Category: Competitive Intelligence

Introduction Sometimes marketing departments under pressure to learn about competitive threats, will request that their field staff gather CI without giving any direction. Whether they don’t want to risk turning off team members by imposing too many “rules” or are simply too busy juggling priorities, the outcome will be disappointing. I these situations, CI invariably becomes the flavour of the month versus providing ongoing strategic value. Factors Driving Failure Factors (and consequences) that sabotage what otherwise would be an effective communication process are: Data not is verified, resulting in incomplete, unclear and inaccurate findings. Data dumping occurs, making reading painfully time consuming and boring. Duplication of information creates the impression… Read More

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Introduction Executing a Pharma Competitive Intelligence study is anything but straight forward. It’s a combination of investigation, intuition, blending, synthesizing, quick study, obsessing and number crunching. Let’s spell out the steps  and time that goes into a typical pharma Competitive Intelligence study.   1. Finalize Questions (10 Hours) Not only do you need to put together a list of questions that are precise, but the assumptions behind the questions have to be tested as well (If, e.g., one of the questions is, “What do other national diabetes associations besides The Canadian Diabetes Association feel about a national diabetes strategy?”, you’ll have to check out if there are, in fact, other… Read More

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Introduction Are your team members are all over the map when gathering Competitive Intelligence?  Do they generate the same or similar information, start from scratch each time they gather Competitive Intelligence or provide unfiltered data that lacks insight? If so, then it’s time to formalize a Competitive Intelligence program. The following steps explain how.   Key Steps Start by identifying those negative perceptions (e.g. “Competitive Intelligence” is spying”) that will hinder any effort to set up the program. Create a Competitive Intelligence mission statement (e.g. “provide the right information, to the right people, at the right time, to make the right decision”, “fill information gaps that market research is unable to”,… Read More

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Mistake #1 – Assume Market Research Terminology Example – “Who is on your a customer panel?” Lesson – Competitive Intelligence uses a cross section of buyers, associations, key opinion leaders, former employees, customers, competitors, and any other respondent group who can help. There is no predetermined panel.   Mistake #2 – Base Sample Size on a Formula Example – “What will the margin of error be for this sample size?” Lesson – Most respondents are B2B, not consumer. What counts is not the number of interviews completed but the credibility of the respondent (i.e. title, knowledge level, insights).   Mistake #3 – Assign Probabilities Example – “What is the probability… Read More

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One of the biggest challenges in competitive intelligence is ensuring your findings are verifiable. In competitive intelligence we do not have the option, as with marketing research, where a large sample of respondents ensures you a high level of accuracy. Because you are targeting a small group of highly informed respondents, you would be very lucky to complete 20 to 30 competitive intelligence surveys, versus the hundreds you can in market research. Terms such as “corroboration” and “triangulation” are bantered around in competitive intelligence as ways to ensure the results are accurate and verifiable. But what lacks are actual examples to follow. With this in mind, let me share you… Read More

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I have only known a few Canadian companies that set-up a Competitive Intelligence (CI) department with a full time Competitive Intelligence manager or analyst. Instead, what many companies do is formalize key elements of their competitive intelligence process. They take a hands on approach where team members are assigned to carry out specific tasks under the watchful eye of a market research or business intelligence manager So What Are These Steps? Identify those issues that are currently making the competitive intelligence process less effective. Get agreement from team members on: The role of competitive intelligence process. Topics to monitor. Key intelligence questions that need to be answered. What essential sources… Read More

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An interesting thought. One idea that comes to mind is to measure the density of party lawn signs in closely run areas. In other words, take a sample of 10 blocks and count the number of lawn signs per party. We used the upcoming Ontario elections as an example, and focused on Richmond Hill (suburb just north of Toronto). Before the election, the lawn sign count was: 29% PC            –           52% Liberal     –           19% NDP However, the outcome on the 2018 Election Day was: 52% PC            –           28% Liberals   –           17% NDP         –           3% Greens So what does that tell you? Using their commanding lawn sign coverage as a predictor,… Read More

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