This process captures and analyses information about all the competitors and helps you drive strategically. Executing a competitor analysis requires research, planning and introspection. It must be understood that CI forms the benchmark for companies trying to know their place and efficacy of competitors' products or general market positioning.
Competitive intelligence (CI) captures and analyses information about all the competitors in the market and helps you execute strategically thought-about plans. Executing a competitor analysis requires research, planning, and introspection. It must be understood that CI forms the benchmark for companies trying to know their place in the industry and the efficacy of competitors' products or general market positioning.
The two main types of competitive intelligence are:
- Strategic Competitive Intelligence
- Tactical Competitive Intelligence
Digitization has redefined the way we perceive intelligence in all walks of life, which has paved the way for the increasing adoption of competitive intelligence and other advanced intelligent technologies by businesses around the world. Growing popularity of automation in business is also expected to drive the demand for competitive intelligence solutions and tools among SMEs as well as large enterprises in the future.
- In February 2021, Momentum, a leading growth consulting organization, announced the launch of its competitive intelligence service that provides a robust objective analysis of a company’s competitive surroundings that could influence a company’s success potential.
The prospect of creating highly intelligent business solutions through the integration of advanced technologies is also expected to amplify the application scope of competitive intelligence solutions in several industry industries.
- Crayon, a renowned competitive intelligence platform, and Primary Intelligence, a leading company in win-loss analysis, announced an integration to embed win-loss insights directly into CI deliverables in January 2023. This integration allows revenue teams to instantly view the insights that they need to win more and achieve their goals.
Gaming companies are deploying competitive intelligence tools to improve player retention and player engagement in the increasingly competitive industry where user acquisition is becoming a serious issue for multiple game studios.
- GameRefinery, a company owned by Liftoff Mobile Inc., announced the launch of a competitive intelligence tool to monitor and track trends in live events of popular mobile games in March 2023. The Live Event Tracker can be used to analyze different trends and gain a better understanding of player behaviour to improve engagement and user experience.
Why Should You Choose Competitive Intelligence Over Business Intelligence?
Business intelligence deals with the software and tools that are required for the strategic planning process of an organization, whereas, competitive intelligence is more focused on understanding rival companies to make better informed business decisions. An organization should opt for competitive intelligence to gain an edge over its competitors in the market and strategize accordingly.
CI helps a business in preparing launch of a new product, making a cunning yet strategic move or entering a new market.Competitive Intelligence also focusses on some of the important factors like:
Pricing: -
It is important to know where your product stands in the market. Getting information about the price at which other industries are selling, will create a huge difference in the sale of your product. Regularly comparing product price creates a better market.
Website Design: -
“Great designs have never failed to impress a wise man.”
Make sure your website attracts and displays all the necessary information on it. Creating a unique brand or regularly emphasizing your website not only changes the spirit of your company but also gathers views.
Search Marketing: -
SEO can work wonders while searching for a product. Missing keywords can pull your company down on the search list. A major competitor might have pushed you back only due to a couple of missing keywords.
Why is Competitive Intelligence important in the world of business?
The world is constantly getting baked under the pressure of competition and new changes are emerging. To stand firmly and mark your existence here, its important to take smart moves. Understanding your competitors and anticipating their next move can help you in taking a correct decision.
Company Intelligence (CI) is an ethical method and should be conducted under the terms of open source data. Fortunately, there are a lot of resources available, most useful of which are the web tools that gives you access to a database of companies in the UK or elsewhere.
Starting with the basic information on company structure to financial reports, few of the sites allows you to download documents for a small fee. There are others which act almost as a professional network and gives you a summary of the company’s public face.This picture clearly shows how CI benefits business and industries. From getting correct information about your competitors to knowing about rivals and customers, CI clarifies it all.
There are few questions that CI answers for us:
What plans are your competitors making?
Learning about the plans of your major competitors will give you an insight into the profits you will be earning. Plans of your rivals can be easily tracked if you bring CI into action. Remaining aware and concerned will help you decide the course of action and this in turn will take you a step ahead.
Where should your company be in the next 10 years?
Competitive intelligence scans the data of how well a company is running currently. Overviewing and forecasting information, helps it determine of where the company will stand in the next 10 years. Digging information about your rivals and mapping the operational patterns gives you an idea about the trend being followed.
What are the types of risks and opportunities?
When we talk about opportunities, CI eases the process of decision making. It does consider the minting profits but also keeps in mind the betterment of workplace and employees. Companies can chart out the strategies and take actions against risks. CI can keep a track of how rival companies are operating or behaving with their employees. Planning is a key step to be adopted. Backlashing is common in business sectors; therefore, one should always adapt an Eagle’s eye.
Moving forward from the questions, there are different wins that you can achieve if CI has been adapted in the business.
Competitive Intelligence for the Win
CI should not be misinterpreted as a complementary business strategy but should be adopted as a priority. Accurate strategies must be equipped so that your business can better align with the supplies, needs and demands of the consumers.
A successful method or price-to-win strategy is not about pricing your products below your competitors’; rather; it’s about setting and positioning your solution as the first choice to be stroked by the consumers. It should provide true value and must remain at the mountains’ top.
The process finds the position at the spot where profits, choice, strategy and competition align. The goal must always be to address the need for improvement. Though CI helps a company in n-number of ways, some of which we discussed above yet different industries have different challenges and tactics. Therefore, companies must implement the basics of CI in a manner that suits them or the best it needs.
