Dynamic Competitive Research Insights For Organizational Success

On March 20th, 1602, the Dutch East India Company was established, forming what many consider to be the first global corporate conglomerate trading organization. Historians report that the "VOC" formed in response to Spain and Portugal's alliance, as The Netherlands and the Iberian Peninsula were warring factions at the time. The VOC went into business for themselves, a venture that lasted nearly 180 years.

Whether your organization is in the spice-trading industry or on the bleeding edge of generative AI, competitive research and intelligence (abbreviated CI) is a must-have for any analytics, business intelligence, corporate planning and development, or marketing team. Had the Dutch East India Company gone to war against Spain and Portugal and not done their competitive homework, we may have never heard of them. Instead, they pivoted into one of the most successful organizations in modern history.

How Analytics Metal Can Support Your Organization's Competitive Intelligence Reporting

Many organizations do not have the time, resources, or bandwidth to keep up with what their competition is doing. Some organizations spend very little time focusing on their rivals, while others only care when their executive team asks for a report. Other organizations feel as if they're at the top of the heap in their space and don't need to focus on what "the other guys" are doing. There are even those who don't take their competitors seriously, and mock them internally when their name comes up.

If your organization falls into one of the above categories, consider hiring an analytics and business intelligence professional services company like Analytics Metal to provide accurate, actionable, real-time reporting and insights against your competition. It's critical to be of the mindset that your competitors are evaluating and assessing your company's every move, leaving you far behind and at risk if your company is not doing the same in return.

Additionally, many times it is best to hire outside support for competitive intelligence. This allows your organization to remain anonymous and fly under-the-radar while your professional services firm gathers valuable intel for your company.

We help organizations of all shapes in sizes with most aspects of competitive intelligence, and do so in the following ways:

1. Competitor Identification

There is no need to feel embarrassed or afraid to ask the question "Who are my competitors"? New competitors can emerge suddenly, and long-time competitors can switch gears and spin-off into another business venture. Continual competitor identification is actually a necessary piece of the CI puzzle, typically involving rigorous research and continuous monitoring.

2. Market Landscape Analysis

We help analyze your competitor's market footprint, analyzing their reach and their service areas, identifying opportunities for your organization to potentially serve in markets or trade areas where your competition is not found.

3. Benchmarking and Reporting

There are many free or low-cost online platforms, like SimilarWeb, where competitive benchmarking data is available. We utilize SimilarWeb and other CI tools to establish competitive benchmarks against your company's performance. We help companies integrate this valuable data into their own daily and monthly reporting, adding fresh layers of information on top of proprietary corporate data.

4. Digital Portfolio Assessment

Tools like SimilarWeb also help uncover digital channels where your competitors are making investments in. Your competition may be advertising in channels you never considered, or had unfavorable results in, which can help you determine your own next steps at your organization.

5. Advertising Efforts

In order to make money, one must spend money first, as the old adage goes. Analytics Metal helps organizations assess their competitor's advertising efforts in the digital and physical worlds, bringing much-needed insight for your marketing and operational teams.

6. Corporate Hierarchy 

We thoroughly analyze the organizational structure of your competitors businesses. This allows us to identify gaps in your competitor's organizations, which in turn can be used to help your company plan its next move.

7. Secret Shopping

One major advantage of hiring an independent firm like Analytics Metal is that it provides your company with anonymity as you conduct valuable research. This situation is perfect for tasks like secret shopping, where we act as your competitor's customers and report back our insights and recommendations to you, without your competition ever finding out.

8. Becoming Your Competitor's Customer

In addition to secret shopping, we actively sign-up for rewards, to receive email marketing, and create accounts online and in-person to accurately evaluate the end-of-end customer lifecycle and management used by your competitors.

9. The Role of Artificial Intelligence in CI

Artificial Intelligence platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot can help with many aspects of competitive research - as long as there is human intervention. As powerful as AI is and continues to become, skilled professionals with expertise in analytics and business intelligence are required to oversee and supervise any and all AI work.

In today's business world, long-time competitors that weren't a threat before can become one quickly, and new competitors can crop up suddenly and take your best customers or clients away from you. Not paying attention and not having active competitive analytics, reporting, and items from the list above could place your organization at great risk. Analytics Metal offers a free consultation where we can assess your current competitive intelligence status and set your organization up for success, potentially preventing your company from being blindsided or overtaken by your rivals.