Once you have brainstormed a list of potential new SBCC products, services or interventions, and established the status of your organization’s current SBCC products, services and interventions, it is time to use the Competitive Scan Tool
to determine the likelihood of each proposed new product, service and/or intervention thriving in a competitive marketplace. The competitive scan considers four critical criteria:
Within each of the four criteria, there are several factors to help you decide the competitive positioning of the new product, service, intervention or market segment.
This criterion looks at the barriers you need to overcome to gain entry in to the sector in which you do not already have an established market. If your new SBCC product, service, intervention or market segment will require you to enter in to a new sector, such as microfinance, environmental health or agriculture, you need to examine the potential barriers you may confront. This will help you determine the level of attractiveness of the new product, service and/or intervention. Specifically, this criterion is composed of:
Brand identification or identity (i.e. will clients recognize your organization?)
Relationship to existing products or services
Access to distribution channels (i.e. do you have pre-existing distribution channels that you can utilize?)
Access to appropriate technology (i.e. medical devices, laptop computers, etc.)
This criterion looks at the barriers you may need to overcome to phase out the new SBCC product, service or intervention, or to exit from a new sector or market segment if you do not succeed in attracting clients, or if funding is not available. Ideally, the cost of exit should not out-weigh the possible social or financial gains to be made from the organization's investment in developing the new product, service or intervention, or entering a new market or sector. Specifically, this criterion is composed of:
Degree of product or service specialization (i.e. is a high degree of specialization required? The more specialization, the higher the cost.)
Cost of exit
Strategic relationship with other organizations (i.e., can you partner with another organization that already works in the new market segment or that has already established distribution channels?)
Investment made in complying with government regulations
This criterion looks at the relationship of your competitors to your organization in terms of the number of competing organizations, the degree to which their SBCC products, services or interventions are specialized, the growth of the target market and the diversity of the competition. Specifically, this criterion is composed of:
Number of competitors
Growth of target market
Product features
Service features
The Competitive Scan Tool requires that evidence (data) be presented for all variables corresponding to each of the four criteria. The SBCC product, service or intervention that gets the highest score is that which is most likely to be successful.
Instructions: Read and complete the following steps.
- Assuming you have identified several SBCC products, services and interventions that might be introduced, run each of the potential products, services and interventions through the scan. You must provide evidence to support the ranking you assign.
- Put an "X" (upper- or lowercase) in the appropriate column for each section.
- After you have analyzed all the potential products, services and interventions for their competitive positioning, prepare a brief description of, and a rationale for, the top two products, services and/or interventions that are most likely to succeed in your organization’s sector and marketplace.
- This description should be noted under the third tab on of this workbook, entitled Selected Products and Services.
