The following are ways for market intelligence officers or market intelligence experts to collect information.
First, collect public information and collect all business data related to competitors. We should make full use of the collection resources of various libraries, as well as domestic online retrieval, international online retrieval and Internet retrieval. You can subscribe to or browse relevant newspapers and magazines, publications of trade associations, public archives of various departments, registration materials of industrial and commercial enterprises, performance reports of listed companies, introduction of competitors' products, enterprise recruitment advertisements, trade fairs, credit investigation reports or purchase reports issued by professional investigation companies. Third, these large companies and groups will set up some small companies to cooperate with competitors and joint ventures. Names unrelated to the company. In this way, they can know their opponents like the back of their hands, from the basic situation of the leadership to the joys and sorrows of employees, and then to the overall operation of the rival company. This practice is quite professional, and the dispatched employees have to undergo professional training. To sum up, enterprise competitive intelligence can bring rich returns to enterprises, so countries all over the world also have quite high requirements for employees engaged in enterprise competitive intelligence. It is understood that from the perspective of American companies, the basic composition of corporate intelligence personnel is: retirees from the former Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The purpose of hiring these people is obvious. They have a strong sense of responsibility, strict discipline and formal training. These "007s" who once fought on the intelligence front for the benefit of the government and took risks alone in order to obtain political and military intelligence, now let them switch to enterprise and commercial competitive intelligence, which can meet the needs of "competition". Another part of the personnel who constitute enterprises and business intelligence personnel is: the core personnel of enterprises. These personnel should have good interpersonal relationships, excellent professional knowledge, comprehensive cultural and scientific knowledge and enterprise management knowledge, and know what kind of competitive intelligence enterprises need, as well as the analysis, induction and application of information. Their scientific knowledge matches the practical experience of "007". Theoretically, the profits of enterprises should be fully sublimated. Zhan Mu Hering, a former CIA member, successfully established Motorola's enterprise intelligence system, which is a typical example. These are just the most common ways to collect competitive intelligence. Several methods have their own advantages, so we should pay attention to overcoming their one-sidedness and limitations. In practice, if we can use several methods comprehensively, we will get twice the result with half the effort;
Second, market research and field investigation This is the general term for information collection activities such as on-site visits, investigations, inquiries, and collection of physical samples. The common method is to participate in various trade fairs and exhibitions to directly understand all kinds of information of competitors. You can also entrust a professional consulting and investigation company. Secondly, in downtown areas, you can often see some young ladies doing market research. They took the outline of the questionnaire and asked questions to passers-by. Most of the problems involved have nothing to do with the business scope. This practice is obviously the accumulation of materials, but its essence is far beyond the scope of commercial competitive intelligence, and its purpose is obscure and interesting.
Third, advertising planning, which is a way to understand competitors through advertising companies. It is understood that a beverage company that is about to be put into production sent a promotional material to a number of advertising companies, requesting assistance in the company's "overall planning." The last item of this material, they asked the advertising company like this: "Please choose a well-known beverage production and operation enterprise as an imaginary competitor and analyze the sales situation." It is required to provide nearly 100 survey items such as funds, equipment, personnel, price, sales scope, sales methods, production costs and sales costs of "imaginary competitors". Moreover, the materials also specifically indicate: "After the feedback of the planning materials, if more than 60% are reliable and true after investigation, the creative fee for this single item will be paid immediately." The method of this beverage company is to collect information about competitors in the form of public "overall planning".
Fourth, the anti-verification method, through the purchase of competitors' products for disassembly research. One of its purposes is to study whether competitors' products are suspected of counterfeiting; The second is to study whether your competitors' products are worth learning. An engine manufacturer in Japan entrusts a business investigation company in this city, and all newly produced motorcycle engines in China are commissioned to buy and sent to Japan for research.
5. Interpersonal communication refers to obtaining the information of enterprise competitors through interpersonal communication. Competitive intelligence personnel are interested in establishing friendly relations with all kinds of people. "Intelligence from people is better than machine intelligence". There are many ways to communicate between people, friends, old classmates and colleagues, chatting, gathering and drinking tea. These seemingly casual conversations will benefit a lot as long as they are intentional.
6. Specialization Many foreign multinational corporations, group companies and large trading companies have set up offices all over the world to obtain the most advanced scientific and technological information related to their own enterprises. Its main responsibility is to collect scientific and technological information or the latest market demand. There are many such offices in major cities in China. Nine famous Japanese trading companies have set up nearly 700 overseas offices.