses.

Primarily, low sales result from lack of unique value proposition (UVP), misalignment of marketing and sales, expansion beyond capability, and variants of mismanagement along the company hierarchy. The following template solution shows how to keep these at bay.     

In the face of any kind of decline, the company’s strategy will need some tweaking. If the situation turns grave, a complete strategy pivot may be the answer. Therefore, this PowerPoint template is the perfect tool to execute strategic changes for better sales. The template takes a car manufacturing company as the subject and describes its vital stats and figures in a well-developed layout.

The template shows how various contributors of poor sales can be tackled with the help of diversification of the business, development of more fuel-efficient cars, and production of vehicles in the budget segment to attract more customers. Additionally, the template suggests steps like investment in R&D and digital marketing for more impactful promotions.

Problem 7: High fuel costs

Rising global fuel prices are a pain for companies across the globe. International market fluctuation and COVID impact are enough to crush the spirits of companies relying on fossil fuels for basic operation. Fuel being their most crucial resource, organizations have to grapple with continuous demand-and-supply math and the financial burden of purchase and utilization.

Increased fuel costs have a cascading effect in the form of increased transportation costs, loss of customer base, and high employee turnover. Here’s a template showing a case study to solve this conundrum.   

The ultimate goal here is to minimize transportation costs. The following PowerPoint template illustrates the techniques to do that with the help of an example of a logistics company. With a comparative view of the crude oil prices globally and fuel costs in a particular country of service, this template chalks out a triple-phase roadmap for the company. This includes automated logistics for shorter processing duration, inking a contract with a suitable logistics supplier, and using warehouses for storage and dispatch. 

The template also helps you present the subsequent cost analysis and comparison with data-driven tables and charts. So download the template below and make an everlasting impression.  

Problem 8: Brand expansion

Growing companies are at the helm of innovation and development. However, the biggest test comes when they need to expand their brand to unexplored markets. Merely having a product may not be enough to get the desired outcome. Moreover, the changing demographics and global technical disruptions make it a steep climb for ill-equipped organizations.

The road to a more prominent brand is full of technical and strategic hiccups. So here’s the perfect PowerPoint template to help you deduce the secret to brand expansion.    

Here’s a typical example of the brand expansion needs of a reputed pharmaceutical company. The PowerPoint template showcases the tactics to capture a new market for the company’s existing brand of treatment drugs for Crohn’s disease.

Additionally, this template illustrates how the company can develop the brand to treat other auto-immune disorders. It also provides the roadmap with careful SWOT analysis and competitive study while outlining the market opportunities for the brand.

The PPT template is perfect for presenting lucrative pricing strategies and marketing techniques that the company can follow to crush the competition in their dominant market. Click the link below and download the template right away.     

Problem 9: Applying trends to get a competitive advantage

A business owner’s biggest asset is their ability to feel the market’s pulse and devise strategies accordingly. But the corresponding challenge is even more troubling — how to apply the latest trends and march ahead of the competition? Often the concern here stems from the inability to infuse technology into your business model. Besides, trends are often ignored as one-hit wonders or “too much work”.

However, this is where budding entrepreneurs make the silliest mistake and keep “doing their own thing”. This costs them their customer base in the long term as their competitors, who put their ear to the ground, can satisfy the client better. The following template uncovers the secret to success.      

Full disclosure! The lure of the trending comes with its own set of risks. And to get the rewards, this template will show you how to apply systematic techniques to gain a competitive advantage. The case study subject is a cosmetics company looking to drub its competition by adopting the latest industry trends.

Since the face value here is of the utmost importance, the template showcases how incorporating visual technology can separate the brand from the crowd. Additionally, the template outlines how adopting AI-powered virtual try-on, engaging displays, and personalized customer service applications can boost the company’s market presence. The result — increased customer loyalty and spectacular profits.     

Problem 10: Applying trends to enhance profit margins

Applying the latest industry trends is beneficial for the company’s competitive positioning, and it also leads to better profit margins. However, execution requires critical and dynamic thinking on the part of the business owner. Here’s a template that helps you bring corrective strategies to the table.      

This PowerPoint template also considers a cosmetics company as a case study. Besides highlighting the lack of the latest technology, it also brings to light the company’s inadequate customer experience strategies and poor cross-selling skills. All these factors are visualized as the causes of the company’s depleting revenue streams.

As a workable solution, the template also highlights strategies like developing the team’s cross-selling skills, providing innovative skincare tools, and rolling out loyalty programs to entice existing customers. You can also discuss the risk mitigation strategies and quality assurance frameworks for enhancing profit margins with ease. Download it right away.  

So there you have it! These are the 10 comprehensive PowerPoint templates that will make any case study competition presentation a cakewalk. Just download these and let visually stunning designs do the talking for your hard work and research. Should you feel the need for something even more fine-tuned to your needs, our design team will always be ready to help. You can also explore our one-page case study templates to keep it short and excellent.  

FAQs on Case Study Competition

What is a case competition.

A case competition is a business competition where participants are presented with a real-world business scenario or problem, and are given a limited amount of time to analyze the situation, develop a solution or strategy, and present their recommendations to a panel of judges. These competitions typically involve teams of undergraduate or graduate students who work together to analyze the case and develop a solution.

What do you do in a case competition?

In a case competition, participants are given a real-world business scenario or problem and are required to analyze the situation, develop a solution or strategy, and present their recommendations to a panel of judges within a limited time frame, typically ranging from a few hours to several days. Here's a breakdown of what typically happens during a case competition:

Receive the case: The competition organizers will provide the case to participants, which usually includes a description of a business problem or challenge that needs to be solved.

Analyze the case: Participants will work in teams to analyze the case, using their knowledge of business concepts, industry trends, and market research to identify the root cause of the problem and potential solutions.

Develop a solution: Based on their analysis, participants will develop a solution or strategy to address the problem, outlining specific steps and tactics to achieve their proposed solution.

Prepare a presentation: Once the solution is developed, participants will prepare a presentation to communicate their proposed solution to the judges. The presentation usually includes an executive summary, background information, the proposed solution, and an implementation plan.

Present the solution: Teams will present their solutions to the judges, typically within a set time limit. The presentation may include visual aids, such as slides, charts, or graphs, to help convey their ideas.

Q&A: After the presentation, the judges may ask questions to clarify the solution or challenge assumptions made by the team.

Award ceremony: After all the teams have presented, the judges will announce the winners of the competition, and prizes may be awarded to the top teams.

What is the objective of case competition?

The goal of a case competition is to develop critical thinking, analytical, and problem-solving skills, as well as teamwork and presentation skills. Participants are typically judged based on the quality of their analysis, the feasibility and creativity of their solution, and the clarity and persuasiveness of their presentation.

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Case Competition: The Ultimate Guide on How to Excel

• Last Updated December, 2023

A case competition provides an exciting way for aspiring consultants to hone their problem-solving and presentation skills. If you’re drawn to the consulting world, you likely have a competitive spirit that thrives on challenges.

You’ll get the opportunity to tackle real business problems and present your solutions before judges, who are usually seasoned consultants.

In this article, we’ll discuss:

• What is a case competition (with examples of what you’ll do)
• How competing in consulting case competitions helps your resume and recruiting
• 5 tips on acing the business case competition and maximizing the opportunity
• A list of top case competitions to keep on your radar

Let’s get started!

What Is a Case Competition?

A case competition is an immersive learning experience that challenges students to solve complex business problems within a simulated consulting environment. 

In these competitions, participants work in teams to solve a hypothetical client problem and recommend a solution to a panel of judges.

A case competition tests your analytical thinking, teamwork, problem-solving, and presentation skills.

Examples of Cases and Topics

Case competitions can cover various business functions, such as marketing, strategy, operations, or a combination. You also won’t know what industry the case involves until the competition starts. It’s very similar to what you might experience in a consulting interview!

Case competition examples:

• BankCo aims to boost its market share among customers under 25. What recommendations would you propose to achieve this goal?
• TechCo is venturing into a new geographic market and seeks guidance on an effective market entry strategy to ensure a successful expansion. What approach would you recommend?
• EngineCo, an automobile manufacturer, is grappling with inefficient production processes. How would you optimize operations and foster innovation within the company?

If the case questions seem daunting, fear not! You’ll be provided with lots of data, including historical information, cost details, and other relevant considerations.

However, only some of the data provided will be useful or relevant to your recommendation. As a consultant, part of your skillset involves discerning which information is crucial to your analysis.

These cases simulate real-life consulting projects, so it’s a great chance to apply your skills and see if you like consulting!

Nail the case & fit interview with strategies from former MBB Interviewers that have helped 89.6% of our clients pass the case interview.

Typical Format of a Case Competition

In a case competition, participants are either assigned or choose to be part of a team of 4 to 6 students, mirroring a real consulting team. 

Each team is provided with identical information and allotted the same timeframe to analyze the data, develop recommendations, and present them to a panel of judges. A case competition usually takes place over a few days to allow for analysis and presentation preparation time.  

Let’s take a look at the typical schedule:

• Read Case Information : Teams receive a comprehensive case brief that presents the problem, client information, and pertinent data or information.
• Analyze Data and Options : Teams dive into the case, meticulously analyzing the provided data, extracting insights, and carefully evaluating different options for their recommendation. In most competitions, you can use publicly available information for research.
• Prepare Recommendation and Presentation : Teams consolidate their analysis and make an informed decision on the recommendation. They craft a compelling presentation, typically in slide format, showcasing the results of their analysis and their final recommendation.
• Present to Judges and Answer Q&A : Teams present their solutions to a panel of judges comprising industry professionals and experienced consultants. During the presentation, teams articulate their analysis, demonstrate their problem-solving approach, and emphasize the potential impact of their recommendations. Following the presentation, judges engage in a Q&A session, probing deeper into the team’s analysis and challenging their recommendation.
• Get Feedback and Results : Judges assess each team based on criteria such as the clarity of their problem-solving approach, the feasibility of their recommendations, and the effectiveness of their presentation.

