The business world is quickly becoming more and more high-tech. It seems like there is always some new technique or form of data that modern companies simply can’t ignore if they want to compete at a high level. While this advance normally takes the form of something completely new to the business environment, sometimes it simply involves a modern imagining of a tried and true practice or principle. A good example of this is the currently evolving conception of competitive intelligence.
The notion of competitive intelligence is not a new one at all. It was more or less standardized in the 1970s, but the research that supports the practice goes back decades before that. This concept involves the collection of data regarding customers, products, and potential competing companies within an industry or business sector so that decision-makers within a given company can make forward-thinking strategy decisions that would not be clear otherwise. In other words, it is a system by which a company gathers information that is not immediately available to the general public to gain an advantage over others in the market.
Competitive intelligence may sound like an overly technical idea, but it is simple to understand in practice. For example, a restaurant could employ a simple competitive intelligence strategy by keeping data on competitor’s prices, paying attention to commodity prices that affect their supply chain, and using customer surveys to get a look at their own practices from a diner’s point of view. All of this would provide important information that could help the restaurant’s management competitively benchmark themselves against other similar restaurants and ultimately make better long-term decisions. An important aspect is that all of this data collection must be done within the bounds of the law and professional ethics.
In the modern age of the internet and big data, competitive intelligence can be utilized in ways that would have been impossible even a few short years ago. Social media engagement can instantly provide massive troves of data regarding consumer demographics and their differing tastes and preferences in the form of user data as well as direct customer feedback in the form of comments. In addition to tools like this that already exist, there have also been new software products in recent years that were designed from the ground up to break down big data architecture into data that can be used for the specific purpose of gaining these types of insights. These programs are so new and so powerful that the full implications of their use is only now becoming realized.
NetBase Quid is a great option to help your company with their competitive intelligence strategies. They will evaluate your brand competitors to expand your view of market trends and consumer behavior, identify competitive risks and challenges, uncover new opportunities, and inform your strategies in order to give you the competitive edge that you need to thrive in the modern business environment. NetBase Quid is a leader in consumer and market intelligence that is utilized by hugely successful companies such as Coca-Cola, WalMart, and Warner Brothers. NetBase Quid also has an official partnership with Twitter to ensure that your company will always have its finger on the pulse of the latest user data trends and patterns.