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Competitive Landscape Classifier | The Three Streams GEO Methodology
Three Streams GEO → Tools → Competitive Landscape Classifier

Competitive Landscape Classifier

Classify your competitive landscape and distinguish competitors you learn from and competitors you measure against—before committing to long-term sentinel query strategies.

Precursor to Sentinel Query Builder & SOV-AI Calculator
Step 1: Define Your Market Context
Your market structure and competitive position shape how many competitors to measure against and how to interpret your SOV-AI scores.
▶ What are the Measurement Set and Intelligence Set?

The Three Streams GEO Methodology uses SOV-AI (Share of Voice in AI) to measure competitive position: SOV-AI = Your Position-Weighted Citations ÷ Total Weighted Citations. Who you include in "Total Weighted Citations" determines what your score means.

📐 Measurement Set

Competitors in the SOV-AI denominator. Your performance is calculated relative to this set. Feeds the SOV-AI Calculator and Sentinel Query Builder.

🔍 Intelligence Set

Competitors you monitor for strategic learning without affecting your SOV-AI score. Feeds Business Stream intelligence reports.

Market concentration is formally measured using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), used by the U.S. DOJ. We use simplified tiers here.

▶ How is HHI calculated?

HHI is calculated by squaring the market share (as a whole number) of each firm in the market, then summing the results:

HHI = S₁² + S₂² + S₃² + … + Sₙ²

where S is each firm's market share percentage.

Example: Cloud infrastructure market

If four firms hold 33%, 22%, 10%, and 8% shares:

33² + 22² + 10² + 8² = 1,089 + 484 + 100 + 64 = 1,737

This gives an HHI of 1,737 — a moderately concentrated market.

U.S. DOJ thresholds (Merger Guidelines § 2.1, 2023):

< 1,500
Unconcentrated
1,500–2,500
Moderate
> 2,500
Highly Concentrated

The scale ranges from near 0 (perfect competition) to 10,000 (monopoly). You do not need to calculate HHI precisely — select the tier that best describes how many meaningful competitors exist in your market.

This shapes how the tool interprets your choices and sets baseline expectations for SOV-AI scores.

Step 2: Identify & Classify Competitors
Add each competitor and classify them. The five categories below are drawn from established competitive intelligence frameworks.
🏷️
The five competitor types are drawn from established competitive intelligence practice. SurveyMonkey's competitive landscape methodology uses Direct, Indirect, Perceived, and Aspirational. The Emerging (or "Potential") type is documented by RivalSense, Seeders, Similarweb, and in the Peteraf & Bergen (2001) academic framework for competitor identification. You may not have competitors in every category—that's normal.
Sources: SurveyMonkey — Competitive Landscape Analysis · Crayon — CI Process Guide · RivalSense — 4 Types of Competitors · Seeders — Market Entry Competitor Types
Direct
Same products, same audience, same price tier. You lose deals to them.
Indirect
Different solution to the same problem. Substitute or adjacent offerings.
Aspirational
Leaders you admire and learn from but don't compete with head-to-head.
Perceived
Come up in sales conversations but you don't actually compete for the same business.
Emerging
New or rapidly growing entrants. Not dominant yet, but rising fast and could disrupt your space.
Step 3: Define Measurement vs. Intelligence Sets
This is the critical distinction most frameworks miss: competitors you learn from are not necessarily competitors you measure SOV-AI against.
⚠️
Why this separation matters: Your SOV-AI measurement set determines your denominator. Including aspirational competitors you can't realistically out-cite will deflate your score and may mislead stakeholders. Conversely, tracking only weak competitors inflates your score and creates false confidence. The Britopian measurement framework recommends identifying "actual market competitors rather than simply including all companies in your industry."
Source: Britopian — Rethinking SOV Measurement
Measurement Consistency Commitment
🔒
Consistency protects trend validity. Changing your measurement set mid-cycle breaks all trend comparisons because you've changed the denominator. One source advises: "Once you define your total addressable market, stick with that definition. This ensures you're measuring progress against a stable benchmark, not a moving target." The specific length of your commitment should match your market's rate of change.
Source: AI SEO Tracker — Share of Market vs. Share of Voice

The date you begin using this measurement set. Trend comparisons start from this date — any SOV-AI data before it uses a different denominator and cannot be compared.

How often you reassess whether the measurement set still reflects your competitive reality.

Between reviews: Only consider changes to the measurement set in response to structural market shifts (acquisitions, market exits, major new entrants) that fundamentally alter the competitive landscape. The mathematical reason is straightforward: any denominator change makes before/after comparisons invalid.

Competitive Landscape Classifier · Part of The Three Streams GEO Methodology

This tool classifies organizational knowledge—it does not perform market research, competitor discovery, or citation analysis. Competitor type definitions are drawn from established competitive intelligence frameworks: SurveyMonkey, Crayon (Direct, Indirect, Aspirational, Perceived); RivalSense, Seeders, Similarweb (Emerging/Potential). Academic foundation: Bergen, Peteraf & Barney (2002), Managerial and Decision Economics; Peteraf & Bergen (2001). Fragmented market guidance draws on Michael Porter's Strategic Group Analysis (Competitive Strategy, 1980). Market concentration tiers reference the U.S. DOJ Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (Merger Guidelines § 2.1, 2023). The representation gap diagnostic (SOV-AI vs. Share of Market) is definitional: zero-sum proportions within the measurement set compared against actual market position. The distinction between measurement and intelligence tracking is an original contribution of the Three Streams methodology.