Benefits of Participating in a Consulting Case Competition

Participating in a consulting case competition offers numerous advantages:

• Skill Development : From analyzing real client situations under time pressure to developing innovative solutions, you gain hands-on experience that sharpens your problem-solving abilities, data analysis skills, strategic thinking, teamwork, and communication. It’s a realistic glimpse of what a “day in the life” as a consultant is like.
• Valuable Feedback and Insights : While winning is rewarding, the feedback received provides invaluable insights and suggestions for improvement, enabling you to improve your skills and knowledge. 
• Prizes and Recognition : Many case competitions offer attractive prizes and recognition for outstanding performance. This can include monetary rewards or prize packages.
• Networking Opportunities : You have the chance to network with judges who are current consultants. They often are the ones involved in recruiting and interviews. Even if you don’t win the competition, you have a chance to impress judges, and it could lead to mentorship opportunities or potential internship opportunities.
• Resume Enhancement : Include any awards from case competitions on your resume. It is concrete evidence of your skills and can help your resume stand out.

5 Tips on Acing a Case Competition and Maximizing the Opportunity

1. review key consulting frameworks and concepts.

Take the time to review and understand essential consulting frameworks and structures, such as MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) and the Hypothesis-Driven Approach .

This will give you a strong foundation for analyzing case problems and developing practical solutions. Utilize resources like our Our Ultimate Guide to Case Interview Prep .

2. Establish Clear Roles and Responsibilities with Your Team

You are under a time crunch in a case competition, so aligning with your team on individual roles and responsibilities before you start the analysis will help you work efficiently.

Consider each team member’s strengths or developmental interests, and delegate tasks accordingly. For example, if you want to improve your proficiency in Excel, communicate your interest in doing analytical aspects. You can create a more efficient and cohesive team by working together and leveraging each other’s talents.

3. Avoid Memorizing Your Presentation

Memorizing your presentation word-for-word or reading the slides will make your presentation come off as less natural. You’ll appear less confident in what you are recommending.

Instead, focus on understanding the key points, logical flow, and supporting evidence. This approach allows flexibility, adaptability, and a more natural delivery during the presentation.

4. Prepare for Potential Questions

Allocate time to anticipate questions that judges may ask during the Q&A session. Consider different angles, alternative perspectives, and potential challenges to your recommendations. Being well-prepared for possible questions demonstrates your critical thinking skills, enhances confidence, and helps you respond effectively.

5. Leave a Lasting Impression on Judges

Make a positive impression on the judges and attendees of the consulting case competition. You never know who you might encounter again in your consulting journey. 

Consider sending a thoughtful thank-you note to the judges after the competition to express your gratitude for their feedback.

List of Case Competitions

Below, we have compiled a list of case competitions to keep on your radar and consider competing in. It’s important to note that this is not an exhaustive list, and competitions may vary yearly, so we recommend checking their official websites.

If you are in school, your consulting clubs will often host case competitions internally. Sometimes, firms also sponsor and run case competitions for specific communities.

Case Competitions in the USA

• ASCM Case Competition
• Collegiate Ethics Case Competition
• Danaher Case Competition
• David Eccles School of Business Case Competition
• Deloitte Consulting National Undergraduate Case Competition
• E-PARCC Teaching Case and Simulation Competition
• Global Case Competition at Harvard
• Heavener International Case Competition
• IACBE Case Competition
• KeyBank Case Competition
• Marshall International Case Competition
• Net Impact Case Competition
• NU-CUIBE International Business Case Competition
• Page Student Case Study Competition
• Penn Healthcare Case Competition
• Penn, Yale, Princeton, Columbia Case Competition
• Prism Consulting Group Case Competitions
• PRMIA Risk Management Challenge
• San Diego State University
• Student Big Data Case Competition
• The Katz Invitational
• The NASBITE International Student Case Competition
• The Schlesinger Global Family Enterprise Case Competition
• The University of California Press’ Case Studies in the Environment Prize Competition
• UConn International Business Case Challenge
• Yale Healthcare Case Competition
• Yale Graduate Consulting Club Case Competition

Case Competitions in Canada

• CFI FinMo Case Competition
• ICRA International Case Competition
• John Molson MBA International Case Competition
• McGill Management International Case Competition
• Schulich International Case Competition
• Scotiabank International Case Competition
• UCCA Case Competition

Case Competitions in Europe

• Aarhus Case Competition
• AAU Case Competition
• Amsterdam Case Competition
• Belgrade Business International Case Competition
• CBS Case Competition
• Central European Case Competition
• Creative Shock
• ILA International Case Competition
• International Case Competition @Maastricht
• Morpheus Cup
• NIBS Worldwide Case Competition
• Russian National Case League Changellenge
• SDA Bocconi Case Competition
• The Geneva Challenge

Case Competitions in International Locations

• CEIBS Global Case Competition
• EY CAFTA Case Championship
• HKUST International Case Competition
• HSBC/HKU Asia Pacific Business Case Competition
• IFAMA Student Case Competition
• IMA Middle East and India Student Case Competition
• KPMG International Case Competition
• Melbourne Business School Case Competition

– – – – – – –

In this article, we’ve covered:

• Insight into the nature of case competitions, including examples of the tasks and challenges
• How participating in a consulting case competition can benefit your resume and increase your chances of success in recruiting
• Tips on how to excel in a business case competition and make the most of your experience
• A starter list of case competitions you can explore

Still have questions?

If you have more questions about case competitions, leave them in the comments below. One of My Consulting Offer’s case coaches will answer them.

Other people prepping for a case competition found the following pages helpful:

• Our Ultimate Guide to Case Interview Prep
• How to Approach a Case Study
• Case Interview Examples
• MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive)
• The Hypothesis-Driven Approach

Help with Your Consulting Application

Thanks for turning to My Consulting Offer for advice on excelling at case competitions. My Consulting Offer has helped 89.6% of the people we’ve worked with to get a job in management consulting. We want you to be successful in your consulting interviews too. For example, here is how Parth was able to get his offer from BCG.

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MSU Libraries

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Business Case Studies

• Getting Started
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About Case Competitions

Preparing for case competitions, case competitions library resources.

• Case Interviews
• Case Method (Teaching)
• Citing Cases

Business schools, corporations and other organizations host case competitions, where teams present solutions to a range of business challenges and opportunities.

If you are competing, it is useful to find out about the case competition in which you are participating. Use Google to search for your case competition, and explore the website fully, looking for terms like Archives , Resources , Press Releases , or Media to find information about previous cases and competition winners. YouTube may also have highlights from past competitions.

Below is a selective list of case competitions:

• Case Competitions / The Case Centre Annotated list of case study competitions, including deadlines for submission and lists of past winners.
• Copenhagen Business School. CBS Case Competition Includes links to case solving tools and and cases from 2008 to present.
• Foster School of Business, University of Washington. Global Business Case Competition.
• American Marketing Association. AMA Collegiate Awards & Competitions
• USC Marshall School of Business. Marshall International Case Competition
• Eller College of Management. Collegiate Ethics Case Competition
• John Molson MBA International Case Competition Guide 2020

It is a good idea to get familiar with library resources that can help you analyze cases. The business school that hosts a case competition will often have many of the same resources to which the Gast Business Library subscribes.  

Explore the following research guides for basic strategies and resources:

• Company Research Note the sections on Financial Information, Annual Reports, Analyst Reports and SWOT analyses in particular.
• Industry Research Note the Trends & Analyses and Five Forces sections in particular.
• International Business
• << Previous: Writing Case Studies
• Next: Case Interviews >>
• Last Updated: May 16, 2024 9:32 AM
• URL: https://libguides.lib.msu.edu/businesscases

Center for Sustainable Business | Case Competitions

Sustainability-Driven Case Competitions

NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business hosts an annual, hands-on student challenge to apply their classroom learnings to real world challenges.

Applying Classroom Lessons to Real-World Challenges

At CSB, we encourage students to build on what they learn in the classroom to develop innovative business solutions that address our most difficult global challenges. 

Each year, CSB hosts the Sustainable Business Pitch Competition, sponsored by Eddie Stern, challenging MBA students to leverage their  studies to find solutions to sustainability issues facing our world today. The topics are selected from current topics addressed by our research, so we can provide the base knowledge, support, and mentorship for successful pitches. Previous topics include Opportunity Zones, decarbonizing the built environment, food insecurity, and more.

Additionally, CSB encourages students to participate in relevant external case competitions that similarly require students to apply their educational background to sustainability-related cases.

In recent years, NYU teams have placed in top ranking competitions such as the IFC Impact Investing Challenge , the Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge , and the Aspen Institute Business and Society International Case Competition .

Below find a list of upcoming and previous competitions.

Annual Case Competitions

NYU Stern CSB Sustainable Business Pitch Competition

In CSB's annual case competition, sponsored by Eddie Stern, MBA students can partner with teammates across NYU graduate schools to research a featured sustainability challenge, create data-informed and innovative solutions, and deliver persuasive presentations. All teams are provided coaching sessions with practitioners in the field and the top teams present to a panel of expert judges to compete for a cash prize.

