Competitive intelligence product perception and their Better Product
You’re Not Losing to a Better Product. You’re Losing to a Better Perception. We like to believe that customers are rational. They think in straight lines. But in the real world? They zigzag. They don’t want what they say they want. And they don’t buy what they think they buy. And they don’t switch because of what you think is a “better product.”
They switch because something feels right. More aspirational. More aligned with how they see themselves or want to be seen. That’s why competitive intelligence that relies too heavily on what customers say is broken by design. Let’s break this down, reframe it, and show you how to build a stronger competitor and market analysis playbook.
Why Traditional Market Research Misses the Point
Classic market research is obsessed with asking.
Focus groups
Surveys
Customer interviews
These tools ask people what they want. But here’s the problem: People lie. Not maliciously. Just naturally. They don’t even realise they’re doing it. And they don’t lie with their mouths. They lie with their predictive confidence. You ask them:
“What would make you switch to a new product?”
They say: “Better features. Better pricing. More support.”
But when you watch what they actually do?
They switch to the brand that tells a better story. They switch to the product that signals something. And they stay loyal because it feels safer, even if it’s slower, more expensive, or more complicated.
The iPhone Nobody Asked For
Let’s think back, way back to 2006. If you had run a focus group for mobile phone users and asked:
“What do you want in your next phone?”
You’d get a predictable list:
A physical keyboard that’s easier to type on
A longer-lasting battery
More reliable calls
Maybe even…a stylus (remember them)
But nobody would’ve said:
“I want a screen-only device with no buttons, a revolutionary touch interface, an app store, and an entirely new way to think about mobile computing.”
Why? Because most people don’t ask for transformation.
They ask for optimisation.
And this is where most competitive intelligence systems fail:
They map the present.
They document current needs.
They become slaves to articulated demand.
But strategy lives in what’s unspoken.
The edge lives in the asymmetry between what people say they want and what actually changes their behaviour.
Steve Jobs once said, “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
He wasn’t dismissing customers. He was exposing the limits of asking over observing.
You Say You Want Fuel Efficiency…
Another example is the automotive industry. Ask people what they want in a car, and most will say something like:
“Better gas mileage. Lower cost. Safe and reliable.”
Sounds logical, right?
But what are the top-selling vehicles in the US?
Pickup trucks.
Luxury SUVs.
Crossover vehicles with premium trim packages.
These aren’t the most fuel-efficient options. They aren’t the cheapest or most logical. But they are the most emotionally satisfying choices.
People are driven by identity, not just utility.
They’re buying a car to:
Signal status
Fulfil a self-image
Fit into a tribe
Escape from their current version of themselves
If your competitive analysis is just tracking pricing, features, and specs, you’re playing without all the pieces on the board.
So What’s the Play Instead?
If you’re serious about strategy, stop chasing better answers.
Start asking better questions.
Competitive intelligence isn’t about collecting more data.
It’s about uncovering the hidden dynamics that shape behaviour.
Observe What They Do, Not What They Say
If you want to know what your market really values, don’t ask them.
Watch what they click, buy, skip, share, and cancel.
What are they switching from?
What triggers a buying decision?
What gets shared, praised, or mocked online?
Behaviour is the ultimate truth serum.
Decode the Positioning, Not the Features
Your competitors aren’t winning because they have better tech. They’re winning because they’ve made themselves easier to buy.
They’ve done the work to:
Simplify their message
Anchor their product to an identity
Own a specific slice of mindshare
That’s not a feature war. It’s a positioning victory.
Are you tracking how they frame the problem?
Are you mapping their narrative arcs across channels?
Are you analysing how they make customers feel understood?
That’s where differentiation lives.
Study Perception, Not Just Price
You might think your competitor is too expensive. But maybe their brand permits customers to pay more. Warby Parker didn’t win just because of price. They won because they reframed buying glasses as a fashion-forward, socially conscious choice. They made style and purpose affordable. That changed the game. You’ll miss the entire story if you only analyse pricing without decoding perception.
Don’t Just Map Competitors—Map Movements
Great intelligence isn’t static. It’s directional.
What trends are emerging?
What beliefs are shifting?
What’s becoming obsolete, even if no one’s said it out loud yet?
Ben Gilad calls this “strategic inflection hunting.”
It’s about finding weak signals. Early indicators. Tectonic shifts that look small now but watch them crack the ground open in 12 months.
That’s what real market intelligence is built to detect.
Final Take: The Truth Is in the Tension
You don’t win markets by reacting.
You win by seeing what others don’t.
Not by asking more questions—but by asking better ones.
Not by surveying the crowd, but by studying the friction.
Competitive advantage lives in the gap between stated preference and actual behaviour.
Your job is to live in that tension. To spot the asymmetries. To tell the uncomfortable truths.
Because when you do? You stop chasing the customer… And start leading the market.
People don’t know what they want. But their behaviour is known. Build your competitive intelligence on observation, not interviews. Because the market doesn’t care what people say. It responds to what they do.
Let’s talk…