Market intelligence is information that relates to a company’s market, including trends, competitors, market development, and more. It is key to a business’s success, and as such it is crucial in developing effective plans for the future of your business. Keeping up with this research will allow for not just survival in the business world, but also growth and success.
Gathering data
Crucial to getting a handle on your market intelligence is gathering data from sources such as news sites, other company sites, social media, RSS feeds, and other secondary data sources. This data is all from sources and including information from outside your company.
Businesses can set up their own in-house department in charge of collecting data for examination, but they can also hire an outside source to gather the data for them. Companies such as NetBase Quid offer services gathering market intelligence for other companies in order to give businesses a diverse set of data from across their market.
NetBase Quid not only gathers this data, but also surveys consumer wants and needs, resulting in insights to help businesses understand current trends, connect with their consumer base, and better understand their competitors, thus giving them an upper hand in competition.
Advantages of market intelligence
One of the biggest advantages of keeping current on your business’s market is to allow you to be flexible with your business’s plans and products. Consumers’ tastes change dramatically from year to year, and your business needs to know what your customers want from you and your competitors.
Such research also gives you an idea of your business’s performance in the existing market. If you know what your competitors offer and what your customers want, this information can help you modify your offerings to better suit consumer tastes and outpace your competitor.
It can also give you a lot of information about what is and is not working for your competitor, giving you solid data on which to make decisions about your own products and offerings. If you know what your competitor is doing right, you can do it better. And if you know where your competition’s shortcomings are, you can work to provide better service in those areas.
This intelligence also improves customer retention numbers, since you keep an eye on what they want from you and from the market as a whole. Knowing that your customers are happy with what you provide lets you know you’re on the right track and can feel confident your customers will stay loyal to your brand.
Complexity of market intelligence
Gathering this much data can be a difficult, time-consuming process. While we have technology that helps make the process faster and easier than ever before, it is still important to ensure your company is getting as much information as possible. This is why many companies decide to hire outside companies like NetBase Quid to do the gathering for them.
Although the process of gathering data is complex, it is important for companies to continue the process, even if they have already experienced growth and success. Companies that continually study consumer behavior have an advantage over competitors who don’t.
Another reason companies hire researchers to gather intelligence for them is because there are so many different tools to use to find out current market trends. Some of these tools include
Focus Groups
Polls
Field Trials
Questionnaires
Forms
Mail Surveys
Because market intelligence is so important, your business should spend time to establish a reputable manner in which to research and gather data. Spending time establishing this research then using it to guide your future businesses decisions will bring your company success and stability.