Neuberger Berman ESG Investing Challenge: Artificial Intelligence

Students work with mentors to identify publicly listed equity investments whose business objectives are aligned with the year's ESG theme, artificial intelligence, and are expected to generate positive financial performance (as a dual objective). After an initial round, finalists present their proposals to a panel of Neuberger Berman judges who select the winning team(s), which will receive a financial prize from Neuberger Berman.

Launching Investment for Future Transformation (LIFT)

Using blended finance and impact investing to address the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), if done correctly and inclusively, can drive social equity, social justice and economic mobility for underserved communities everywhere. The Center for Sustainable Enterprise’s LIFT with Bank of America calls on students from around the world to develop blended finance and impact investing strategies for triple bottom line sustainability.

Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge

Every year more than 308 students from over 34 countries and 74 schools propose novel financial instruments to create positive impact. In 2020, A group of NYU Stern and Wagner graduate students took first place, having proposed an innovative new exchange-traded fund centered around companies with substantial hiring, skills development, and supply chain policies in favor of refugees.

Past Case Competitions

2023 NYU Stern Sustainable Business Pitch Competition

In the Spring 2023 NYU Stern Sustainable Business Pitch Competition, students developed the business case for Dollar General to implement retail strategies that expand the range of healthy and sustainable food products offered in its New York stores that will help address food insecurity in surrounding communities. 

2022 Duke Fuqua Energy in Emerging Markets Case Competition

The 2022 contest is part of the Energy Week at Duke is organized by the MBA Energy Club at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and is sponsored by the James E. Rogers Energy Access Project at Duke. In addition to a chance to win almost $15,000 in prize money, participants will gain practical experience developing business model for this year’s industry partner, Nithio an AI-driven platform for clean energy investment.

2022 NYU Stern CSB Sustainable Business Pitch Competition

In the Spring 2022 NYU Stern Sustainable Business Pitch Competition, students competed for a $15,000 total prize purse by persuading major U.S. banks to take a more proactive role in reducing the carbon footprint of NYC’s buildings. Utilizing CSB's Carbon Compass data tool, teams developed proposals to convince banks to encourage and facilitate clean energy loans to fund energy efficiency retrofits in their lending portfolio.

2022 Neuberger Berman Biodiversity Challenge

In Fall 2022, a team of CSB's EmpowHER students including Emily Farley Chang, Deshani Gunathilake, Doris Lu, and Jesse Weiss were invited to the final round of the Nueberger Berman ESG Investing Challenge, focused on biodiversity.

2021 A4S International Case Competition

Rotman Net Impact and The Prince's Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S) case topic for the A4S International Case Competition (A4SICC) 2021 was supply chain resilience. Their vision is to generate ideas that will solve sustainability challenges and create the businesses of the future.

2021 NYU Stern Sustainable Business Challenge

In the 2021 Challenge sponsored by Eddie Stern, students addressed how to leverage the private sector to produce accessible, affordable, and healthy food in NYC. The NYU Stern Sustainable Business Challenge harnesses the innovative thinking of mission-driven students to leverage the power of market-based solutions to build a better world. Open to Stern MBA students in collaboration with other NYU graduate students, the Challenge focuses on developing actionable business plans.

2020 Neuberger Berman ESG Investing Challenge

Students from NYU Stern, Columbia Business School, and Kellogg Northwestern worked with mentors to identify publicly listed equity investments whose business objectives are addressing COVID-19 related challenges and are expected to generate positive financial performance (as a dual objective).

2019 NYU Stern Opportunity Zone Challenge

Inspired by a new and highly anticipated economic development program called Opportunity Zones, the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business challenged Stern MBA and other NYU graduate students to propose innovative and practical ways to drive sustainable development that qualify under the new regulations. There was a grand cash prize of $10,000.

2019 Aspen Institute Business and Society International Case Competition

The NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business supports students in the Aspen Business & Society Case Competition. In 2019, Stern MBA students took third place. This marked the third year in a row that Stern made it the finals, having won first place in the competition in 2018 and placing third in 2017. Stern also previously won the competition in 2013.

Patagonia Case Competition (2018)

In this annual competition, graduate students from across the US tackle the interconnected business and sustainability aspects of a current, real-life issue facing the outdoor gear retailer Patagonia. In 2018, a team of Stern and NYU Wagner students received honorable mention for social empowerment out of a total of 10 finalist teams.

Case writing competitions

We partner with various organisations around the world to offer a range of case writing competitions. Find out how you can apply and details of our previous winners. 

Our competition winners receive international recognition and a cash prize, and cases may be considered for international publication.

Our aim is to foster the development of cases from real-life situations that can be used as teaching tools within management and business education. Beyond capacity building, the competitions create awareness of the specific organisational challenges within key global markets.

To date, our longest-running case writing competition with the Central and East European Management Development Association (CEEMAN) has gathered around 600 cases from 80 countries.

On this page

The africa & middle east emerald case writing competition, emerald/ceeman case writing competition, the case for women, 2024 emcs & tlc@mdi india case competition, past case writing competitions.

Competition status: Open Closing date: 30 September 2024

Enter this emerging market-focused case writing competition for a chance to win up to $1,000 and have their case study published globally.

Competition status: Closed Early-bird closing date: 29 February 2024* Closing date: 30 April 2024 * Authors have the option to receive initial feedback from the judges prior to the final deadline if they submit their case by 29 February 2024.

Enter this emerging market-focused case writing competition for a chance to win up to €2,500 and to have your case published globally.

Competition status: Closed Closing date: 15 May 2024

In partnership with The Case for Women, Forté, and MBA Roundtable, this case study competition focuses on the female case protagonist.

Competition status: Open to submissions

Emerald Publishing and TLC@ MDI Gurgaon welcome high-quality teaching cases to this joint case writing competition.

AABS / Emerald case competition

The AABS/Emerald case writing competition invited authors from African higher education institutions to create business teaching cases focused on emerging markets in Africa. 

AUC School of Business case writing competition

Emerald Publishing and KCC welcomed high-quality teaching cases to our AUC School of Business case writing competition, open to authors from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Pakistan and Turkey.

Indigenous Voices case writing competition

This competition provided a home for indigenous scholars within the Emerald teaching case ecosystem, highlighting their stories and research.

The Mauritius compact case competition

This competition aimed to encourage and promote the development of high-quality, compact teaching case material relevant to the realities of the Mauritius context. It also supported the development of case-writing capabilities in Mauritius.

Related content

Publish in emerging markets case studies.

Learn more about the Emerging Markets Case Studies collection and find current calls for cases.

Publish in The CASE Journal

Learn more about the The CASE Journal collection and find current calls for cases.

The Emerald Cases Hub

Sign in or register on our Emerald Cases Hub to get practical advice and support from the experts.

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HBS Case Selections

NIO: A Chinese EV Company's Global Strategy

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India: Will the Giant Emerge?

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JPMorgan Chase in Paris

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OpenAI: Idealism Meets Capitalism

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Generative AI and the Future of Work

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Copilot(s): Generative AI at Microsoft and GitHub

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Innovation at Moog Inc.

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UGG Steps into the Metaverse

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Metaverse Wars

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Roblox: Virtual Commerce in the Metaverse

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Timnit Gebru: "SILENCED No More" on AI Bias and The Harms of Large Language Models

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SmartOne: Building an AI Data Business

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Honeywell and the Great Recession (A)

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Target: Responding to the Recession

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Hometown Foods: Changing Price Amid Inflation

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Elon Musk's Big Bets

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Elon Musk: Balancing Purpose and Risk

Tesla's ceo compensation plan.

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China Rapid Finance: The Collapse of China's P2P Lending Industry

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Forbidden City: Launching a Craft Beer in China

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Booking.com

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Innovation at Uber: The Launch of Express POOL

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Racial Discrimination on Airbnb (A)

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Unilever's Response to the Future of Work

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AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow

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Leading Change in Talent at L'Oreal

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Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee

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United Housing - Otis Gates

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The Home Depot: Leadership in Crisis Management

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The Great East Japan Earthquake (B): Fast Retailing Group's Response

• Hirotaka Takeuchi
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Insurer of Last Resort?: The Federal Financial Response to September 11

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Under Armour

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Hunley, Inc.: Casting for Growth

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Bitfury: Blockchain for Government

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Deutsche Bank: Pursuing Blockchain Opportunities (A)

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Maersk: Betting on Blockchain

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Yum! Brands

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Bharti Airtel in Africa

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Li & Fung 2012

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United Breaks Guitars

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Marketing Reading: Digital Marketing

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Social Strategy at Nike

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The Tate's Digital Transformation

Social strategy at american express, mellon financial and the bank of new york.

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The Walt Disney Company and Pixar, Inc.: To Acquire or Not to Acquire?

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Dow's Bid for Rohm and Haas

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Finance Reading: The Mergers and Acquisitions Process

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Starbucks Coffee Company: Transformation and Renewal

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JCPenney: Back in Business

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Arup: Building the Water Cube

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Anthony Starks at InSiL Therapeutics (A)

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The 2010 Chilean Mining Rescue (A)

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Circles: series d financing.

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How to Do a Competitive Analysis | Case Study Included

In order to be a leader in your industry, you need to know how to perform a competitive analysis.  A competitor analysis is more than a simple SWOT analysis where you find the strength and weaknesses of your market segment. Evaluating your competitors is highly important and must be done through complete market research using an analysis template like the one that we're going to present in this article.

