Market Intelligence – Blog post by CEDURA
Almost every company carries out market and competitor monitoring or customer analyses. Fewer companies today use powerful market intelligence: either
- market development is too confusing to be able to reflect it
- the IT infrastructure is not in place
- the question of responsibilities has not been clarified or
- the introduction of market intelligence cannot be accurately estimated in terms of the expected effort and costs.
With all these statements, the benefits of market intelligence quickly fade into the background.
Market intelligence makes it possible to analyze the market on an ongoing basis so that future developments can be identified at an early stage and companies can react to changes in the market at an early stage. This article is dedicated to the introduction process of market intelligence.
1. Before the implementation of market intelligence
Typically, companies do not always have a comprehensive view of what is happening on the market. Budgets and strategies are therefore not planned with the market in mind, but rather with sales in mind. How does such a situation arise?
First of all, markets are often only analyzed once (serious) problems have already arisen. Relevant information about the activities of the competition or the link between market, customer and competitor data is usually not continuously collected due to a lack of time and resources.
Furthermore, there is usually only one source (e.g. sales) for key market information (e.g. market shares). However, this isolated expert knowledge is not verified.
To make matters worse, relevant data is stored in countless databases, some of which are not linked to each other and are maintained by different contact persons. This means that a lot of information can only be collected with a great deal of manual effort.
In addition, a large part of the company’s knowledge is anchored in the minds of its employees. However, many global companies do not have a clearly defined understanding of the market. This can lead to difficulties.
For example, if a foreign company does not serve a segment, does the market include this segment or not? When introducing market intelligence, it is important to bear these points in mind.
2. Needs-based implementation of market intelligence
The benefits of market intelligence can only be fully exploited if it is accepted and used on a daily basis. This is particularly important for the market intelligence system.
A key factor in ensuring this is that Market Intelligence, and therefore above all the Market Intelligence system, is tailored to the needs of the company. A clear objective is a prerequisite for a needs-based introduction.
The question “What should be achieved with market intelligence?” or “What should market intelligence be used for in the company?” should be answered in detail, as it essentially influences the structure of the market intelligence (system). Should market intelligence be introduced to monitor the competition or to open up new markets, or both?
At one of Cedura’s clients, for example, market intelligence was to be introduced in order to manage the company in a market-oriented manner, i.e. to plan budgets, sales and the portfolio on the basis of market information. To do this, the company needed transparent markets on the one hand and transparency regarding its own position in the market, segments, etc. on the other.
The focus was on creating forecasts and projections. This objective resulted in four tasks for the implementation of market intelligence:
- the markets, market segments etc. should be clearly defined and delimited
- the continuous collection of all market-relevant data should be ensured
- the market-oriented analysis and forecasting model should be developed on the basis of points 1 and 2 and
- the market knowledge generated should be integrated into the company’s processes.
3. Clear definition of market activities
Every company defines the market and thus its processing individually. However, this heterogeneity is only desirable externally; within the company, the understanding of the market should be uniform. However, as previously mentioned, this is not always the case.
Therefore, in addition to the clear definition of objectives, the unambiguous definition of market understanding is an essential task before introducing market intelligence.
4. Continuous collection of company-relevant information
Companies have a vast amount of data. This
- usually comes from different sources (e.g. internal sources, statistical sources, public online sources),
- focus on different areas (e.g. key financial figures, general information on competitive profiles and industries),
- are often available independently of each other (centralized and decentralized)
- and in different formats (e.g. Excel, CRM or ERP systems)
- and are updated at different times.
This complexity usually overwhelms information processing capacities and generates costs. A key task of market intelligence is to reduce complexity, for example by generating relevant information from the multitude of data or by filtering out the most relevant information for the respective analysis from the mass of possible information.
In order to decide which information is relevant for the company and which is not, it is important to determine what the information is needed for. The next step is to check where the information is stored, which information is duplicated and which is missing.
The information is then standardized using mapping, which transforms the information into a predefined format, weights it and assigns it to a category. This step is particularly relevant for setting up the market intelligence system. It also determines which interfaces are used to import the data and whether manual data entry is desirable.
5. Development of a market-oriented analysis and forecasting model
Depending on the objective, a decision should also be made during the implementation phase as to which analysis tools (e.g. SWOT, market potential analysis) should be installed in the market intelligence system. These are again dependent on the market development and the company’s understanding of the market. The form in which the results are presented (diagrams, tables, etc.) also plays a major role in this phase.
6. Integration of the generated market knowledge into the company processes
Market intelligence is only successful if it is accepted and practiced in companies. A market intelligence system can support this if it is designed to be user-friendly and brings added value to the company.
Usability is achieved above all when access to the data and analyses is guaranteed at any time and from anywhere. Mobile devices are an important component in this context. Furthermore, a rights system should be in place that clearly defines which user has access to which data and which user is allowed to upload or download data.
In addition to modern and customizable dashboards, the export of data and results to Excel and other data formats should be guaranteed.
7 Trusted added value
Market intelligence represents added value for the company if analyses are guaranteed to be based on sound data. Uncertainties as to whether the data is valid and therefore trustworthy do not arise with a market intelligence system.
The market knowledge generated can therefore be used to optimize sales, align the product portfolio with market requirements or react to changes in the market at an early stage. This can save companies costs.
Summary
Market intelligence offers companies many advantages in global market development. However, these can only be fully exploited if market intelligence is optimally integrated, accepted and practiced within the company. Above all, the company-specific structure of a market intelligence system achieves this objective.
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