In this present competitive business, it is not enough to know how your operation works. Strategic decision-making highly depends on Competitive Intelligence (CI) research. It includes orderly compilation and review of information about competitors, market trends, customer attraction and new developments. This procedure unravels the strengths, weaknesses, strategies and competitors that may be undertaken. CI offers the actionable intelligence required to uncover opportunities, reduce the risk, and optimize your value position. When a strong CI function is put in place, strategic decisions are possible. This guide can help to explain what real steps you have to take to carry out competent competitive intelligence research and establish your business so that it can respond to competitor actions and remain firmly in the leading position.

Identify Key Competitors First

The first step towards competitive intelligence research is determining the key competitors. Research first on direct competition with other companies in your desired market who offer similar products or services and also related indirect competition. Competitor mapping should be done on the basis of market placement, overlapping of products/services and customer segments. To know the main and new competitors, you should apply to industry reports, social media analysis, customer reviews, and use SEO tools. A proper definition of this competition scene leads your further research to a good effect. When the competitors cannot be named properly, intelligence becomes unfocused.

Gather Intel via Multiple Sources

Compile competitive intelligence thorough collecting of information in a coherent manner and across different sources. Follow websites, official releases and financial statements of competitors. Examine their marketing, social media posting and customer reviews pages. Monitor the patent applications, job posting to detect any strategic changes. Market trends can be found in industry reports using news aggregators. Be frontline by communicating personally with your sales people and with customers. The use of different sources creates the possibility of triangulation of data, eliminates bias based on the use of one channel to design the competitive picture and gives a complete and bias-free picture of the contest.

Analyze Competitor Strengths and Weaknesses

Determine the major competitors. Look at their product lines, their pricing strategies, their market shares, their customer satisfaction, their marketing power, their ability to operate and their financial standings. Specify strengths of documents, e.g. excellent technology or high brand loyalty. Determine weak areas i.e. bad customer service, a small variety of products, and negative online reception. Use the information of competitors, her financial statements, reviews by customers, industry publications, and social media as unbiased data sources. The analysis will yield results that can be applied in regard to competitor positions.

Uncover Market Trends and Opportunities

Competitive intelligence studies analyse in a systematic manner the competitors and industry in interest in an attempt to identify emerging opportunities and trends in the market. Monitor competitor actions: the activities they undertake like the launch of their products, price changes, advertising activities and customer responses. Track releases in the industry publications and reports, changes in the regulations. Examine this information to pinpoint the emerging trends, customer needs which are not acceded to, and vacuums the competitors are not addressing. Knowing and where competitors excel and have a weak spot can also result in strategic positioning. On-going data collection converts the data into usable wisdom which strategically informs how to take advantage of the opportunities identified.

Apply Insights to Outperform Rivals

Research on competitive intelligence gives you critical information about the competitors. Use these insights methodically and derive strategic gain. Study the strategies, strengths, weaknesses and market dynamics of competitors. Take action: modify your pricing, speed up the rate of product improvement to overcome competitors weaknesses, focus your marketing on letting people know what unique value you have to offer, and focus on serving populations that are underserved. Using this evidence-based practice, active decisions can be made. Predict actions of your competitors, use their weaknesses, and secure the marketplace. Outperformance can be achieved through consistent performance in light of proven insights. 

Conclusion

The strategic business decisions require competitive intelligence research. Organize your intelligence goals, collect information about your competitors in primary and secondary sources and compile studies to detect trends, strengths, and weaknesses. Use these findings in translating them to product development and marketing and operational changes. The constant adoption of this process within your business will help you predict the changes in the market and respond to its competitors. Keep ethical standards during the data collection process. Continuous, systematic competitive intelligence will go straight to the strategy, both reduce risks and improve your position in the market. Also decorate this discipline to maintain competitive ability.