Finding out where your competition excels doesn't have to be a burden if you have the right strategy and necessary tools.

What Is a Competitor Analysis?

Why perform a competitor analysis, how to conduct your competitive analysis, step 1. find your top competitors, step 2. analyze your competitors popularity, step 3. identify the public perception of competitors, step 4. analyze your competitors' social media strategy, step 5. perform an seo competitor analysis.

Competitor analysis in digital marketing is the process of finding strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, relative to those of your own product or service.

There is no exact competitive analysis definition. Yet, you need to know that the strengths within a competitive analysis are the things that make you unique, your key selling point, the ideas around your whole business - which can be about the product or the team. On the opposite side, the weaknesses point out some deficiencies, and things you could improve, when it comes to your brand, or take advantage from, when it comes to the weaknesses of your competitors.

The competitive analysis has the role to make a valid and accurate market positioning and a report on what you are doing best, and where your competitors excel, and learn from that to win more potential customers. A competitive analysis also means picking the right competitors and looking at analytics that include business metrics, digital marketing analysis, social media metrics.

By doing an accurate competitor analysis you'll be able to receive a lot of data and insights for making better business decisions. Similar to an internal research, by evaluating quantitative and qualitative data, if you research your competitors, you will uncover effective strategies and new ideas for increasing your business' performance, be it on social media, on online, or in the physical store.

A well-performed competitor analysis will allow you to:

• Build your unique selling proposition (the statement that describes the benefit of your offer and how you solve your clients' needs).
• Bring business improvements regarding products and services, team management, customer care, delivery and many more.
• Discover new market segments.
• Prioritize goals and future development.
• Create products that are actually required and respond to customer's needs.

For a better understanding of how your competitor analysis framework should look like, we've performed a competitive market research on the cosmetic niche. We've analyzed several metrics on this market segment to conduct a competitive analysis as in-depth as possible, with most of the data being pulled out from brand mention monitoring.

Brand monitoring, when done with the right tools, is more versatile than you'd think. Running an in-depth brand mentions competitive analysis could help you make sure that you are not overlooking any efficient strategies that might be working wonders for your competitors.

They are talking about your company

Get instant access to brand mentions across social, news, blogs, videos and more. Get Free Report

Even though you might be aware of some of your market leaders, there might be a few you're missing.

For our case study example, we searched for top leading beauty brands. As social media is a highly important segment within this industry, one of the analyses we've performed was to find the top-performing brands on social media, by the number of followers.

You can also search on Google for the relevant keywords in your business and see the top brands that are ranking for those keywords. And use a spying tool to find out important analytics on every website you want, such as the Mozbar browser extension.

Also, check out Social Media to figure out the businesses that pop out in results in your market. The research we performed helped us understand the niche a little better. Therefore, based on this research performed, we've chosen to continue our competitive analysis on the following brands:

• MAC cosmetics
• Kylie cosmetics
• Anastasia Beverly Hills
• Urban Decay

It’s too complicated and actually impossible to manually track all your competitors’ records and activity, as much manual web scraping you'd be doing.

So, even if you know your competition , the question remains: how do you find who is the most popular brand in your niche?

Most popular = most mentioned

Tools like BrandMentions can make things easier.

Therefore, to answer to our main question, "how to perform a competitive analysis", you need to start performing an in-depth research of your competition. Brand Mentions allows you to track keywords, brands, product names or whatever you need.

Going back to the beauty niche we are analyzing, let's figure out the most popular brands here. We took BrandMentions for a spin, to find out the most popular beauty brand into a very competitive niche by analyzing and monitoring social media metrics. We analyzed the mentions for these beauty brands for a short period of time, October 14 - November 15 , Worldwide for all languages.

After analyzing the results, we saw that Sephora has some interesting discoveries. Compared to the rest of the beauty sites, Sephora has the highest number of mentions on web and social. In the printscreen below, we can see all mentions for each brand categorized by source (web and social).

By far, Sephora outranks the rest of beauty brands on the total amount of mentions on web and social.

The number of mentions could be explained by the fact that Sephora has more influencers that talk about it on Twitter. Results showed that the brand is mentioned by influencers with over 50k followers on Twitter compared to other beauty brands.

BrandMentions has a filter that allows you to filter mentions to see the Twitter posts from people that have a specific number of followers. The Twitter account for each brand was excluded.

Just by taking a look at your competitors and monitoring their brands, you can get a bunch of data:

• compare how often your competitors versus you post on social media
• what outlets mention them more than you
• how many mentions they have had in the last 24 hours
• how many shares their mentions have
• what languages are their mentions written in
• do they have mostly web or social mentions

And yes,  all mentions matter, but some matter more than others.

When looking into your competitor’s yard, look at their best practices and try to figure out what worked best for them.

You must have heard at least once people saying that all publicity is good publicity, as long as they spell your name right. Or that the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. But is it really so? How much does the public perception influence a brand's popularity? Let's find out!

The  Sentiment Analysis feature  allowed us to have a better understanding on the public perception of the analyzed brands. If we first identified the competitors and looked for the most popular ones, now we can have a look at how they are perceived in the online world.

How did we do that exactly?

We monitored all brands with BrandMentions as we said before, and from all mentions we started to filter them out. Filters are a blessing in this situation, giving you full control over the segment of mentions that you want to analyze.

Trying to manually find all the negative brand mentions that interest you is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

After analyzing the sentiment analysis for each individual beauty brand ,we came to realize that most of them share a higher positive experience with the users.

By looking at the data, for all brands or just some of them, we can draw lots of conclusions. For instance, comparing to other brands, Benefit has the highest number of web and social mentions that have a positive sentiment analysis. If we look at the next graph, we can easily see that Benefits stands out:

Another thing we can observe is the fact that Benefit has the highest number of web mentions with a positive sentiment, as well. But the brand that is leading the positive social mentions is Sephora.

Even though Sephora has the highest number of positive social mentions, overall, compared to the rest of the beauty brands, it has the highest number of negative sentiment. Which might be a downsize for the brand.

Below you can see a comparison with the other cosmetics brand on positive and negative sentiment analysis.

We can see that most of the mentions are from social media and more specifically, from Twitter. The connection with the previous results might be stronger. Often time it has happened that people are more driven to write online about a negative experience, rather than a positive one.

We saw that the negative sentiment had the lowest value compared with the positive and neutral sentiment, with a single exception. Morphe had a higher neutral sentiment than the negative one. Check out the graphic below:

Urban Decay has the most naturally ordered distribution of the sentiment analysis for the mentions analyzed on web and social.

We are not saying that bad publicity couldn't be good publicity for some businesses or individuals. But for most businesses and niches, bad publicity and negative brand mentions are never a reason for joy but an occasion for a crisis communication meeting.

Another interesting thing to observe in the graph above is that Morphe has the highest negative sentiment analysis on social media.

People love it the most, but they also hate is the most, compared to the rest of the brands. If we look particularly at the brand to evaluate the total number of positive vs. negative sentiments, we can see that in the end, a positive experience overcomes the negative one, in terms of absolute numbers.

We've previously talked about Morphe saying that it has a higher number of neutral sentiments, the only brand with this particularity. We can understand that people have mixed feelings when it comes to this brand: You either love it or hate it.

Both positive and negative mentions have a big impact on the purchase decision of a client.

Although it might sound bad to   spy on your competition , this marketing technique is a fully transparent, popular, and white-hat one. How else would we all improve ourselves and our brands if we were to not compare our endeavors with the others? And this is where a brand monitoring tool comes to rescue us.

When doing competitor spying, we are actually building PR relationships.

Both directly and indirectly.

Directly by getting to know your common audience better (the one your competition shares with you) through your competitors’ eyes, win ties with important outlets in the industry, etc.

In addition, while keeping “your enemies” closer, you indirectly relate to and establish a relationship with them. By constantly trying to keep up the pace with or outrun the brightest ones in the niche, and struggling not to ever fall in the pitfalls of black-hat marketing techniques other companies deploy in their strategies, you simply get better and better. In other words, you widen your professional circle.

Competitor spying is the more polite version of eavesdropping. There's no harm in doing it as long as you're using the tools to improve yourself and not disrupt the other.

You can easily gain insights on your competitors' performance and   dig into their success strategies   and use the lessons to your own benefit.

Tracking mentions for your competitor can lead you into discovering social media campaigns, new content ideas, top-performing social channel alongside types of content shared on each platform, plus trending hashtags used and top influencers for each competitor.

For instance, in our case, in the beauty niche, the results might surprise you. If you thought Instagram would be the most used Social Media platform for beauty products, you might be wrong.

According to the analysis performed in BrandMentions, it turned out that Twitter has the highest number of mentions for every beauty brand compared to the other social media marketing platforms.

If you thought that Instagram was the king of the beauty industry, you are wrong.

Of course, Instagram is a powerful Social Media channel, but maybe there's more in that direction. There are some insights related to this social platform, nonetheless. We know that Facebook became stricter about sharing data with third parties, so we can't see private posts. Instagram has shifted the strategy in this direction as well. Instagram started to hide likes in select countries earlier this year, and it will soon do the same in the United States.

This method affects the way we see data, on top of the fact that there are lots of users with private user accounts where even if you have an account you can't see their posts, likes, and stories.

After analyzing all the social mentions for all the beauty brands on all social platforms, here's what we discovered:

• Twitter is the Social Media Platform with the highest number of mentions.
• Twitter is the Social Media Platform with the highest number of mentions with positive sentiment analysis.

