In the 1980s we had industrial espionage. Today, the Internet and the monitoring equipment are ample to give us insights on the activity of our competitors. By paying interest to the facts that your competitors and their buyers leave on the Internet you will be in a position to make better-informed strategic decisions. It is frequent to say that competition is beneficial, and can be a boom driver for a company. Any entrepreneur can (and should) study from the screw upsand successes of his competitors to improve his business at a decrease priceand in a quick time.
What is competitive intelligence?
Competitive intelligence refers to all the activities set up over the long term to monitoring the competitive environment of a company, in order to anticipate their next strategic actions or to deduce from them good commercial, technological and marketing practices.
Your competitive intelligence must allow to deduce a plan of action, which will impact the strategy of the company. Here are some examples of lessons learned from the day before.
Competitive intelligence meets many objectives:
- Anticipate the next offers of its competitors.
- Identify the strategic developments of its market (geographic development, marketing, recruitment, …).
- Position oneself in one’s market while remaining in line with price policies.
- Analyze the competitiveness and reputation of its brand.
But how to put in place a solid competitive intelligence?
Here are some ways to analyze your competitors in order to gain the most insights possible in your market.
- Define your competitors
- control profile of their employees
- Compare of financial services
- Surf on their Website
- Analyze the media coverage of your competitors
- Subscribe to their newsletter
