What is Market Intelligence?

Fundamentally, market intelligence compiles data from various sources to paint a comprehensive picture of your business’s current market. It takes stock of your business’s clients, issues, rivals, and potential for product and service innovation. Sales records, consumer information, survey results, and social media analytics can all provide valuable market knowledge.

According to Saul Dobney, CEO of the research consultancy firm Dobney.com, small businesses can launch relatively quickly if they follow common sense.

“Keeping up with developments in your area from magazines, journals or business associations can be a great help,” Dobney said, adding that it might be as easy as visiting your competitors’ websites or stores, discovering published information about the amount and type of potential clients, and more. “As part of this process, we also look for online comments and feedback from customers to see how we can enhance our service or product.”

Market intelligence vs. business intelligence

There is a common misunderstanding between market intelligence and business intelligence. Information about a particular organization is business intelligence, whereas market intelligence examines broader patterns. Business intelligence typically refers to data regarding the internal operations of a company. This includes the total monthly sales and the quantity of products sent.

Market intelligence, on the other hand, is concerned with data collected from outside sources, such as consumer demographics, regional information, and purchasing habits. Additionally, it analyzes the competitors to determine how your organization stands compared to the rest of the market. An examination of business intelligence can benefit from all of this. On the other hand, business intelligence pays no attention to what your company’s competitors are up to, but market intelligence does.

How do Companies Use Market Intelligence?

An organization’s internal goals can be better defined with the use of accurate market information, which provides answers to specific queries regarding present and future clients, as well as competitors. Market information can help answer the following questions:

• Where should my company devote more resources?
• Which markets should I try to enter next?
• What are the buying patterns of our best customers?
• What products could be cross-marketed to existing customers?
• Into what demographic segments can my company push new and existing products?
• How do I conduct a market analysis?

With market intelligence, companies can assess their operational environment as a whole. As a result, your company can better see threats and discover growth possibilities. When doing so, the majority of businesses consider these four factors.

Types of Market Intelligence

Different forms of market intelligence could pop up at other times. If you’re looking for market intelligence, some of the most popular options are as follows.

Competitor intelligence

The term “competitor intelligence” refers to researching and studying your rivals. You can learn a lot about your own business and why clients don’t always pick your product or service by analyzing the strengths and shortcomings of your competitors.

For instance, most marketing organizations routinely use a competitive analysis report to evaluate a product’s service level. A competition study report might cover everything from price and product features to target markets and essential demographics. With this data in hand, a formidable product can be developed that meets the consumer’s needs while avoiding the pitfalls encountered by competitors.

Product Intelligence

You may assess how well your service or product meets customer needs using product intelligence. Looking at the production process and if you’re building the product as effectively as possible is essential if you offer a physical product. You can use the data you collect to make your product better.

Comparing your product to similar ones on the market and making note of their advantages and disadvantages is a simple way to gather this kind of information. All aspects of the product, including its packaging, retail presentation, manufacturing methods, and associated expenses, are included in this evaluation.

Market understanding

A good grasp of the many marketplaces in which your product or service is being sold is known as market comprehension. By conducting this kind of study, you may learn a lot about your current performance in those markets and the potential growth opportunities in other markets.

Combining competitor analysis with product intelligence and identifying top performers is how you gather the intelligence you need to gain good market knowledge. You can gather end-user intelligence to determine why customers prefer those top performers once you know what’s selling on the market.

Customer understanding

To better understand your clients, you should investigate your present clientele and the factors influencing their purchasing decisions. Improving customer satisfaction and retention rates can be achieved by gaining insight into any problems you encounter with those consumers. You can use the data you collect to enhance your marketing strategies moving forward.

To better understand their target audience, businesses often create “customer personas” that include information such as demographics, interests, pain points, and potential solutions. Those in charge of product development and quality assurance can benefit significantly from hearing what customers say.

Your firm’s position in the market can be better understood with the help of market intelligence, which compares your company to the competition and analyzes the behaviours of your target customers.

How to Collect Market Intelligence

Although there is no best way for businesses to collect market intelligence, many of them use some high-level research. Let’s take a look at four distinct approaches to gathering marketing intelligence.

Your current customers

The senior VP of Course5 Intelligence, Ajith Sankaran, claims that businesses frequently fail to see their consumers as a possible data source. Keeping client lists and instituting a customer feedback program are two ways small firms can “collect customer intelligence in an effective and largely inexpensive manner,” according to Sankaran.

When gathering market intelligence, your sales team is in a class of its own. Regular interaction with clients and potential clients allows salespeople to have a unique vantage point on market shifts. The ideal location for a business to centralize this customer data is customer relationship management (CRM).

Surveys

Online surveys and polls are a great way to collect data for your market research. This strategy can be beneficial, as pointed out by Sankaran, provided that client lists are well-maintained. To begin, you can use a platform like Typeform or SurveyMonkey. A customer’s receipt with a link to the survey is another viable choice.

Website analytics

According to Dobney, you should use data that is readily available to you: your e-commerce statistics. He advised taking a look at the user’s path through the site. I need to know the number of people and their origin. Using market data, we may look for patterns and then test various content, taglines, signposts, and offers to improve the offer.

With customer relationship management analytics, it’s simple to see how your marketing is doing and how customers are behaving. Please read our detailed guide to find out how CRM analytics function.

An in-house specialist

The ability to employ a market intelligence analyst is contingent upon the size of your organization. The analyst’s specialized knowledge allows them to paint a more complex market picture.

To achieve this, they will communicate with all parties engaged in producing and delivering your company’s goods, including manufacturers, distributors, and customers. Market intelligence comprises conversation, concrete facts, and marketing studies. You can utilize this processed data to find lucrative business opportunities.

How to Manage Market Intelligence

With the right market intelligence, you can learn more about your business and find ways to grow. But it will only be helpful if the data you get is correct. The bad news for entrepreneurs is that keeping up with market knowledge may quickly become a full-time job. That’s why you may find many resources online to assist you in collecting, analyzing, and storing market intelligence.

Pentaho and Sisense are two well-liked choices among software for businesses looking for a BI system. Oracle and Birst are two cloud systems that can facilitate the easy sharing of business intelligence across organizations.

As your business expands, you may need to allocate more time to data analysis, even though one person can manage a lot of market research for a small firm. According to Dobney, advanced statistical methods and sophisticated technological infrastructure may be required to execute and process ever-increasing data sets.

A third-party expert might be able to assist you in making the most of your market intelligence if you aren’t ready to learn a software package or employ an in-house analyst. In this approach, you may assess the state of the industry and ensure that your company takes full advantage of any possible chances.

Knowing the Lay of the Land is Key to Success

Your short- and long-term goals might be better guided by market intelligence reports that detail your area, consumers, competitors, and growth potential. Your company won’t last long if you don’t know the ins and outs of the market it serves. The more information you collect, though, and the more it may shape your company strategy, the better off you will be. If you want your business to succeed and last, you must incorporate market intelligence into your operations and be willing to change course when necessary. Is there enough market intelligence for your company?