It seems that Twitter is a great way to start an influencer marketing strategy; it is also the most popular social media site. Finding all the information will help all marketers, brand managers, and community managers to build the best social media strategies for beauty brands.

When we looked at the distribution of web and social mentions for the beauty brands, we discovered 2 categories:

• more web mentions: MAC and Benefit
• more social mentions: Kylie cosmetics, Anastasia Beverly Hills, Sephora, NYX, Too Faced, Urban Decay, Morphe and Tarte.

It's obvious that social is the king here. We won't bother you with tons of charts and data on all the analysed brands, yet, you need to know that within Brand Mentions you can perform any type of analysis you want when it comes to social mention analysis.

If we analyze one of the competitors, Morphe, we can see that it is more popular on Instagram by the number of mentions. It is seconded by a small number by Anastasia Beverly Hills.

Morphe has lots of mentions on Instagram, but it is on the 8th place when it comes to Instagram followers with 10.3m.

When it comes to answering the question on how to do a competitive analysis  we know that what matter most are the insights you get to find out. And here are some great insights we've extracted for the most popular social media beauty sites scrutinized within our competitive analysis:

1.  For the MAC Brand: 

• MAC has the highest number of influencers on Instagram.
• MAC doesn't have influencers of people with more than 50k followers that mention the brand on Twitter.
• MAC is the least popular on the web and social media judging by the number of mentions. 

2.   For the Sephora Brand: 

• Sephora is one of the most popular beauty brands on social media and the whole web compared to the rest of the brands by the number of mentions.
• Sephora is mentioned by influencers and people with more than 50k followers on Twitter.

3.  For the Morhphe Brand: 

• Morphe shares a positive experience on social media compared to the rest of the beauty brand. It has the highest number of social mentions with a positive sentiment.
• But it also shares the highest value of negative emotions on social.
• Morphe is the top beauty brand on Instagram by the number of mentions compared to the rest of the brands.

4.  For the Benefit Brand: 

• Benefit is on the 10th place by the number of followers on Instagram with 9.8m (see printscreen below), the last place compared to the rest of the brands.
• Benefit offers a higher positive experience by analyzing sentiment analysis for the whole web and social mentions.

After analyzing all the mentions for all the beauty brands, there are lots of insights to help you create social media marketing strategies and find out the top competitors in your niche.

Knowing how to analyze your SEO competition is an important step in determining your overall keyword and SEO strategy. There are many factors involved in the process, and without the correct framework, it can get complicated. Here you can find the steps for the SEO competitor analysis explained, as clear and simple as possible. Within the screenshot below you can see the main steps that you need to take to make sure you perform an SEO competitive analysis at the highest level.

What Tools We Used to Do The Competitive Analysis

We used BrandMentions to analyze the beauty content and all the mentions for each beauty brand : MAC cosmetics, Kylie cosmetics, Anastasia Beverly Hills, Sephora, NYX, Too Faced, Urban Decay, Morphe, Tarte, Benefit.

Each created project had the name of the brand, and we added the keywords, domain URL, Facebook and Twitter account for higher accuracy in finding relevant mentions. We let the tool do its magic and analyze the beauty content on social media and the web.

For the metrics and discoveries made, we used filters and features available in BrandMentions, such as Sentiment Analysis analyzer, web and social sources, mentions from Twitter accounts with a specific number of followers and more. Check out the data for designing your winning social media strategy.

Also, the trigger was when we found a research on Statista with most followed cosmetics brands on Instagram; so we thought of performing a deeper analysis on the topic, and finding the most popular beauty site on Social Media, not only on Instagram. We wanted to see if there more we needed to know. And yes, there was so much more.

For an effective competitive research, there are multiple things that need to be taken into consideration, beside web and social listening. Things like  brand awareness , customer experience, target audience, the search engines you are interested in, target market,  the service or product features, the competitors sales, etc. This is not a  complete guide to obtain competitive advantages  that applies for all. But a competitor analysis template that helps you best identify your competitors and your main competitor strengths and weaknesses.

The best time to start finding out information about your competitors is now. So even if you are a content marketer, a small online store owner or a big ecommerce business , an online marketing specialist or you're in the sales teams, you need to start digging into competitive intelligence.

Investment Portfolio Case Competition Overview

February 9, 2024 event organized by:.

• Cornell’s Parker Center for Investment Research
• Johnson Investment Management Club
• Cornell Financial Engineering Manhattan (CFEM)

2024 Case Topic: Private Wealth and Bitcoin

Competitors will review a case study of a fictional young family with a large stake in Bitcoin shares. The family faces life changes and is currently seeking a plan to manage the BTC position and plan for the family’s financial future. After careful study of case materials and investment analysis, teams will present innovative diversification ideas, an asset allocation plan, and an implementation strategy, all supported by rigorous testing.

5 Famous Business Competitor Case Studies Of All Time

Look at any good or famous business competitor case study examples, and one thing immediately becomes clear:

Done well, this approach to competitive analysis can help you identify your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses and your own, all while determining those crucial gaps in the market that represent a golden opportunity for your brand.

However, doing not so well and a competitor case study can soon balloon into an overwhelming waste of time which may provide you with a tonne of data on your competition yet offers no real insight on how to use that data to gain a competitive advantage.

To help ensure yours is done well, I’ve put together this comprehensive guide to doing competitive analysis the right way, outlining not only what to look for when analyzing your competition but how to take what you find and put it to work for your business.

What is a Business Competitor Case Study and Why Do You Need One?

Typically, when we think of a business case study, we think of the traditional “Here’s how a business came with a solution to a particular problem.”

For example, there’s a famous case study focusing on the multi-national coffee supply chain Starbucks . After “hitting a wall” in their sales and revenue, the brand found a solution by closing down a significant number of their stores and “reinvigorating” their branding, essentially focussing on quality over quantity.

Other businesses can learn from the Starbucks case study and those like them and, where appropriate, apply what worked to their own brand.

A business competitor case study operates similarly, albeit with some notable differences. In this case, the problem doesn’t belong to another business but your own.

That problem or challenge could be:

• How do we increase our revenues and/or revenue streams?
• How do we re-engage with lapsed/former customers?
• How do we increase our ROI in social media or digital marketing?
• How do we increase our market share?

Or it could be any number of other challenges.

Whatever the case may be, carrying out this kind of competitive analysis helps you find the solution by looking at your main competition. If growing your market share is your main priority, identifying a weakness that your competitor has can help you develop new ideas on how you can offer customers something they’re simply not getting from that competitor.

If your digital marketing is leaving a lot to be desired, surveying the landscape to see where you’re falling behind can help you pinpoint precisely where you’re going wrong.

What’s more, making effective use of this competitive intelligence can help you to identify changes in both your audience and the industry as a whole, highlighting trends you can capitalize on, new audiences you could potentially target, or simply new ways to reach and engage with your existing target audience.

5 Famous Business Competitor Case Study Examples

1. the army crew team.

The Army Crew Team is an all-time classic business competitor case study that has a lot to teach us about how we work as a team. The coach of West Point’s varsity Army Crew team took his eight top individual rowers and placed them together in one boat. In a second boat, he placed his eight second-tier rowers.

The team in the second boat consistently beat the team in the first boat, despite the first boat consisting of better performing individual rowers. The case study shows that, collectively, a team can be more than the sum of its individual parts and that there’s more to getting great work out of a team than simply gathering together your star performers.

For businesses looking at the best ways to get the most out of their teams, this is an essential case study to look at.

See also: Twitter Competitors Analysis

2. Malden Mills

Two weeks before Christmas 1995, the Malden Mills factory burned to the ground.

Employees feared and assumed that they’d be unemployed until the factory was rebuilt, but the company’s CEO, Aaron Feuerstein, invested $25 million of company money to ensure those employees would still have a wage and benefits while the factory was rebuilt.

In one regard, this worked out well. When the factory reopened, the employees who had been well taken care of worked harder than ever. Productivity was at an all-time high and business boomed. In another regard, the cost of paying for the factory rebuild as well as taking care of employees landed Malden Mills in bankruptcy court three times.

This famous case study is used time and time again to present an argument for the pros and cons of philanthropy and making difficult decisions regarding employee satisfaction.

3. Apple Inc.

For the longest time, Apple was known as “Apple Computers” a name that perfectly summed up their focus on the personal computer market. In 2007, however, they dropped the “computers” part and simply became “Apple Inc.” This was more than just a name change for the company, it was part of an entire rebranding a shift in focus from personal computers to iPods, iPhones, iPads, and the like.

It was a strategy that paid off for them. Apple was already a well-known company beforehand, but after their “rebirth” in 2007, they truly became not only a household name but one of the most successful and profitable businesses of all time.

This famous case study is used a lot to demonstrate the benefits of taking the company in an entirely different direction rather than trying to compete in an already overcrowded market.

The ‘ Cadbury Ethical Dilema ‘ is a popular case study that is frequently presented to MBA students taking part in business case study competitions. Chocolate manufacturers Cadbury had prided themselves on their strong values and fair ethical practices. So it came as a huge blow to the brand when it was discovered that child labor was being used to produce cocoa on Côte d’Ivoire cocoa farms.

The House of Representatives passed legislation in the US which meant that companies who could prove their chocolate was produced without forced labor could print “slave-labor free” labels on their chocolate.

Naturally, this would paint companies who couldn’t prove that in a bad light, so the industry as a whole asked for time to essentially clean up its act. When the agreed deadline for doing so came to an end, Cadbury were left with a dilemma – did they continue to stall for time or did they find another way to ensure ethical management of their supply chain?

