Double Centered Data Rescaling

Competitive AdvantageScoring

Competitive Advantage Scoring reveals where your brand over-performs, under-performs, or keeps pace in the moments that drive buying.

Methodology Overview

Understanding Competitive Advantage Scoring

Competitive Advantage Scoring properly handles two critical biases that can distort traditional attribute importance research, providing cleaner insights into what truly drives consumer preference.

Defend your advantages by doubling down on what you own

Identify where your brand truly outperforms competitors and invest resources to strengthen these authentic advantages.

Build targeted associations when you're behind

Focus marketing efforts on attributes where you underperform to close perception gaps and improve competitive positioning.

Maintain/Monitor efficient reach where you're on track

Compare actual scores to expected scores, revealing which brands outperform, meet expectations, or underperform on each attribute.

Why It Matters

Grounded in modern brand-growth science to focus on situations that trigger purchase, not just awareness.

Mathematical Foundation

How Competitive Advantage Scoring Works


Compare to Expected Benchmark

We compare your brand’s actual associations to an expected benchmark that adjusts for two biases: big brands naturally get more associations, and some attributes are inherently more common (e.g., “good battery life” for smartphones).

Identify Areas of Competitive Advantage

The difference between actual and expected becomes your score.
+5 percentage points or more = a competitive advantage
–5 or below = a disadvantage. We visualize this in an intuitive, color-coded table.

Strategic Applications

How to Use Competitive Advantage Scoring

Competitive Advantage Scoring is particularly valuable when you need to understand true brand performance beyond surface-level perceptions and biases.

Brand Equity Research

Remove halo effects to understand true brand equity and identify authentic brand strengths versus perceived advantages.

True brand differentiation
Authentic positioning insights
Unbiased competitive analysis

Product Development

Identify which product attributes truly drive preference versus those that are simply expected by all consumers.

Feature prioritization
Innovation opportunities
Cost of entry identification
Importance-performance analysis

Competitive Landscape

Understand where competitors truly excel versus where they benefit from brand recognition or market expectations.

True competitive advantages
Market opportunity gaps
Strategic positioning insights

Ready to Uncover True Brand Performance?

Partner with PROOF Insights to leverage Competitive Advantage Scoring for unbiased competitive intelligence, authentic brand positioning insights, and strategic decision-making based on true performance data.