The Theoretical Principles of Analyzing the Competition in Consumer Markets

The article considers the types of competition in consumer markets. Most authors when analyzing competition carefully analyze competitor brands. Instead, the author of this article proposes to determine the weight of the influence of related goods, substitutes and indirect competitors. All competitors on the basis of researches of domestic scholars are divided into the following groups: desire-competitors; commodity-kind competitors; commodity-type competitors (substitute goods); competitor brands. Each of these groups is analyzed and it is determined for which types of consumer markets it has a significant impact. In particular, desire-competitors are struggling for the consumers’ costs in the markets of durable goods and luxury goods, but they are not peculiar to social goods and necessities. In addition, it is determined that significant for the product markets is the division of competitors by: market share; presence in a retail network; territorial feature; price level. Market share generally defines the possibilities of influencing consumers and the ability to dictate market conditions. The level of presence of goods in the trading network determines the ease of finding it by the buyer. Increasing the presence in a particular region relatively quickly increases the market share of the corresponding goods in the region. Consumer goods of mass demand are characterized by the presence of not only international and national, but also local competitors. Such competition requires more efforts on the part of both the national and the international producers for studying the market and developing a strategy. In terms of price level, it is necessary to focus, first of all, on those competitors who compete in the same price category. The study of the soft drinks market in the City of Lviv allowed to distinguish in more detail the specific characteristics of competition. The main competitors are allocated. It is noted that over the past 15 years, the number and composition of both the local and the national competitors has changed significantly. On the basis of this, a map of the weight of competitors is developed, which enables the enterprise in the development of competitiveness strategies to concentrate on studying those market participants who are able to distract the attention of consumers to themselves