This case study remains famous for pointing out the difficulties in managing ethical practices and is well worth looking at for considering the impact that the practices of others in your supply chain can have on your business.

5. Coffee 2016

Another well-known case study that should be familiar to anyone who ever competed in a business case study competition in the last few years. Student teams were asked to come up with ideas for improving the returns generated by everyone involved in the production and consumption of coffee from the grower right through to the consumer.

The case was famous as it has so much to teach businesses and business students alike about marketing practices and supply chain logistics.

How to Create a Business Competitor Case Study

So, that takes care of the what and the why, but what about the how? Below, you’ll find a simple nine-step process to help you get the ball rolling with your own competitor analysis.

1. Determine Which Products/Services to Evaluate

If your business offers more than one product or service, you may find that analyzing your competitors becomes much less of a headache when you focus on just one of them or at least one type. For example, if you make sports clothing, you may choose to focus on your competition in the running gear market or concentrate on developing a strategy to increase revenues from your line of sports shoes.

If you’re a digital marketing agency, you might want to narrow down your competitive research to just Search Engine Optimization or how you can improve the service you offer to a web design client.

That’s not to say that you can’t research more than one aspect of your business, but doing so may mean that you end up producing data that isn’t always relevant and doesn’t help you to make the kind of strategic decisions you really need to make.

2. Determining Your Competitors for a Business Competitor Case Study

On the whole, your business is likely to have three types of competitors.

Direct Competitor

A direct competitor is any business that sells the same product or service in the same category to meet the same need for the same audience. Your biggest competitor, the one people most closely compare your business to, is more than likely going to fall in this category, as are any others that are actively competing for your share of the market.

If you sell sports shoes to female marathon runners, another company that sells sports shoes to female marathon runners would be your direct competitor. If you run a local car washing service and another business three blocks over also offer a local car washing service, they’re in direct competition with you.

Indirect Competitor

An indirect competitor is a business that sells a different product or service to meet the same need of the same audience. A common example is fast food restaurants.

McDonald’s and Burger King both sell fast food burgers (products) to hungry people (audience) so that those people can fulfill that hunger (need). If I’m hungry and want the convenience of fast food and the delicious taste of a burger, I could spend my money at either restaurant, which makes them direct competitors.

However, if I’m just hungry and want something convenient, whether it’s a burger or not, I might choose to go to McDonald’s or head next door to Pizza Hut or Subway. All three brands are in the same category (fast food), all three brands meet my need for a convenient way to satisfy hunger, but all three do so with different types of products, making them indirect competitors.

Replacement Competitor

A replacement competitor meets the same needs for the same audience but using different products or services in a different category. For example, I could choose to go to McDonald’s to fill my hunger, but I might also choose to go to Target and buy ingredients to make a homemade dinner.

To go back to the car wash example I used earlier – If you run a local car wash and the auto repair shop next door sells car cleaning supplies, that would make them a replacement competition. Your customer could choose to substitute using your service to buy some cleaning supplies and do the job himself.

Potential and Future Competitors

When determining your competition, it’s worth noting that just because a business isn’t currently in your market segment doesn’t mean they won’t eventually. This is why it’s worth noting your potential and future competitors too.

Potential competitors are those who may sell the same products, even with the same category but haven’t yet entered your market. For example, a company that operates exclusively in the next town, city, or state over to you may not be a direct competitor yet, but they have the potential to be if they chose to move into your town/city/state.

Likewise, if you run a limousine hire service focusing exclusively on corporate clients and another company across town focuses exclusively on limousine hire for weddings, they too have the potential to be a competitor. A future competitor is much more likely to become direct competitors, such as an expanding national chain.

To really get the most value out of your eventual competitive analysis report, it pays to consider all of these types of clients and their impact on your business.

How to Find Your Competitors for a Competitive Analysis

There are some competitors that you don’t have to look very hard to find. You know they’re there. They are the businesses and brand names that are hard to ignore, the ones everyone compares you to do.

Still, don’t just limit your research there.

Head to Google.

Search for the kind of keywords you’d expect people to use for your business.

Who else comes up beside you?

Search for your business name.

What are other businesses paying for Google ads around your business?

What about social media? Who are people talking about?

You can also use tools such as the Audience Overlap tool provided by Alexa , which helps you to not only track down your competition but develop and deliver on your entire competitive intelligence project. Don’t discount offline methods either. Magazines, trade publications, and even asking your target audience directly via focus groups, surveys, and so on can all prove helpful.

3. Start Your Research

Although Google can be a very powerful tool for finding out about your competitors, don’t just limit yourself to a quick search or browse their website. Yes, that’s important, especially if you’re both predominantly online brands. If your competitors have a physical presence, it’s important to check that out too.

You may want to treat this the same way you would a typical market research project and get a group of people to experience your competitor’s business, their customer service, sales experience, products, and so on. That way, you get a much wider range of opinions and can look for trends and common themes that can influence the strategic decisions you need to make to gain a competitive advantage.

4. Analyze Your Findings

With the research done, it’s time to collate what you’ve found into your competitive analysis report. This may take the form of graphs, charts, written insights, anything that can help you present a compelling business case as to why your brand needs to be made.

5. Identify Action Points

Speaking of which, the point of analyzing your competition isn’t to pay attention to how many social media followers they have or how they compare to you in terms of brand recognition; it’s to provide you with actionable steps that you can take to achieve your business goals.

So with that in mind, figure out what you’re actually going to do due to your competitor research. Will you be rethinking your price points? Revamping your customer service? Starting again with a completely different digital marketing strategy?

6. Take a Snapshot of Your Business Pre-Changes

Before you implement those steps, be sure to look at how your business is currently performing.

Consider your main KPIs and any data relating to how you’re currently doing. After all, it’s going to make it much easier to determine if the steps you’ve taken have been effective when you’ve got some real, measurable statistics to play with.

7. Implement the actions

This next step may sound simple, but it’s where the real work comes in. Whatever actionable steps you decide to take, whether it’s coming up with a brand new social media plan, establishing yourself as a market leader, or simply ensuring that every client receives first-class customer service, now’s the time to make that happen.

8. Measure the Results

When you’ve made your changes, measure your results.

Compare where you are now to where you were when you took that snapshot in step six.

9. Repeat as necessary

Last but not least, it’s important not to fall into the habit of thinking that competitive analysis is a one-and-done affair.

If there’s one universal truth about the business landscape, it’s that things change constantly. New trends emerge, new customers arrive on the scene, once loyal customers become former customers. As such, it’s important to analyze your competition as a regular component of your overall competitive strategy.

What to Include in a Business Competitor Case Study

You’ve now got a complete strategy to put your competitive analysis report together, but what exactly should you include in that report, and what aspects of your competitor’s business should you research?

The following are essential aspects that will help you to put together the most effective competitor case study.

1. Features

Starting with the basics, look at your customers’ product or service, which competes with yours, and note all of its features. For the best results, do this for each competitor and add your findings to a spreadsheet. This will make it easy to compare products and see what you’re missing.

It may even show you what your competitors are missing, highlighting a hidden advantage that you may not have previously capitalized on.

2. Market Share

Determining their market share will help you identify who your main competitor is and who you and who you may need to focus your attention on.

3. Price points

Pay attention to what the competition charges and consider what insights you can gain about your own pricing.

4. Marketing types

Your competition’s SEO marketing strategy, where they invest their ad spend, the kind of social media marketing tools they use are all important.

What keywords are they using to draw traffic?

How do your competitor’s websites compare to yours?

What are their PPC campaigns like?

All of these questions will help you determine their strengths and weaknesses from a digital standpoint.

Don’t forget about other forms of media, either.

Do they advertise in print publications? If so, which ones?

What about TV, radio, and other advertising platforms?

5. Online popularity

How do they fare in terms of social media engagement and website traffic? How does that compare to your own online presence?

Here, you’re looking more at quantifiable numbers. Likes, follows, mentions, page views, etc., should all be taken into consideration. They may not be the most important factor for some aspects of your business, but if you’re looking to up the game with your marketing and communication strategy or your SEO strategy, these numbers are worth considering.

6. Public perception and reputation

Here, we’re focusing on quality over quantity. One company may have more social media mentions than you, but if all those mentions are negative, it’s a different story. Social listening tools can be a big help in discovering what people are saying about your competitor’s brand online and can prove to be a valuable way to discover the perception of your competitors from a client perspective.

Away from social media, you might also want to consider news releases, blogs, and news articles as a means of discovering what kind of reputation your competitors have in the wider media.

7. Search Engine Optimization

An SEO marketing strategy is vital for just about any business in the digital age, but how do the strategies of competing businesses compare to yours, and what can that teach you. Here’s where keyword research and looking at their inbound marketing strategy, their approach to content marketing, and technical SEO aspects will all be important.

What makes other businesses in your market unique? What do they promote as being their reason for standing out from the crowd? Along with any sales literature, you might want to look at their mission and values statements and the kind of language they use in social media bios to get a good idea of their USPs.

9. Strengths and Weaknesses

Any good business competitor case study will feature a list of competitors’ strengths and weaknesses and insight into what opportunities this presents for your business.

Just as you might do a SWOT analysis for your business, a similar approach may help you analyze what other brands do well, how that influences the things you need to improve on, and what they don’t do so well, and how you do can capitalize on that.

