Nine Benefits Gained from Online Competitive Analysis

KALAMAZOO, Mich. - March 18, 2015 - PRLog -- According to Social Media Today, an independent online community, there are several worthwhile reasons for conducting competitive social media analysis: get ideas for how your brand can engage in the social media channel, identify opportunities that your competitors may be missing (and therefore your brand can uniquely offer) and gauge how prospects for your product or service engage in social media or a specific social network.

Let’s look at nine specific benefits that can be gained through competitive intelligence solutions and learn how they can keep you current with key industry and product issues and help you achieve your business objectives:

1.    You receive insights that allow you to make timely and correct business decisions that impact efficiency and profitability.
2.    Textual information can be harvested from any source and provide you with the actionable intelligence needed to improve results.
3.    Understanding the voice of the customer (VOC) gives you the feedback necessary to make accurate comparisons.
4.    Visualizations and interfaces allow you to easily identify report results at the specific level of detail you need – customizable to your role and function, as well as the role and function of others within your organization.
5.    Assuming you choose the right supplier, no in-house technical resources will be required to harvest and crunch the data needed to compile reports.
6.    There is no costly software to purchase or maintain and no risk of software obsolescence or problematic upgrades.
7.    Hidden trends in the data can be automatically discovered – you don’t have to predefine any words or phrases.
8.    With the right information, you are able to establish the “standard” by which your products and those of your competitors are measured in the marketplace.
9.    You will have access to the types of information that others in your industry may not have. This is the essence of achieving competitive advantage.

Following are some practical applications of competitive intelligence that can produce the business benefits listed above.

New product development. Whether your products are sold to consumers (B2C) or businesses (B2B), you want to make sure that every new product is based on what people want and are willing to pay for.  By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of other offerings, you can create products with strong competitive value.

“Voice of the customer” (VOC) research. When you really understand the expectations, preferences and aversions of both your customers and those of your competitors, you will be positioned to generate faster and more profitable sales.

Brand health monitoring. Brand reputation is a valuable but perishable commodity. By utilizing Competitive Pulse to understand exactly how your brands (and your competitors’ brands) are perceived at any point in time, or over time, you will be in a position to gain and sustain competitive advantage.

Product refinement. When your product is not selling as well as expected in the marketplace; it is vitally important that you discover why it is under performing, track and fix the problems and reintroduce the product to the market before damage is done to the bottom line.

Key trends and market drivers. Whether you are starting a new division or expanding your business with new products or services, marketplace research performed on a periodic basis will help you keep up with market trends and maintain consistency and profitability.

Competitive intelligence. You not only need to know what is happening in your industry and what your customers are thinking, you also need to know exactly what your competitors are doing and what their customers are saying. Making decisions based on a gut feeling isn’t effective and can harm you because decisions are best made when based on facts. Learning the facts can help you be successful where others have failed.