TEMPLATES
Good Intelligence Begins with Asking the Right Questions.
Are you new to market or competitive intelligence research? Here are some useful research topic outlines you may use as reference. We have assembled these based on previous work that we have conducted in these fields.
While industry sectors or market geographies change, the key business concerns and intelligence questions of companies remain the same. Broadly, these topics can be summed up into the following questions:
- where is our market going?
- what will the competition be doing?
- what, therefore, should we do about these?
Feel free to copy and modify these intelligence topics to suit your requirements.
MARKET INTELLIGENCE
GEOGRAPHIC PROFILE
Analyze the external macro environment where your business operates, addressing any of the following business objectives:
- a product looking at its market
- a brand in relation to its market
- a local business unit or function in a business
- a strategic option, such as entering a new market or launching a new product
- a potential acquisition
- a potential partnership
- an investment opportunity
MARKET DEMAND & OPPORTUNITY ASSESSMENT
Entering new markets? Evaluating your position in a current one?
Understand better with a comprehensive assessment of your industry within a target market. This is ideal for marketing teams in expanding territories and for business planning groups.
INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
Entering new territories? Expanding to a new country or region can be quite complicated.
Success or failure will be determined by the intelligence in your hands. Uncover relevant and useful information on your target market and tip the scales to your favor
This study will help answer questions like "where do you start?", "how do you start?", "what is the competition like out there?" and help you evaluate your options.
DISTRIBUTION DYNAMICS
Don't get locked out of the market. Understand how goods are moved from warehouse shelves to the customers' hands. Should you own or outsource the distribution function? Which channel works best for each type of customer? Who controls the distribution chain in the market?
SUPPLY DYNAMICS
Identify and evaluate every stage in the supply chain. Find areas of cost-efficiency or cost-effectiveness. Pinpoint blockages or weaknesses in the chain that cause delays or losses. Assemble best practices in supply chain management.
SUPPLY AND DISTRIBUTION ANALYSIS
Understand the performance of your industry and uncover details on its distribution and supply dynamics. Gain insights on market trends, drivers and constraints, as well as capabilities, limitation and best practices of suppliers and distributors.
COMPREHENSIVE INDUSTRY ASSESSMENT
A comprehensive profile of a specific industry, paying particular attention to its structure, players, dynamics, outlook and attractiveness.
COMPETITOR INTELLIGENCE
COMPANY PROFILE
What types of companies would you like information on?
COMPETITORS: Whether potential or real, you want to know what they're up to. Compare their performance versus yours, and capitalize on your strengths to play on their weaknesses.
CUSTOMERS: Understand their business better so you can enhance your own product or service offerings to match their needs, preferences and budgets.
PARTNERS: Identify potential suppliers, distributors and partners by understanding their key businesses and performance.
PERIPHERAL PLAYERS: You need to keep tabs on up and coming companies and their impact on your business. Get detailed and strategic information on how they operate.
ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS: Scout for potential acquisition targets, with detailed insight into the companies' strategic, financial and operational performance.
SUPPLY STRUCTURE
Uncover information on your competitors' supply management strategy. Identify their key suppliers, exclusive arrangements or contracts, supply costs and best practices in supplier management.
DISTRIBUTION & SALES STRUCTURE
Map out your competitors' means to market. Assess their distribution methods, identifying key partners, channels and retailers. Uncover details of exclusive arrangements and contracts, including length of the relationship, and distribution margins. And profile their sales methods, sales structure, channels and activities.
ORGANIZATION PROFILE
Analyzing your competitors' backbone - their human resources - is essential to defining their strategy and your response. This is also useful for potential entrants in new territories, as they expand their offices with local hires.
SALES & MARKETING
How does your competitor position their offerings in the market? What are their ATL and BTL initiatives? How do they segment the market and what are their tactics for each? Answering these questions - and more - allows you to define appropriate messaging/branding, plan your own campaigns, and realign your sales strategies.
COMPREHENSIVE COMPANY ASSESSMENT
Understand your key competitors' strategic direction and operational activities. This outline provides an extensive profile of a specific company, focusing on its background, organization, performance, product(or service) lines, markets & customers, relationships, strategy & objectives, marketing & sales, capabilities and limitation.
EARLY WARNING INTELLIGENCE
Ideal for determining the movements of competition in order to deduce their capabilities, strategies, assumptions and intent. Reduce your risk from being blindsided by staying one step ahead, and preempting or mitigating the impact of a new product launch, a promotional campaign, or any price-cutting initiatives by competition.
COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE ASSESSMENT
Create a comprehensive and integrated picture of the business battlefield. Compare the capabilities, strategies, products, markets, partnerships and resources of all significant competitors. Plot your own strategic direction and operational activities against competition. Assess opportunities and risks for any initiatives in the industry in light of market frameworks and competitor activities. Adopt knowledge from this analysis to drive strategic planning decisions product/service and marketing development.
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