Category of competitive intelligence pdf free download

Therefore, the competence of competitive intelligence has become essential for companies seeking to win in an increasingly competitive and challenging market. Porter explains that the movements of a competitive market are guided by five fundamental forces, they are:. The threat of new entrants: The threat of entry occurs when new entrants arise to compete for a piece of the market within a segment market share.

New entrants stimulate competition and can be a problem for an established company. The threat of entry may be reduced depending on the entry barriers that exist within an industry. For example, if a company is in a market that is highly regulated by the government, being able to adhere to this complex regulation is an entry barrier that, to be overcome, will require an investment of resources and time.

The intensity of rivalry among competitors: The greater the struggle between existing companies to achieve greater market penetration market share , the greater the difficulty of a competitive strategy. In this case, the battle takes place in several aspects: advertising money, competitions for price, research and development and quality of service.

For example, if a company lowers the final prices of its product to the consumer to gain more market share, other companies need to respond to this initiative to ensure its current penetration. That can, for example, sacrifice business profitability and cause industry-wide problems;. Substitute goods pressure: When products from other segments begin to compete for customers and their money, substitution can occur, changing the dynamics of the market. When, for example, the smartphone begins to impact the sale of laptops, we have a classic example of pressure from substitute products;.

Buyers Bargaining power: The more bargaining power the buyer has, the lower the profits of a certain segment. It can be done through the demand for lower prices, more quality and more options for customer choice.

Suppliers Bargaining power: The greater the bargaining power of suppliers to raise prices or reduce the quality of goods and services offered, the less control a company has over its market penetration and profitability.

By understanding these five forces, it is possible to understand the competitive dynamics of any market and thus plan the strategy according to what it asks for. In general, competitive strategies follow three paths:. Cost leadership: In this scenario, your business must have the lowest operating costs and costs per commodity in its segment.

It requires constant focus on cost reduction across all areas of the business, to ensure you have competitive pricing. When your positioning is based on the lowest price, you defend yourself from the risk of having a small portfolio of customers, and thus your dependence on your customers is diluted with a high volume of buyers. An example of a company that has adopted this model is Ford. Its founder, Henry Ford, became known for the invention of the production line assembly that allowed mass production at low cost.

Ford said you could have a Ford of any color, as long as it was black, to keep its process and its costs under control. One of the challenges of this model is the lack of customization and limitation in the portfolio of products offered;. Differentiation: In a strategy of differentiation, your company needs to have a unique product perceived by the market with superiority.

Your products can be differentiated by design, by creating your brand, by your customer service and sales model, or even by your unique technologies. One car manufacturer that invested in differentiation was Mercedes Benz, which was designed as synonymous with luxury vehicles unparalleled compared to the rest of the other manufacturers.

Differentiation acts by reducing the alternatives of consumer buying, and this causes that one can charge more for the products, thus generating more profits. The main challenges of this model are cost structures that are usually more expensive since the customer seeking differentiation requires greater investments in research and development of new technologies, marketing, and design Apple is also an excellent example of differentiation, both in design marketing ;.

Focus on a particular segment, product, or market: The ultimate competitive strategy is to choose a specific buyer profile, geographical area, or product niche that allows you to achieve scale gains. Pepsi, for example, is a case of a company that has managed to restructure itself by adopting a strategic focus. She cut her product lines to focus on only two segments: Drinks Pepsi Cola and snacks, snacks Frito-Lay. This focus has allowed the company to grow to become the second largest packaged food company in the world regarding revenues.

To predict competition movements and strategically plan based on their differences, Michael Porter proposed a model of analysis that has become one of the most popular tools for contemporary management. It is also based on the understanding of the market by four pillars:. Evaluating Future Goals: The first step is to understand the strategic objectives of your company and competitors.

Capital - Total shareholder capital and promoter stake. Download Competitive Intelligence Template 2 3. Product Comparison Learn about your competitor's product merits based on: Existing Features - Features that are present in your competitor's product and how you rank against it. Upcoming Features - Features that your competitors are building.

Pricing - Offer price of their products including discounts, individual pricing plans versus yours. Market Share - Product market share in geographies and customer segments. Marketing - Marketing efforts of your competitors.

Customers - Number of customers for each product that you compete against and their wallet shares. Your game plan - List down ways how you will compete with them. Download Competitive Intelligence Template 3 4.

Strategic Comparison Compare your business performance with your competition using a strategic intelligence analysis. Strengths: Core features - Core features of your competitor's products. Assets - It includes tangible machinery, property, facilities , and intangible assets trademarks, patents, goodwill that your competitors have. Management - Key executives in the competitor's company and how crucial they are to their chances. Will your competitor go under if they depart?

USP - Unique selling proposition of their product and what makes customers crave for it. Weaknesses: Shortcomings - Demarcate your deficiencies against your competitors. Competitor's strengths - What is your competition good at, e.

Opportunities: Customer segments - Newer customer segments that you have not explored yet. Business segments - Uncharted business territories that your company has not explored yet. Geographies - Newer countries or geographies where your product is not well-known. New technologies - Technologies can outsmart you faster than you think, more so if your competitors have identified them before you.

Knowing about them earlier can put you ahead. Negative customer reviews - Negative customer reviews and press coverage can cause you reputational damage. Download Competitive Intelligence Template 5 6. Marketing Intelligence The competitive marketing intelligence template explains how your marketing efforts stack up versus your competition. You can measure the following parameters: Target audience - Customer segment that your competitors are targeting.

