What are competitive intelligence examples?
The question we ask is, what are competitive intelligence examples? There are many examples of competitive intelligence and many ways to use it. There isn’t s one-size-fits-all answer to this question. As the competitive intelligence process depends on your industry sector and competitive landscape.
The most obvious is to monitor your competitors. But we have called this article competitive intelligence examples and not competitor intelligence examples. Take time to research them to see when they release new offerings, at what price and with what marketing.
Competitive intelligence process
Sometimes competitive intelligence is called corporate intelligence. Competitive intelligence is the process of gathering, analysing, and using the information to:
- Understand and anticipate competitor moves
- The activities and desires of customers
- Suppliers and their abilities and motivations
- Other market factors contribute to your competitive advantage.
Market Information to assist you in making better business decisions is usually associated with:
- Pricing
- Product development
- Sales and Marketing
Competitive intelligence done properly
This information will help you stay ahead and make better strategic decisions. This is true to a point. Competitive intelligence done properly will put you in an excellent position. Understanding their new products and associated pricing before releasing them to the public.
However, there are some basic steps when conducting competitive intelligence. Such as gathering information about competitors:
- Products and services
- financial performance
- marketing strategies
What is competitive intelligence?
Competitive intelligence is the finding & critical analysis of information to make sense of what’s happening & why. Predict what’s going to happen & give the options to control the outcome. The insight to create more certainty & competitive advantage.
Then analyse this information to isolate strengths and weaknesses. The analysis creates a robust competitive strategy that gives you a competitive edge. Without analysis, you have a nice-looking report and some doughnut charts.
Competitive intelligence uses
You can use competitive intelligence for many reasons. You may wish to find answers to these points:
- Assess a particular competitor’s go-to-market strategy for its products and services
- Find out how they position their offering in the market
- What they consider to be their products’ relative competitive strengths
- Whom, a competitor, thinks is its key competition for each of its products and services
To answer these questions, you may try and do it yourself. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if it is not a task you are doing every day. Or only doing it when you have time. Something always gets in the way. And it will be your research. Plus, you may look for the answers using your experience and industry knowledge. This is good to a point. But you can be blinded by experience and hold many unconscious biases.
External consultants
You may turn to external consultants. External industry consultants can help be a good source of competitive information. But again, they will be blinded and will not want to rock the boat with you. They will be looking for and finding the answers you want to see. Why? Well, external consultants rely on gathering information from industry people they know. So they are limited to those they know and the opinion of those they know. They could judge old opinions and bais as insight.
Nothing wrong with bias. We all have it, and it’s the understanding that we all have it and be aware of it. And the ability to ask questions from the perspective of an outsider who is not a mate. Or a mate of a mate.
Competitive intelligence consultants
Competitive intelligence consultants like ourselves at Octopus Intelligence start with a clean slate. And it’s unlikely that the analyst will be best mates with the sales director of one of your competitors.
We identify and contact relevant stakeholders within your competitive market with fresh eyes. Will will not have a prior necessity of having a previous relationship with them. Talking to your competitors offers many advantages over interviewing customers. Why? Well, most information you want is not available to the public.
People like Octopus Intelligence are used to talking to your competitors. Collecting that hard-to-find information over many calls. And combining it with the secondary information to create competitor Intelligence.
Common Google questions
We have taken a look at common Google questions. And over the coming weeks, we will add to the question we asked here. What is a competitive intelligence example? Other common questions to be answered include:
- What is good competitive intelligence?
- How do you do competitive intelligence?
- Why do we need competitive intelligence?
- Is competitive Intelligence ethical?
- What competitive Intelligence is not?
- What are the objectives of a competitive intelligence program?
- And what does competitive Intelligence mean?
What are competitive intelligence examples?
In conclusion, competitive intelligence is an essential tool for businesses of all sizes. By gathering information on the competition, companies can make informed decisions. One’s that will help them stay ahead of the curve. There are many uses of competitive intelligence. So it’s important to find one that fits your needs. This article asked what are competitive intelligence examples. And within that, there’s competitor intelligence example.
