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Chapter 10—Evaluating competitors
and what they’re doing

The final C is understanding the competitive landscape.

Competitive intelligence is tricky. It’s hard for companies to
know how much they should obtain, and it’s even harder to
actually obtain it. In my experience, larger companies are likely
to dedicate resources to competitive intelligence (CI). Smaller
companies like the idea but usually don’t have the resources
to commit to it. They argue that what the competition does
is irrelevant, because the company is pursuing a particular
direction and doesn’t need to respond directly to competitors.
Others believe they are small enough that they need to focus
on their clients alone, not the competition.

These arguments don’t hold up, because the point of CI isn’t to
copy the competition but rather to know what the competition
is doing so that you can do something different that aligns
with market needs and your company’s strengths. A company
needs to know what the competition is doing to maintain a
sustainable, competitive advantage.

What information about competitors should you gather?

Basic CI includes identifying who the competition is (both
direct and indirect competitors) and obtaining an overview
of their characteristics: product lines, distribution, pricing,
reputation, market share, business development process
and team, and any other parameters you identify as crucial.
You may not need to gather all of this information—select the
topics that are most relevant for the competition you face and
the marketing decisions you need to make.

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© 2012 Lisa Shepherd