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Competitor Research


Do you know

  • What your competitors are planning?
  • How they are doing?
  • The prices of their products?
  • Their R&D activities?
  • Their management style and culture?
  • Their sales tactics?
  • Their financial capabilities...?

Do you really know - or are you depending on what you've read in the trade journals or heard through the grapevine?

Our competitor research services are aimed at helping you find the answers to questions like this and more. We offer both primary and secondary research aimed at finding the truth.

There is a lot more material available from secondary sources than can be found on Google. Much of this is hidden and can't be found using conventional search engines - including information held on deep-web databases that are missed by most search engines.

  • We'll check news archive databases globally, looking for items mentioning your competitor, their products, people or technologies.
  • We'll scan the industry and regional press world-wide for relevant mentions.
  • We'll check patent and trademark databases, company filing records, planning applications, European Union and UK government records and more.

We are known as experts in Internet and Online searching - frequently leading workshops on finding competitive intelligence using online sources. However to obtain really meaningful intelligence requires primary research. Whereas secondary research gives background and suggests possibilities it is the primary research sources that can tell you what competitors are thinking and planning - their future goals, beliefs, strategies and assumptions.

We'll carry out in-depth interviews with customers, suppliers, ex-competitor employees, industry experts, trade journalists and often even your competitor to find the answers to what you need to know about your competitors. (We don't trawl through dustbins and trashcans though. We view this as unethical behaviour. We do adhere to the SCIP code of ethics and won't use illegal or unethical methods for gathering either primary or secondary source information).

The aim is to anticipate. To enable you to anticipate what your competitors will do next, so that you can preempt them - so that you can outwit them - so that you can be first. Ultimately, so that you can be the best!

Contact us about our competitive intelligence research services

or click here to contact us about any of our CI services!

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.


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: Thursday, May 5, 2011

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