Companies that use market intelligence are twice as likely to outperform their competitors. Research shows that market leaders view analytics as a major differentiator. They are keener to research and analyze before carving out a strategy.
Market intelligence(MI) is the collection and analysis of information about a specific market and can provide valuable insights into market trends, customer preferences, and competitive dynamics. Complementing the marketing capabilities of an organization, MI can prove to be of strategic importance for businesses to stay ahead in the race. This information can help businesses understand the current state of the market and make informed decisions about their strategy. Successful companies look into majorly four subsets of market intelligence information to carve out their growth strategy.
Competitive intelligence:
Businesses can gain a competitive edge by incorporating market intelligence into their strategic planning process. It provides them with insight into what competitors are doing and helps businesses identify opportunities to differentiate themselves and offer unique value to customers. Including analysis across several levels, starting from pricing to product features and all the way down to target audience and key demographics, a coherent competitive intelligence analysis assists a business at two levels. The primary advantage is to be well-positioned to develop an edge in the market and the other is to avoid costly implementation errors and devise better strategies.
Product Intelligence
Product Intelligence primarily focuses on analyzing the quality of a product or service offered. It looks into each level of operations that helps create the final product, all the way from manufacturing to packaging to customer feedback. 75% of customers believe the quality of the product is the major factor to influence their utility to a brand. The intel acquired from this specific type of intelligence helps businesses assess the strengths and weaknesses of the product and continuously incorporate changes to suit the market demands. Product Intelligence is the main strategy behind Apple’s huge success. It keeps relentlessly improving product designs to maintain a competitive edge and make customers come back to them.
Market Understanding
Combining analysis from both competitive and product intelligence, market understanding is yet another value that market intelligence provides. Gathering the end-user data can help in identifying what works in the market and why are customers preferring what they are preferring. Coca-Cola also uses data from its supply chain and distribution channels to understand trends and insights into the markets it operates.
Customer Understanding
This subset of market intelligence essentially is about understanding your niche customer space. Having a nuanced understanding of your customer behavior and preferences can highly add value to how you are delivering to them. Starbucks is an excellent example of how customer understanding can add value to the ultimate growth of a business. Discontinued in 2018, the “My Starbucks Idea” platform obtained customer feedback to incorporate improvements in their overall operations. Studying buying patterns, reviews, and feedback combined with data points generated from customer acquisition cost and churn rate, customer understanding can strengthen your value proposition and further streamline your attention for the reallocation of resources to focus areas.
By gathering and analyzing information about the market, competitors, products, and customers, businesses can make informed decisions about their strategy and stay ahead of the curve. By doing so, you’ll be well-positioned to differentiate your business, improve your products and services, and better meet the needs of your customers.
At Knometrix, we understand the value of market intelligence in driving business growth and success. Our team of proficient market research professionals has years of experience in industry insights and market intelligence capabilities, and we are ready to help your business succeed. By gathering and analyzing data on the market, competitors, products, and customers, we can help you develop a go-to-market strategy that will put you ahead of the competition. So why wait? Get in touch with our experts today and let us help you use market intelligence to take your business to the next level. Don’t let your competitors get ahead – contact us now and let us help you grow and succeed.