All You Need to Know About Market Intelligence

Data that a company gathers about the market it now works in or wants to enter is referred to as market intelligence. The company may determine its target market group, penetration, and overall opportunity with the help of this data.

Marketing intelligence typically includes competitor intelligence, which focuses on details about a company’s particular competitors. Due to its indication of current market share, price points, and consumer trends, this information may assist executives in making well-informed business decisions.

Business intelligence and market intelligence are very different.

Businesses can see a wide picture of their target market thanks to market intelligence. Conversely, business intelligence deals with internal data like company sales, productivity, procedures, and other such data. Business and market data are being combined more and more to give executives a more comprehensive understanding of their target market.

4 Applications of Market Intelligence

Market Analysis

It is common for small firms to want to know how they are doing in particular areas. Consequently, companies that provide secondary research reports, such as Nielsen or Forrester Research, might be consulted.

A crucial component of market statistics is market share, which indicates to a company how much of the market it controls in terms of both money and units. Entrepreneurs who own small businesses can also use the data to see whether there are prospects for growth in specific markets.

Comparative Data

Another application of marketing intelligence is competitive information. Business leaders frequently utilise periodicals, newsletters, industry reports, and firsthand observations to learn more about their competitors. They might also gather pamphlets from rival companies or browse their websites.

Small businesses use competitive intelligence to learn more about the strategies, organisational alterations, and investments made by their competitors. They may even purchase competitive products in order to investigate alternative features and technologies. To determine the demographics of their target audience, marketers may also examine competitor data.

Internally Utilised Databases

Marketing managers also make advantage of customer market intelligence. More than just a customer’s name, address, and email address are included in this data. For instance, a marketing manager might own a wealth of data regarding important customers, including average age, income, level of education, and average spending per visit.

By doing this, companies can create profiles of typical customers that they can use to target people who are not customers.

Competitive Analysis (CA)

Small organisations regularly employ competitive intelligence to do SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analyses. When comparing a company’s strengths and weaknesses against those of major competitors, a SWOT analysis is frequently employed. It then makes use of these benefits to find different commercial opportunities.

For instance, a plumbing company might have stronger distribution networks. Then, it may make use of those retail locations and showrooms as distribution channels to boost product visibility. Comparably, a small company that takes great satisfaction in providing exceptional customer service can highlight this on its website, pamphlets, and other printed materials.

Importance of Market Intelligence

Since market information forms the basis of all marketing initiatives, it is essential to the success of any business. Data collection, analysis, and application are necessary for market intelligence.

With the help of market intelligence, you can improve your comprehension of consumer opinions and market demands, obtain pertinent data in real time, boost your chances of upselling, lower your risk, grow your market share, and obtain a competitive advantage. These benefits are essential to any company’s success, and one of the most crucial elements in putting sound business plans into action is market knowledge.

Take into consideration the following factors to gain a deeper understanding of why market intelligence is crucial for all organisations.

• To have a deeper comprehension of your place in the market

By using surveys to gather market data, you may develop a comprehensive picture of the sector. Among other things, it will give you information on market demand, competition activity, and target audience demographics. A company can evaluate its market position and create plans that are suitable by analysing this data.

• To Evaluate the calibre of your products

You can get useful information from marketing intelligence surveys about the features that consumers want, product trends, and specifications that are in demand right now. This kind of information helps you assess your products and make wise business decisions.

• Recognise Who Your Target Audience Is

By obtaining market data, a company can better understand the needs of its audience. Additionally, companies can utilise surveys to focus in on a more specific target market for particular goods or services.

• To do research that is competitive

Market intelligence is a vast field. Surveys are an essential tool in today’s business environment to learn more about your competitors. Companies can use this data to adjust products based on consumer demand, assess competitors’ achievements and shortcomings, and create strategies based on their position in the market.

Steps to Develop Market Intelligence System

Select an Objective

It is wise to start with the end in mind. What goals do you have for conducting research on market intelligence? This kind of research has several advantages, but in order to reap the greatest rewards, you must first specify its parameters.

For instance, one of your goals can be to conduct different research projects to evaluate new or current products and markets. These studies typically focus on a combination of the following:

• Goods that are already available in established marketplaces. You should be aware of how your brand differs from the competitors. Studies on market segmentation, brand positioning, and competitive intelligence may be helpful.
• New markets are seeing the sale of existing products. It is best to focus on developing a market for your products. market research, market penetration, and market growth. You can use studies of various kinds to learn more about fields in which you are not currently active.
• Novel products and markets. Would you like to begin something from scratch? You should undertake market entrance research and idea testing to lower the risk of selecting a poor choice.
• New goods are added to existing markets. Product development research will help market segmentation studies, idea testing investigations, and consumer requirements evaluations.

Create Measurements

After deciding on the parameters of your study, you may choose the metrics to use to evaluate the results. The metrics used will vary according to each organization’s research goals.

You could evaluate your research using the following metrics:

• A number of competitors and their respective market shares.
• When calculating market size, factors such as annual revenue, the number of potential customers, and predicted growth should be taken into account.
• The average age, annual product expenditure, and income of the customers.
• The typical cost of each product within a market category.

The project’s return on investment is another important figure to take into account. In most firms, every research project has a budget. They wish to know if the market intelligence research they are doing will be profitable. Online surveys and research are great ways to get the information you need and make sure your project has a good return on investment.

Create a Plan for Your Research

Depending on your budget, there are a number of choices for obtaining market intelligence data.

By conducting web research, you can obtain trade journals, industry experts, customer reviews, and more. Certain research websites charge a fee, especially when it comes to competitive data like profitability, customer count, and yearly sales.

An inexpensive way to gather consumer feedback for product concept testing, market research, and brand positioning is through online surveys. Product intelligence and data analytics can provide insights and trends based on large databases of actual customer purchases.

Professionals with experience in market intelligence are often engaged by businesses to assist with multi-million dollar product launches. For a price, they may provide a wealth of data, statistics, and guidance. The funding, necessary measurements, and research purpose will all affect how much data you can gather for your project.

Gather and Assess Data

Information about competitors, market intelligence, web research, and customer surveys will all be used to collect data. The next step is to convert that data into knowledge that your business can use to make decisions. How will you manage everything?

• Start with the original goal of your project. What precisely were you trying to establish? Did you ever consider the possibility that a different market would be a good fit for your new product concept? Examine the statistics to determine whether your product is a success or a failure.
• It is imperative to possess competitive intelligence. What did you find out? Who are your primary opponents? Do they continue to have a big market advantage or are they falling behind?
• Make recommendations in light of your research. Now that you have thoroughly analysed competitors, market segmentation, client preferences, and other pertinent criteria, what is the best course of action?
• Provide the return on investment for the project. Have you found a market niche where the potential profit will outweigh the expense of the study? Don’t forget to incorporate it into your report.
• Write your observations down in a brief report. The executive group of your company will be curious to hear about your recommendations. Make sure the executive sponsor of your research project is informed of the results if you have one.

Utilise the Insights

It is not appropriate to keep the information you acquired for your market intelligence study on file. Your management group will be interested in learning how to apply your conclusions. Using competitor analysis, consumer insights, product intelligence, and other pertinent data, business executives may create informed and valuable plans.

Although they are not the same, market research and marketing intelligence are sometimes mistaken. Let’s attempt to examine the differences between market research and intelligence.

Establishing a top-tier team for market intelligence necessitates numerous essential elements. It’s also not a simple task. That being said, with enough time, money, and perseverance, it is possible to build a world-class team for market intelligence. Furthermore, this group could be a great asset to the company.