10. Geography

In this regard, when we talk about geography, we’re not just talking about the town, city, or region your competitors operate in. Although that’s important, it’s just as important to note whether they have physical bricks-and-mortar venues in those towns or whether they’re a strictly eCommerce or digital-only operation.

What are the Advantages of Conducting a Competitor Analysis?

Identify your own weak spots

Competitor analysis doesn’t just identify your competitors’ weaknesses and gaps in the market. It may also highlight gaps in any areas for improvement in your own company. By comparing your brand to others, you get a different perspective than you’d get from standard SWOT analysis, and this can pay dividends when it comes to driving your company forward.

Improve your marketing and SEO efforts

Competitive strategy analysis isn’t just about products, services, and customers. It can also identify the SEO techniques used by competitors and come up with appropriate keywords to help you improve your organic search results.

Define your Benchmarks and Fine-Tune Your KPIs

Input your findings into a competitive analysis template, and it will soon become apparent what areas your business needs to be focusing on. This can prove invaluable when it comes time to determine your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and decide what -and how- it measures.

Identify gaps in your talent pool

A competitor case study really influences every aspect of your business beyond the direct products or services you sell. Your HR team can use the information to help identify gaps in your talent pool. If there’s a newly emerging market trend that you lack the talent to capitalize upon, your team can use this information to help with the recruitment needed to fill that gap.

What are the Disadvantages of Competitive Analysis?

Too much data, not enough analysis.

It’s easy to get so overwhelmed with the sheer amount of data you can unearth on your competitors that you forget that it’s the analysis of that data that really makes all the difference. It’s important to think about what meaningful conclusions you can draw and what actionable steps you can take as a result.

The impact is lessened if not kept up to date

The landscape of business is constantly changing. It’s not enough to assess the competition when you first start out and then never update it. Industries change, new trends emerge, new competitors arrive on the scene, all of which demand that market research on your competitors remains a key part of your competitive strategy.

Benchmarking performance based on competitors is not always the solution

Comparing your own performance against your competitors may not work so well if your competitors do things wrong or badly. Sure, it’s great to be an industry leader, but if the overall performance of that industry lacks compared to what the market actually demands, you may need to come up with a brand new strategy.

Frequently Asked Questions About Business Competitor Case Study

Question: what is a business case study competition.

Answer: A business case study competition is an event in which student teams compete to develop the best solution to a particular business case study. Though such events aren’t always exclusively for MBA students, most of them are as case study competitions can be a great way to inspire creative thinking and develop skills.

Question: How often should I do a competitive analysis?

Answer: Ideally, competitive analysis should be performed monthly, but if that seems like overkill for your industry, commit to at least once per quarter.

Question: What should be included in a competitive analysis?

Answer: Every competitive analysis report will be different depending on the nature of your business and your industry. However, as a general rule, it should identify who your competitors are, your competitor’s weaknesses, strengths, and overall strategies. Above all, it should provide insight into how you use their strengths and weaknesses to your advantage, whether that’s making improvements where you’re lacking or highlighting to customers what your brand does better than a rival’s.

The Final Word on Creating a Business Competitor Case Study

Whether you call it competitive intelligence gathering, competitive analysis reporting, or compiling a business competitor case study, there are three key points that I want you to take away from this guide:

• Competitive analysis is about identifying your own strengths and weaknesses as much if not more than your competitors.
• All the research and data in the world is unhelpful if it doesn’t provide you with insights into what you’re doing right and what you could be doing better.
• This isn’t a one-and-done project. Analyzing the competition is something you should be doing regularly to keep up with the ever-changing landscape of your industry.
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7 Competitor Analysis Frameworks To Give You an Edge

A competitor analysis framework is a must for anyone looking to survive and conquer their industry.

Competitive analysis frameworks differ from other types of market analysis in that they focus on understanding a company’s competitors in order to gain a better understanding of the competitive landscape. With a deeper understanding of your top competitors across different metrics, you’ll be armed with the strategic insights needed to develop a much more impactful digital research strategy , whether it aims to grow your audience, launch into a new market , or increase market share .

So, without further ado, let’s dive into the seven types of competitor analysis frameworks for industry analysis . Including what they are, and how to use them to survive and thrive in your market.

What is a competitor analysis framework?

A competitor analysis framework, market analysis framework or competitor analysis model, as they’re sometimes known, is a structure that business professionals use to research and evaluate their competitors. In other words, the art of knowing your enemy. Competitive frameworks gather vital information, such as a competitor’s business strategies, products, offerings, marketing efforts, sales, etc., into an organized visual model. And though competitive analysis might seem daunting, with the right frameworks, you’ll know exactly what information you need to gather — with zero guesswork.

Benefits of using a competitor analysis framework

Plugging your competitive analysis into a good framework can strengthen your business’ research strategy. If you’ve had trouble achieving any of these, competitor analysis models could be the answer:

• Identify market shifts: Frameworks can make it easy to discover market shifts that you might’ve missed if your competitor analysis wasn’t previously visually organized well.
• Locate gaps you didn’t even know you had: Examining businesses within a specific industry can reveal gaps in your own strategy compared to your industry at large, which may spark inspiration for a new business idea, product, or offerings.
• Target the most effective marketing strategies: By pinpointing the marketing channels that worked well for your competitors, you can create a data-backed roadmap to march confidently forward with your own marketing plans.
• Avoid mistakes: In the same vein, you can avoid costly mistakes by looking at what didn’t work for your competitors.
• Create measurable (and achievable) goals : A good competitive analysis framework helps businesses build specific performance goals based on their competitors’ data.
• Make data more digestible : Frameworks help display dull or confusing information in a visually appealing and organized manner, making it much easier to share your findings with the rest of the team and investors or C-level executives.

Seven types of competitive analysis frameworks

1. SWOT Analysis

Talk about an old faithful. The SWOT analysis has been around for decades, and for good reason. It organizes a company’s information into the following categories:

• Strengths: internal factors that provide benefits, like a highly trained staff.
• Weaknesses: internal factors that cause disadvantages, like a small marketing budget.
• Opportunities: external factors that pose opportunities, like high demand for a product offering.
• Threats: external factors that pose challenges, like an increase in the cost of supplies.

We recommend using SWOT analysis best practices to hone in on the strengths or weaknesses of your competitors. This is especially helpful for identifying potential competitive advantages your business may have over others, as well as finding areas for improvement.

SWOT Analysis Templates

Visualize how you stack up against the competition.

2. Porter’s Five Forces

Porter’s Five Forces is a formidable framework created by Michael Porter, a professor at Harvard Business School. This competitive framework examines the five key market forces in any given industry, including:

• Intensity of competitive rivalry
• Threat of new entrants
• Bargaining power of new buyers
• Bargaining power of suppliers
• Threat of substitutes

Porter’s Five Forces is especially useful for analyzing the competitive structure of an entire industry. This information will be helpful when shaping business strategies and creating targeted goals amid the expansive competitive landscape . However, you can also apply this framework to niche industries or specific market segments .

3. Strategic group analysis

A strategic group analysis does exactly what it says—it organizes competitors into groups based on the similarity of strategy.

There’s a wide range of ways you can group companies. Perhaps you’d like to group competitors by their marketing tactics , pricing strategies, or range of offerings. Don’t forget to place your own company into the analysis to get a better sense of who you’re most closely competing with and better understand the impact different strategies provide. For instance, if you discover that the top three most successful companies in your niche are all grouped into the same pricing strategy, it may be time to see if doing the same will benefit your own business.

4. Growth-share matrix

The growth-share matrix classifies your company’s products against the competitive landscape . This is an example of a competitor analysis that’s especially useful for big organizations with a large portfolio of products or offerings. A growth-share matrix is a chart divided into four quadrants to classify products or business units into:

• Stars : products with high growth and high market share . Invest more in these.
• Question marks : products (usually new ones) with high growth, but low market share. Decide whether to invest more (if convinced it will become a star) or give up on it.
• Cash cows : products with low growth but high market share that are usually used to fund investment in stars.
• Pets : products with low growth and low market share. Decide whether to reposition or give up on it.

Using this market analysis framework can help determine what’s worth giving priority to, what to reposition, and what to ditch.

Read More – How To Make The Most Of A Competitive Matrix

5. Perceptual mapping

Perceptual mapping, also known as positioning mapping, visualizes the perception of a company and its competitors on a plot graph. To use this competitive analysis framework, choose two factors to use as the basis for comparison, like perceived quality and price. Then, plot where your business and competitors fall on those two factors’ spectrum.

It’s great for obtaining a bird’s eye view of how customers perceive your company in relation to your competitors. Armed with that knowledge, your company can identify market trends and gaps and make adjustments to improve its existing positioning strategy. Smart and strong.

6. Business model canvas

This framework strips a business model to its bare bones, improving clarity and focusing on the most important factors. A business model canvas is a single analysis that’s divided up into nine elements:

• Customer segments : Who are the customers?
• Value propositions: Why do customers buy/use the proposition?
• Channels: How are propositions promoted, sold, and delivered?
• Customer relationships : How is the customer treated throughout their buyer journey?
• Revenue streams : How is revenue earned?
• Activities : What unique strategies does the business use to deliver its propositions?
• Resources : What unique strategic assets are required to compete?
• Partnerships: What can the business outsource so it can focus on its key activities?
• Cost structure: What are the major cost drivers and how are they linked to revenue?

7. Customer journey map

A customer journey map, also known as a user journey map, is a visual story of customers’ interactions with a brand.

