Competitive Intelligence

Competitive Intelligence for the Marketer- A Research Proposal



1.Introduction2

2.Literature review3

3.Research Objectives and Questions7

3.1Research Questions8

4.Research Design and Approach10

4.1 Reason for choosing qualitative research method10

4.2 Qualitative Techniques to be used10

5.Sampling strategy12

5.1 Recruitment Process12

6.Ethical issues13

7.Schedule of research14

Bibliography15

Competitive Intelligence for the Marketer- A Research Proposal

Introduction

Businesses thrive on information. They need the information to perform their daily operations, launch products, analyze their financial standing and carry out market analysis. Another reason why an organization might require information would be to obtain competitive intelligence. Competitive Intelligence is needed to identify threats posed a company's competitors, to analyze their strengths, weakness and identify emerging opportunities for the resulting analysis.

According to (Gordon, 2012) competitive intelligence is essential for a marketer because he/she has to get the facts right about the market in which the product is about to be launched or is already available. Also, a marketer uses competitive intelligence to scan for a competitor's activities, like market positioning, supply chain and sales force hiring etc. Data derived through competitive intelligence can be used to draw valuable insights which can be factored in a business strategy.

Therefore, I have chosen to develop a research proposal on the subject of the importance of competitive intelligence for the marketer in the retail industry. The reason for choosing the retail industry was because it is a highly competitive and fast paced industry, where a customer can easily shift from one retailer to another based on the price offered, quality, variety and the timely availability of products. Hence competitive intelligence is required in the retail business for improve the collection of products that a retailer has in stock, setting the right price, improving the retail marketing efforts, improving the content of your pitch, maximize revenues, making the sales channels better, improving B2C relationships, and identifying new business opportunities (Miller, 2012).

In this research proposal, I shall provide a literature review to identify key concepts in competitive intelligence, present research objectives, a research design proposition, a sampling strategy, any ethical issues encountered during research and schedule for the proposed research.

Literature review

According to (Gray, 2010), competitive intelligence is about carefully accumulating information about the external environment in which the business operates. Through this process, a business gains an edge over its rivals by gathering information about their financial situation and business strategies. But ethics wise competitive intelligence is a tight rope to walk on (Crane, 2005). We shall visit the issue of ethics in the latter part of the proposal.

Competitive Intelligence is a matter of strategic importance to the company (Heinrichs & Lim, 2008). According to the same authors, the strategic superiority of any company lies in how much information it has about the market in which it operates. According to (Day, 1994), a company which is market driven must have intelligence about the market and its various entities. Further, (Day, 1994) states that the business environment in this age of globalization is diverse and increasingly complex. There are many existing and new market entrants that can decrease a firm's market share with better offers ...