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There is fierce competition in the market and everyone wishes to beat the competitor to retain or increase their customer share. The aim is to widen the customer base. They want the buyers to think of their products first. It is here that competitor intelligence comes into the picture. It is the tool that helps a business know about its competitor’s strategies, strengths and weaknesses. With competitors’ intelligence, you get information that enables a business to sync its marketing and product strategies.
The main aim of a competitive intelligence program is to make sure that the business is aware of the external forces in the market as and when they emerge. It allows them to respond quickly to the opportunities and risks.
What is Competitor Intelligence?
For any business, Competitor price intelligence plays a crucial role as it offers information on competitors which helps in developing marketing strategies, creating product roadmaps, product positioning and messaging. Over time, businesses are hiring dedicated professionals for competitive intelligence roles. Experts say that competitor intelligence professionals should be one of the first roles a small business should plan to fill the vacancy.
It is because the teams are performing competitive intelligence each day whether they know it or not and even if they don’t have a dedicated professional for it yet. For example, the sales team looks forward to increasing the sales numbers. This means they have to find information on who the buyers choose when they don’t choose you i.e. your competitors. It is here that you need a competitive intelligence program.
Example of Competitor Intelligence
The results of competitive intelligence affect us each day in the form of the prices we pay, products we buy, and the marketing we consume. What most businesses want from competitive intelligence is higher win rates, strong road maps, and better product launches. But many people are not clear about how it actually happens. Here’s a look at some examples of competitor intelligence around us:
1. Marketing Teams
Wendy’s is known for their sarcastic tweets made at the expense of its competitors. The approach is not suitable for everyone but one likes it or not, such tweets do make an impact. It is highly likely that Wendy’s have full-time social media managers that monitor the competitor accounts so that not a single opportunity is missed to hit back with humor.
Even if you are not equipped well, it is important to keep an eye on what the competitors are sharing on social media to spot the trends. You must see how their messages and posts resonate the audience. Social posts are primary indicators of changes in price, new features, etc.
2. Tech Startups
Startups make for a great competitors price intelligence example because they use the information for disrupting markets. Traditional companies have a higher budget, superior technology, and the best resources along with data. Startups can outperform big companies in particular niche sectors.
Focusing on a specific field and reacting or adapting quickly to competitor intelligence insights helps in understanding the client’s pain points in a better way and delivering better solutions.
Airbnb is an example of how they leveraged technology, consumer insights, and socio- demographic changes to disrupt the hotel industry. When there is a need which is not met, it serves as an opportunity to capture that part of the market even if that means competing with big brands.
3. Sports Teams
The sports industry is known to be one of the most competitive fields across the globe. Billy Beane took the baseball team Oakland Athletics to an unparalleled level in the league despite working under the lowest budgets. Yet another example of competitive intelligence is the football world teams such as Southampton FC and Sevilla FC miracles each year, regardless of the budget.
The reason for them outperforming the budgets is that they excel in getting new data and insights and distributing the information among management teams. It enables them to attract as well as maintain top talent.
4. Airline Ticket Price
The airline industry is the right place to understand the competitor intelligence meaning and how to use it strategically. Airline companies change the prices of flight tickets on the basis of external information. If an airline company increases its prices for a specific route, others will do it too quickly.
Customer information is used for making price adjustments on individual level. Identifying and tracking particular users helps flight companies know when a potential passenger is repeatedly looking for the same flight details. Knowing that a customer is interested in flying on a specific date, the airline companies can increase the price for that customer.
It can be done by any business. Especially in times of recession and inflation, you can know what the competitors are doing with their pricing- have they increased it, decreased it, or offered a promotion? You can start with monitoring the competitor pricing making sure that the data is real-time and the sales team is informed of the changes.
History of Competitive Intelligence
Earlier, price intelligence & competitor monitoring were undercover. Before the internet came into the picture, competitive intelligence relied on the human intelligence model. There were people who framed themselves as customers and spoke to the competitors to gain insight into their products and pricing. It was their way of gaining competitor intelligence.
However, the practice sounded not fair ethically. Concerns regarding ethics led to a shift in this model and paved the way for the internet. Now, competitor intelligence platforms resort to market research which is focused on their core competitors. Having even a little competitive advantage over these competitors means winning hundreds of deals which amounts to significant ROI in the long run.
Use Cases of Competitor Intelligence
1. Sales and Revenue Enablement
The main aim of a business is to bring revenue to the business. Whether they want to improve customer satisfaction or add new features to their products, tracing the line back sufficiently will help arrive at increased revenue which acts as a primary motivator. It is the sales team that battles with the competitors each day. The sales team’s ability to convince those prospects depends on how the product and brand are positioned against the competitors.
Enabling the sales team will help them fetch new deals along with solid objection handling is one of the major benefits of competitor intelligence.
2. Product Positioning and Messaging
Marketing teams can also benefit from competitor price intelligence solution. CI helps identify what you are doing best as a business and where you fall short against competitors. It helps you identify your competitive advantage and how to stop your rivals from imitating.
Having an idea of the competitive landscape helps a business choose the battles wisely. It is important to choose the battles where you are in a position to win instead of competing against the competitors that are well established. Avoid competing in markets that are not similar to yours.
Competitive intelligence offers guidance on where a business can stand in the competition and influence the positioning of the product, messaging, and value proposition. It also impacts the product development roadmaps. CI program unveils new competitor developments so that you are in a good position to react when it’s time to reposition.
3. Content Strategy
Competitive intelligence can have an impact on your content marketing strategy as well. Keyword research done by content managers is in itself a type of competitor intelligence as they are trying to identify and reverse the competitor’s success.
They keep an eye on the content that is performing well in your niche and find openings in the competitive landscape for exploiting and assisting the strategic business decisions. The insights you find will help the content writer to speak about the competitors confidently. Competitive intelligence helps in identifying different types of content that a business might wish to give a shot.
Take the Reins of Your Business with PriceIntelGuru’s Competitor Intelligence
Competitive intelligence is crucial for the success of a business in diverse industries. Great examples and use cases can be found anywhere right from the financial sector to tech startups and sports. Organizations that are outperforming their rivals can do it by mastering the task of collecting, interpreting, and distributing competitive intelligence.
With increasing awareness regarding the benefits of our competitor intelligence services, companies are depending on automation with CI tools to save time and make sure that nothing is missed. There are various CI tools in the market and you can choose the one based on your budget, features, and specific needs.
What are you for? Now is the time to go big! Book a demo with PriceIntelGuru today.