What is Competitive Intelligence?
Competitive intelligence is a key ingredient in a robust market intelligence strategy that aims to bolster marketing performance, increase sales and improve product strategy. It’s the systematic collection of data from a multitude of sources in the ongoing analysis of the competition
Competitive Intelligence helps you to stay up to date with your competitors and your market, and inform strategic business decisions. A thorough understanding of your competition’s strengths and weaknesses will enable you to fine tune your approach to your market and capture the attention of consumers and increase your brand’s share of voice.
3 Things You Need to Know
- First Movers are brands that gain a competitive advantage, being the first to bring a new product or service to market. They typically build strong customer loyalty and establish powerful brand recognition.
- Learning from a competitor’s success instead of reinventing the wheel is smart, as is learning from their mistakes.
- Competitive intelligence can discover emerging trendsand white spaces for your next big product or opportunity.
Fast Facts
- Crayon’s 2020 State of Competitive Intelligence Survey found that 48% of respondents say their industry has become much more competitive over the past three years.
- Companies that update their competitor intelligence on a weekly basis are 2x more likely to see positive revenue impacts than those who update less frequently.
- 40% of marketing and sales teams believe data science driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning is foundational to their success.
What is “Competitive Intelligence” for?
The aim of competitive intelligence is to gain insight into your competition’s brands, products and consumer engagements to make informed decisions. Keeping your finger on the pulse of the competition coupled with consistent trend analysis puts your brand in position to take advantage of gaps in the market before anyone else notices.
Use competitive intelligence to:
- Conduct competitive analysis
- Drive new business pitches
- Measure brand perception and share of voice
- Map customer reviews
How to gain better results with Competitive Intelligence?
Everything from marketing, product development, influencer identification and investment strategy can benefit from a comprehensive understanding of your competition’s successes and missteps.
- Understand not only what otherbrands are getting right, but what they’re getting wrong as well.
- Insights into the competition are evolving 24/7 through social media and online news publications. This creates an absolute need for brands to keep tabs on the competition or fall behind
- Operate on the presumption that the competition is monitoring you. Therefore, you need to know as much as you can about your competition so you can put that information to work in everything you do.
Competitive Intelligence Resources
California Pizza Kitchen Netnography
Founded in 1985, California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) is a leading casual dining chain featuring hearth-baked pizzas, including the original BBQ Chicken Pizza, and a broad selection of pastas, salads, appetizers, soups, sandwiches and desserts. CPK premium pizzas are also...
Wegmans Netnography
Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. is a 77-store supermarket chain with stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, and Maryland. The family-owned company, founded in 1916, employs over 41,000 people, had 2010 sales of $5.6 billion, and is one of the largest...
Kroger Netnography
Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, Kroger is the nation’s largest traditional grocery retailer, employing more than 334,000 associates who serve customers in 2,461 supermarkets and multi-department stores in 31 states. The company operates under two dozen local banner...