Market Intelligence

• External data
• Internal data

Market Intelligence from external data
Market intelligence from external data is normally gathered through what is known as desk research. This means sourcing and analyzing published information to build a picture of a market and to try and answer some specific commercial questions such as what is the market potential.

Central to successful desk research is the ability to track down sources of information and to provide the right level of analysis. For example identifying who your competitors are and analyzing their market position against yours to find strengths and weaknesses and indications of new developments. Related to desk research is list building. This involves seeking out lists of likely prospects or partners for relationship or network building and finding out key information about the company for marketing purposes.

A specific form of market intelligence is competitive intelligence. This is typically undertaken on an on-going basis and involves the collection of news, materials and other information about competitors from a wide variety of sources. Because of its on-going nature, competitive intelligence is more about putting structures in place than specifically finding one-off pieces of data.

Market Intelligence from internal data
Often market Intelligence relies purely on external data such as analysts reports but there is often a great deal of untapped information internally that would give you an insight into your market  from sources such as databases and prospect lists and an holistic view can prove very insightful.

For instance by carrying out database analysis on orders taken it may be possible to understand where you have cross-sale and up-sale opportunities or to understand what type of customers are your most profitable ones.

Database information is not the only source of market data. Your website may also include a high degree of valuable information about who is looking for your products and services. Web site traffic analysis can help you understand what customers are looking for and why.

Finally, one cannot overlook knowledge about customers, markets and competitors that comes from your own personnel. Often this is a poorly tapped source of information. Collecting and disseminating such information falls into the realms of customer knowledge management and making better use of this customer knowledge can help businesses focus far more on what the customer wants and says.