Ironwood Brands | Independent Brand Audit and Growth Consulting

The Competitor Deep Dive

You know who you're losing to. Now you'll know why.

A complete read of a single competitor, scored against evidence and built to act on.

We examine one competitor, the firm, agent, or practice your buyers most often compare you to, across the areas where the contest is actually decided. We score what we find, and tell you where they're winning, where they're exposed, and what to change first. Five business days. One competitor, examined the way our full audit examines ten.

Commission the Deep Dive$475, 5 business days

Why it exists

You can see that they win. You can't see why.

A particular competitor keeps coming up. They take the clients that should have been yours, or charge what you can't, or simply arrive first in the rooms that matter. From inside your own business, the reason is hard to see. You're measuring their outcome against your effort, and that comparison tells you nothing you can act on.

The Competitor Deep Dive is the work of finding the reason. We examine them from the outside, the way a serious buyer does, score what we find against evidence, and tell you what to change first. Not what we'd build if you commissioned more. What's actually moving their business, and what that means for yours.

What we examine

One competitor. The areas where the contest is decided.

We work through a fixed set of areas, the same lens the full audit applies to eight to ten competitors, focused here on one, in depth. Each finding is scored against evidence and tied to a specific recommendation.

Who they say they're for.

Whether their answer is sharper than yours, and where that sharpness comes from.

The language they use.

Their words, set against yours and against the buyer you both want.

How they price and signal value.

What they charge where it's visible, and how they justify it before a conversation begins.

Where a buyer encounters them.

The places they show up first, and the places you're absent.

What they claim, and what they leave open.

The position they own, and the one they've left uncontested for you.

Why a buyer would choose them.

Stated plainly, with the evidence, so you can answer it deliberately rather than guess.

How it works

Four stages. Five business days.

01

Intake

You name the competitor, or we select the one your buyers most often compare you to. A short questionnaire shapes the read to your business before we begin.

02

Examination

We work through each area, scoring what we find against evidence drawn from the competitor, your category, and the buyer you share.

03

Review

Every finding is checked by a second senior practitioner before it reaches you. The same standard as the full audit: nothing leaves the firm seen by fewer than two people.

04

Report

You receive a written competitor profile, the findings, the evidence, the gap, and the changes ranked by what is most likely to produce a result first.

What you leave with

A single competitor, read completely.

A written competitor profile.

Ten to twelve pages: how they position, price, and present, every finding scored against evidence.

The gap.

Where they're exposed, and the position they've left open for you to occupy.

A ranked set of changes.

What to do first, ordered by likely impact. Not what's easiest to implement.

Price

$475. And $250 of it comes back.

The Deep Dive is $475. If you go on to commission the Positioning Audit or Brand Runway, $250 credits against it. A real piece of work in its own right. Also the first step of a larger one.

How it fits

One profile. The audit maps eight to ten.

The Deep Dive examines a single competitor in depth. The Positioning Audit examines eight to ten of them, alongside seven other areas of your own business. If the Deep Dive tells you the contest is closer, or wider, than you thought, the audit is where the full picture gets built, and the $250 carries forward.

Refund and cancellation

Refundable before intake. Not after.

Before you submit your intake, the Deep Dive is fully refundable. Once intake is submitted and the research begins, it is non-refundable: by that point we've allocated time and started the work. The same standard, and the same plain terms, as every engagement we run.

You know who you're losing to. Now you'll know why.

Commission the Deep Dive

$475