Tom did a competitive analysis of his company’s outdoor soap product, interviewed distributors for helpful insights on the competitor’s soaps, looked at the market trends, and spoke with the product manager about the changes he saw that the market required. What critical step did Tom forget to do?

The first thing Tom should have done was to identify his top competitors.    

Explanation:

Here are the following steps to carrying out competitors analysis:

    2. Identify your Strengths and how they help you take advantage of your  

    Opportunities

    3. Identify Threats and how your strengths would help you minimize them

    4. Enumerate your weaknesses and how you'd combine your strenghts and opportunities presented by the competitors weaknesses to reduce them.

Cheers!