If you’ve ever wanted to get a snapshot of your competitor or the industry trends for particular business, the best way to do so is to gather some intelligence. Think how James Bond used to gather secret information about Russian goings on and use it against them later. Now in what I do it is all using legitimate sources like your competitors websites and news websites, financial resources, , forums, blogs and news groups where information is available on almost anything once one digs deep enough.
In a competitive intelligence report I use legal and ethical information gathering and analysis techniques, using mostly Internet. And as one of the fastest growing elements of business research it provides the ability to competently monitor your competitive environment and enables managers to make informed decisions about marketing, product development and other key business strategies.
The base cost for a competitive intelligence report is R5000 and for ongoing reports a monthly fee can be negotiated. What you get is approximately a 10 page report presented within 4 weeks from date of commissioning. For ongoing reports I’ll monitor the various sources used to gather the information for the first report and keep you posted on any changes.
You can download this sample of a report produced in December 2005. The purpose of this report was to support the advertising strategy of a new consumer re3This is a overview of the latest technology trends and how they may impact consumer behaviour and with specific focus on Internet and mobile technologies, contrasting international with South African trends.