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AWARE Competitive Intelligence Strategy, Training, Research Services for Competitive & Marketing Intelligence

AWARE: UK competitive intelligence consultants offering competitor analysis and research services, competitive intelligence training & workshops and CI and marketing strategy consultancy.

 
 
About Us > Help & Support > FAQs > Question 1: Finding Basic Competitor Intelligence

Marketing & Competitive Intelligence FAQ
Finding Basic Competitor Intelligence


We are currently in the process of performing our market research for a new short-term investment firm that we wish to establish and we were wondering if you may be able to provide us with some insight regarding how to obtain specific data on our competitors. For example, we are looking for general business information such as the year established, number of employees, annual sales, market share, annual growth rate, and budget information.

Most of this information is in the public domain, and it should be fairly easy to collect for most markets. In many countries there is a legal obligation to file this kind of information. In most of Europe, for example, annual sales and number of employees can be found in the company accounts of all but the smallest businesses. In the US, public companies file similar data via the SEC and this data is freely available at the SEC web site (http://www.sec.gov). Even where such information is not available from company registries (for example Companies House, in the UK), company information agencies such as Dun & Bradstreet usually obtain such data as part of their overall business reporting operations. Thus D&B reports typically include year established, number of employees, annual sales over 3 years (allowing you to get a growth rate) and more.

Market share information will need to be calculated using knowledge of the total sales of all your competitors – although there are frequently detailed market and industry reports available which include estimates of total market size. From this, the market share of any individual company can often be estimated. Such reports are held in the major business libraries and can usually be purchased online from the producer. It is also possible to download selected parts from host database companies such as Factiva, Lexis-Nexis or Dialog.

The only questionable information is budget information - which may be internal to the company and not readily available. (I'm assuming you mean internal departmental budgets or purchasing/investment budgets). It is, however, sometimes possible to assess investment budgets by identifying purchases and investments over a fixed period using details held in the cash flow statements and balance sheets filed in the publicly available sources.

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Quick Tip: Consumers

Quick Tip

Consumers are statistics. Customers are people. (Stanley Marcus)

How do you view your customers?

Do you see them as simply profit-streams, or customer reference numbers or do you genuinely care about them. If the former, how do you ensure that your customers stay happy with your services, when you don't recognise their individuality and humanity.

Just think how you would feel if you were treated like a number, especially if you could switch to a competitor who made you feel special!

 

Books - Competitors (Fahey)

Recommended Book

Competitive-Intelligence-in-the-UK
Competitive Intelligence: Gathering, Analysing and Putting it to Work
Christopher Murphy
Buy UK £ or US$

Read our review of this book

If you are interested in learning about competitive intelligence with a UK / European focus then this book is for you. Most books on CI are written by US authors and take a US perspective. They fail to note the significant differences between what is available in the US and Europe and the UK. For example, in the US the US Freedom of Information Act is key for finding a lot of information. Such legislation has only recently been enacted in the UK and the type of information available is more limited. In contrast, financial information is much easier to obtain in the UK than the US. Murphy's book redresses the balance and fills a gap in guiding the CI newcomer on how to gather CI in Europe.

One of the best sections is a detailed examination of the sources and types of financial CI information that can be obtained within the UK. In fact I think this is unique. Of all the CI books I've read - none give anything like the same depth on this crucial topic.

For a thorough review of this book check out FreePint's book review.

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For more recommendations visit our book selection.

 

Competitive Intelligence Training

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Finding Competitive Intelligence using Online Sources

AWARE consultants are experts at discovering competitor information online and have developed a market-leading course on Finding Competitive Intelligence using Online Sources. This course has been given as an in-house course to numerous companies across industries (IT, publishing, telecoms, chemicals....) and countries, as well as publicly at SCIP annual and European conferences, the London International Online Information Conferences and other similar events.

The workshop has received high praise for its unique approach to finding competitive intelligence on the Internet. The workshop - available as a half-day or full day in-house training course - teaches attendees how to find actionable competitive intelligence rather than just present a list of sources that quickly date. Like all AWARE's in-house training, the course can be customised to focus on industry or competitive area.

For more information on this workshop and how it can help you become a more effective Internet researcher check out our Competitive Intelligence Training and ask us about our courses on finding CI information.

 

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Our services in competitive intelligence research, competitor analysis and CI training will help you integrate and use competitive and marketing intelligence in your business, strategic and marketing planning processes. Whether you need research, advice or training, our mission is to support our clients so that they achieve their growth objectives.

For the best UK & European competitive intelligence and competitor analysis services, contact us today.

AWARE Phone numbers: 0845 430 9125 (International: +44 20 8954 9121). Fax: 0845 430 9126 (International: +44 20 8954 2102)

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Last page / site update: Wednesday, June 9, 2010

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