Website - Landing pages that your competitor has including blogs, resources, investors, events, industries, etc. Traffic - Website traffic of your competitor. Marketing collateral - Marketing collateral themes including videos, white papers, and eBooks that they have. Sales Collateral - Sales collateral that sales reps at your competitors use to close deals. Awards — Awards that they have won. Download Competitive Intelligence Template 6 If you are looking for all these templates at one go, here is an entire collection of them.

In this section, we have outlined different sources of competitive analysis that give your business more advantage: 1. Company Intelligence Data It is general information that is available publicly, and all that you have to do is pick one reliable source.

Here is what you get from each source: Annual reports - All publicly traded companies publish annual reports. It contains images, graphs, management commentary, and detailed financials. SEC Filings - These are mandatory statements that public companies in the US need to file with Securities and Exchange Commission and are reliable sources of financial data since LinkedIn - While it began as a professional networking site that let you connect with co-workers and make connections with business associates, it now allows you to blog, post, and share information.

LinkedIn now even lets companies host their pages and use it as a medium to communicate to a broader audience. CompanyCheck - An online database of over 7 million UK based companies that lets you do unlimited searches including addresses, registration details, key financials, and director records.

Reuters - It is a Canada-based multinational mass media and information firm that traces its origin back to Reuters provides a summary and detailed information about a company's operating segments and financial metrics. GlassDoor - If you are a fan of user-created content as a source of company information, then GlassDoor should be on your list. It hosts information such as company reviews, interview questions, office pictures, salary details, and employment experience.

PrivCo - A rare source of information on private companies, PrivCo provides valuable data on deal history, key contacts, and ownership that are notoriously difficult to obtain online. World Market Intelligence - It provides qualitative information on valuation, funding, acquisitions, investors, and executives for around 75, companies. SGA Talent - This organization provides a phone-verified database on executives with names, titles, emails, direct dials as well as live links to their profiled executives.

Financial Data The best place to obtain financial data is the company's annual reports or exchange filings such as the SEC. Balance Sheet - For data on assets and liabilities.

Shareholders Equity - For data on share capital, reserves, net income and dividends. Cash Flows - For data on cash flow from operations, investing and financing. Statement of Fixed Assets - For data on capital expenditure, fixed assets, depreciation. Product Comparison Product feature intelligence templates can be created using data from your competitor's websites, case studies, digital brochures, product videos, and customer testimonials.

Here are a few: Pronto - A handy price comparison website for store owners. CamelCamelCamel - A price comparison tool for Amazon that tells you list price, current price, and average price. ShopMania - A price comparison platform that lets you see the deals and promotions within your country.

Google Shopping - A simple, yet useful platform for store owners looking to find competing products and compare their pricing. Businesses can even add their products to drive more traffic to their website. G2Crowd - A grid scoring system-based platform that helps business buyers shortlist and compare solutions.

It uses peer reviews to rank software that B2B buyers and analysts will find useful. Capterra - It connects buyers with appropriate vendors and lists products in about categories along with purchase guides, user reviews, and blogs. You could even ask their customers for this information using surveys and reward them if they are willing to part with this information.

Analyst Reports - There are research firms that specialize in such qualitative information. These companies publish their research on industry trends, top players, changing consumer tastes and preferences. Expert Interviews - There are experts such as independent market analysts, equity research analysts, and journalists who track industries, companies, executives, and customers.

Engaging with them in interviews could reveal insights into your competition. Shoppers on Amazon invariably read reviews before buying them. Events - Events, conferences, trade shows, seminars, symposiums, industry meetups are extremely instrumental when it comes to knowing the ground reality.

Get out of your office to understand your competitors' perception that people have. Ahrefs - This is a close competitor to SEMRush and is known to be a swiss-army knife for marketing warriors.

What started in as a backlink analysis tool, now lets you analyze behind-the-scenes work that your competitors have been doing such as backlink analysis, rank tracking, review keyword rankings positions, and content analysis. Moz - Before you start using Moz, we recommend you read this post by Rand Fishkin about its origins. It is a great tool to snoop on your competitors for their backlinks, content creation strategies, on-page optimization, and keyword ranking.

BuzzSumo - A monitoring and research tool that lets you find content that is highly shared by your competitors on social media know topic-based influencers, set alerts for brands, keywords, authors and domains. Not only do you know who is leading for a particular keyword, but you also learn new topics that you can go after.

Serpstat - Another tool that takes on the above-listed platforms is Serpstat. It gives you essential metric information such as keyword search volume, backlinks, filter toponyms, the cost for it, and difficulty level.

It depicts the demand-supply situation in each end-use market. A regional analysis of market share, development prospects, and key countries has been provided. The research entails a thorough examination of industry rivalry dynamics in order to provide consumers with a competitive advantage.

Similarly, the study's authors believe that this well-known record is …. North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of the World are among the primary geographies examined in the market study. Porter's five forces model is utilized in the study to examine competitive rivalry, market supplier and buyer positions, and new entrant prospects in the worldwide market.

Furthermore, the study provides information on prospective investment opportunities for existing and new industry participants. The full market report on Foldable Phone presents comprehensive …. This study provides a detailed analysis of the present worldwide Smart Faucets market in terms of demand and supply, as well as price trends now and in the next years.

The revenue, market share, profit margin, primary product portfolio, and SWOT analysis of global top companies are covered. This research examines the supply chain from the standpoint of the industry, including a process chart introduction, upstream major raw material and …. This study provides a detailed analysis of the present worldwide Organic Beverages market in terms of demand and supply, as well as price trends now and in the next years.