First, all customer channels are mapped out—i.e., a company’s website, social channels, paid media, newsletters, email support, phone services, and face-to-face services (if the brand has brick-and-mortar locations). Customer journeys can then be mapped across these channels for each buyer persona . The customer experience at each touchpoint should be tacked on to the map, including key engagement metrics the customer hits. Below that, add how the brand responds to address the customers’ concerns. Finally, jot down what opportunities exist to improve the experience at each channel.

Utilizing customer journey maps can help gain insights into common customer pain points and how to improve them—not only within your own company, but for your competitors’ customers as well.

Pro Tip: Use Similarweb Consumer Journey Analytics to uncover competitor strategies and performance metrics through all stages of the conversion funnel.

How to use a competitive analysis framework?

Now let’s see this all in action. Below is a case study of a digital analysis using competitive insights to make faster and better business decisions. All of the data collected can be used to plug into any of the various competitive analysis framework templates we have covered so far.

Overview : Steve is a Category Analyst at a market-leading homeware and furniture retailer in the U.S. His company has several business lines across categories such as sofas, bedding, kitchenware, and outdoor furniture.

Steve’s company has one to two competitors that are particularly strong in the sofa category. An email from senior management says that sofa sales at the company have been on a downward trend, and now Steve has to pinpoint why this is the case and present a recovery plan. No pressure, right?

Analyze the competitor’s digital footprint

For Steve to truly understand his competitors, he needs to build a digital view of each company and break down assets such as subdomains to spotlight any trends that indicate a competitor’s digital performance. For example, he can identify the unique number of visitors the competitor generates over time to compare online reach relative to his own company’s performance.

Steve can then use this data to see where the company is growing or losing traction. In the example below, the percent change column indicates one of the domains has had a 42% downward growth in the last 12 months.

This information gives Steve a quick and easy snapshot of his competitor’s online performance and its strengths and weaknesses.

2: Map out your market landscape

Once Steve has built a company view of his direct competitors, he can also analyze their websites to benchmark traffic and engagement data against his company’s overall performance. This will enable him to instantly identify who the market leader is and where he needs to be to improve his digital strategy . Utilizing Similarweb’s DaaS tools , he can integrate vast datasets directly into analytical platforms like Google Cloud or AWS, allowing for real-time visualization and more dynamic market landscape mapping.

Try plotting out graph-specific metrics such as monthly visits vs. percent month-over-month change to know exactly how he’s performing.

3: Analyze search interest

Next, Steve can assess the market demand for the sofa category and use search interests as a way to identify any emerging competitors that are gaining traffic share for related search terms within the United States. In this example, he can measure the search volume of traffic, see the overall search trend over time, and analyze which competitor is winning digital market share.

With these insights, Steve understands the overall trend for the market and can spot any specific competitors that he may not have considered before during his competitive analysis.

4: Understand traffic and engagement metrics

To learn how your competitor’s traffic and engagement metrics have grown or declined over time, benchmark your growth to your competitors’ to reveal if they’re growing at a faster rate, and that’s why they’re potentially winning market share.

In this example, Steve can see the year-over-year traffic growth for his competitive set and can see that one of his competitors grew its traffic by 80%, which is 5% more than his company’s website. Aha! At this point, Steve can use Similarweb to deep dive into the digital marketing strategy of his competitors to understand what’s causing that spike. He could discover that his competitor has an optimized paid search strategy, a marketing channel he previously overlooked.

5: Continuously track the competitive landscape

The last step for Steve is to continuously track and monitor the competitive landscape to identify potential threats and emerging players. This way, he can quickly react to any changes in his competitive landscape and investigate the root cause using smart insights.

Start crafting your competitor analysis framework

Now that you know how to use all seven competitor analysis frameworks, it’s time to decide which ones work best for you and then get to it!

Try Similarweb for free and find out for yourself how our research tools can strengthen your competitive analysis.

Similarweb Competitor Analysis Frameworks

Whether your B2B or B2C, get started with our free and easy to use template

What is a competitor analysis framework? A competitive analysis framework is a model or tool marketing professionals can use to compare their business plan or marketing strategy with their competitors.

How do competitive analysis frameworks differ from other types of market analysis?

Competitive analysis frameworks differ from other types of market analysis in that they focus on understanding a company’s competitors in order to gain a better understanding of the competitive landscape.

Which tools are used in competitor analysis? Some of the tools used in competitor analysis include a customer journey map, growth-share matrix, SWOT analysis, and Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) to access expansive datasets that feed directly into competitor analysis tools, enhancing the granularity and scope of competitive insights.

What are the main components of a competitive analysis framework? The main components of a competitive analysis framework include researching competitors’ product offerings, pricing models, marketing strategies, and customer service approaches.

What are the benefits of using a competitive analysis framework?

The benefits of using a competitive analysis framework include gaining insight into competitor strengths and weaknesses, understanding the potential impact of new entrants to the market, and developing an effective strategy to differentiate your own product or service. It can also provide a more holistic view of the market by uncovering emerging trends, changes in customer preferences, and opportunities to explore opportunities.

by Molly Winik

Senior Content Marketing Manager

Molly has 8+ years of experience in marketing, content creation, and PR. Her work has been featured on Mention, The Times of Israel, and Culture Trip.

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Analyzing your competitive landscape: 4 case studies.

Conducting a competitive analysis can be time-consuming. It takes time to gather intelligence, analyze the insights, share data, and integrate your findings into your strategy. However, if you’re able to take a quick snapshot of your competitive landscape , you’ll be able to get quick and impactful insights about your market. Previously, we walked you through the three dimensions of conducting a snapshot competitive landscape analysis . Now, let’s apply that methodology in a series of case studies — a breakdown of four industries, including Conversational Marketing Software, Point-of-Sale (POS) Solutions, Cybersecurity Technology, and Meal Kit Subscriptions. With data from completed competitive landscape reports, we’ll dive into what it means to be an industry leader.

Breaking Down the Competitive Analysis

Our competitive analysis report breaks down your competitive landscape in three ways: Company Growth & Trajectory, Company Traffic & Social Reach, and Company Homepage & Positioning History. All of these aspects are important in analyzing your competitive landscape for different reasons. For our analysis, we’ve also highlighted three areas of market leadership — Industry Billboard, Market Leader, and Top Challenger.

• The Industry Billboard represents the company with the largest voice in the market, as measured by the company with the best Alexa Rank.
• The Market Leader is the recognized front-runner in the industry, as measured by highest estimated revenue for a public company.
• The Top Challenger is the up-and-comer that is getting the most traction, as measured by highest estimated revenue for a private company. 

Now that we’ve broken down the key areas of focus for these reports, let’s look at how specific companies in a wide range of industries have gotten themselves to those top spots.

The Industry Billboard: Best Alexa Rank

Up first, we took a snapshot of the customer service / conversational marketing software industry, which included Intercom, Podium, Freshdesk, Zendesk, and Drift. To get recognized as an “Industry Billboard,” the company needs to have the lowest Alexa Rank in the industry.

The Top Challenger: Top Private Company by Revenue

Next up, let’s take a look at the Point-of-Sale (POS) industry. In this landscape snapshot, we analyzed NCR, ShopKeep, Toast, Upserve, Square, TouchBistro, and Revel Systems. To get recognized as the Top Challenger, you need to have the highest estimated revenue and be a private company.

In this industry, the Top Challenger is Toast. In this instance, Toast is the top private company in the POS space, based on its estimated revenue, which is in the $500M-$1B range. In comparison to other private companies in this space, they are the revenue leader. This data is important because it gives you insight into how efficient your competitors are, which ones are up-and-coming based on how long they’ve been in business and their revenue, as well as which competitor is leading the charge. Keeping a pulse on funding as well as revenue matters because you can gain insight into how well a company is performing. If your competitors are raising more funding, it might be a sign that something big is about to happen, that you will definitely want to monitor.

Revenue is a good indicator of success for private companies, but let’s focus on their funding. If you notice an increase in funding, keep an eye out for changes across other aspects of their business. When a company is raising capital, it means that they are planning to grow and invest more resources into their strategy - headcount, product capabilities, new offices, etc. Keep an eye on their funding as well as what happens after funding rounds are completed. Any shift in strategy, especially hiring, can give you insight into where they’re going next. Use this intel to get ahead of your competition.

The Market Leader: Top Public Company by Revenue

Similar to the Top Challenger, the Market Leader is based on revenue, but for public companies. In this example, we’re going to look at the Cybersecurity space, featuring Symantec, SentinelOne, Cylance, FireEye, Tanium, Carbon Black, Cybereason, McAfee, and Crowdstrike.

In addition to funding raised, revenue is critical because it’s another measure of the success of a company. Here, the leader is a company that has been around significantly longer than the other players, so they’ve created a sustainable competitive advantage . While it is possible to displace industry leaders , you can also learn from the bigger players in your industry. What did they do over the years to get to where they are today? What did they invest in, who did they hire, how did their product change? By analyzing how they became the industry leader, you’ll be able to iterate on your strategy to incorporate the positive and negative lessons learned by the industry leader. There may be strategies you can apply to your own business, or you may be inspired to try new tactics. Either way, leverage this competitive intelligence to make an impact on your own revenue achievement .

Don’t Forget: Keep an Eye on Messaging and Website Updates

Additional competitive insights to evaluate include homepage updates and messaging history. As an example, we’re going to take a look at the Meal Kit Subscription industry, featuring Purple Carrot, Sun Basket, Blue Apron, Daily Harvest, HelloFresh, Home Chef, and Marley Spoon.

Seeing is believing! Check out Crayon for yourself.

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