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Marketing & Competitive Intelligence FAQ
Compiling Competitor Profiles
I've been asked to perform an evaluation on one of our major competitors and have never done this before. I've gathered a ton of information and now need some guidance as to how to put it all together. Would you have an example of a format I could use for a competitor evaluation?
From your question, I am not sure that you are following the best approach.
There are two ways of doing a competitor evaluation.
- A shotgun approach - where you go and collect everything available including the name of the chairman's wife and children and which schools they go to. This will give you a ton of information - most of which will be irrelevant. (Yes - believe it or not, we have been asked to find family information such as this. Apart from the fact that obtaining it and passing it on would generally break European data protection regulations, such information is highly unlikely to provide intelligence that would help business decision making - which is the purpose of collecting competitive intelligence. It is valid to collect information on key management so that behavioural profiles can be created - but this does not usually need to include detailed family information such as schools, spouse details, etc.).
- A targeted approach. You need to formulate what is often called a KIT - or Key Intelligence topic. Identify what you need to know about a particular competitor, break it down into a series of key questions, and go and find that information only. As new needs come up, you will formulate new KITs. Over time you will develop a very targeted and custom based knowledge on the individual competitor, its approach, behaviour patterns and strategy. This can then be used to feed back into your own strategies to formulate counter moves.
The second approach makes much more efficient usage of time and will be more useful for management as it gives them what they need without the requirement to sift through that ton of data. Of course the ton of data is important as it gives background information, and can help in spotting new trends and anomalies that may signify a change in strategy for the competitor or confirm other information. However when asked to do an evaluation the first question should be what is the purpose. (If an acquisition then the information will be different to looking at new product ideas or new market moves).
However as you already have lots of data, you should not just throw it away as what may seem irrelevant now may be important later. One approach is to construct a detailed profile of the competitor. A form I use as a guideline breaks down the major types of information that you are likely to collect or need on your competitors as follows:
- Basic information such as location and core business.
- Background information
- Financial assessment
- Marketing & sales capabilities
- Operational details
- Miscellaneous aspects
- Key news stories / recent events
- Strength & weakness assessment
- Strategy evaluation
- Threat evaluation & outlook
I use this as an aide-memoir for everything on a particular competitor. It is essentially a brief summary of all the essentials - so that you have everything in one place. Its purpose is to save you from having to look up the key points and search through several documents – whether held in a hard-copy format or computerised.
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Quick Tip: Deadly Sins
The Seven Deadly Business Sins
1) Greed - Are you satisfied with what you've achieved or are you always seeking more, and never consolidating and strengthening what you currently have?
2) Opinion - Do you ever dismiss ideas without analysis? There have been many opportunities that were missed because opinionated management failed to see the wider picture.
3) Routine - Just because something worked in the past does not mean that it will continue to work in the future.
4) Emotion - Is the reason for your decision based on analysis, or emotion? Many managers are driven by their fears and desires without ever stopping to justify the reason for their fear or hatred or love. Often these prove to be unjustified and unjustifiable.
5) Ego - Do you make decisions because you are the cleverest, the biggest, the market leader? Are you obsessed with your own image and abilities? Many leaders in the past also thought that they were invincible. A quick look at history shows that they were not!
6) Success - Over-confidence is dangerous and can blind you to competitors seeking to emulate your success.
7) Hope - Can you justify your reasons why things will improve, or are you just burying your head in the sand, and refusing to see reality?
These seven deadly business sins are based on some work by Ben Gilad, one of the foremost Competitive Intelligence experts. Businesses need to understand their blindspots - what they would rather not see, and work to remove them. Each of these seven sins is a type of blindspot if it dominates the thinking within the company. It's OK to have each to a certain degree, balanced by the others. (All businesses need to believe in themselves, have hope, aim to make money....). The problem is when one aspect starts to govern the way things are done in the company, preventing rational and logical thought.
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