Competitive intelligence technology is a systematic and organized process of collecting and analyzing information about competitors. It includes several key steps that help to more effectively understand the actions and strategies of competitors:
State the problem and the goal
Competitive intelligence always begins with a clear statement of the problem and the definition of goals. The following questions will need to be answered:
What do you plan to change rich people data package in your production, management, organizational and other business processes?
What development picture do you see for your company? What are your long-term goals?
What specific results do you plan to achieve in the near future and in the long term?
What weaknesses in your business could slow down its growth or pose risks?
What information about your competitors do you need to gather to make more informed strategic decisions?
What tasks within competitive intelligence are of priority importance and should be solved first?
Identify your competitors
At this stage, we determine the range of competitor companies that have parameters similar to yours. Such competitors usually:
They operate in the same business segment.
Compete for a similar audience or market niche.
Offer products or services that are similar to yours or have roughly the same characteristics.
They operate in the same territorial markets (especially relevant for offline businesses and companies interacting with clients in person).
Have similar indicators such as market share, range of products or services, company size, status and level of integration.
To identify competitors, you can search for products or services that are similar to yours using search engines, for example, perform a request like “buy similar products in Moscow, if you, for example, sell cosmetics in the capital.
Stages of competitive intelligence
Identify your strongest and most direct competitors
To identify direct and strong competitors, find companies similar to yours in geography, target audience, products and prices. To do this, use a search engine and look for sites in the TOP-10 for queries related to your activity.
For offline trading and finding competitors close to your location, you can use mapping services such as Yandex Maps, 2gis or Google Maps. And to identify competitors in online trading, it is more convenient to use product aggregators such as Yandex.Market or Google Shopping, which collect offers from different sellers.
Identify optimal sources of information
First, identify all available sources of data, then filter and leave only those that you consider reliable, excluding questionable ones. Remember that the more sources, the more complete the information will be.
Collect and organize data
It is necessary to record all data in an organized manner, preferably in the form of tables or detailed analysis for each competitor, divided into different categories such as pricing, data security, strategy, product and service range, customer interaction, and other important aspects.
Analyze the information
Evaluation of customer data is a separate process. Various methods can be used to analyze such information, including SWOT analysis, Porter's method, and specific approaches developed by the Federal Antimonopoly Service.
Draw conclusions and improve your strategy
Once the information has been analyzed, a marketing plan should be developed with clear goals, a description of the planned activities to achieve them, setting targets and determining the deadlines for their implementation. It is also important to set key performance indicators (KPIs), assign responsible employees and distribute responsibilities between them.
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