Strategic Marketing: Planning and Control, Third Edition

graphics, etc. (ii) analysis – interpretation of information (iii) implication –

what could happen and (iv) actions.

■ Sources of competitive

information

As outlined above data/information can be classified in a number of ways

and the source is important in establishing its reliability.

Competitive information comes from three general areas. Firstly, ‘public

domain’ information – information available to anyone. Most industries

are heavily regulated and any publicly listed company has legal obliga-

tions to make certain information available. Additional promotional

materials, product advertising, annual reports and recruitment activities

are, by nature, publicly available. Secondly, ‘internal’ information. It is

often surprising just how much information organisations already hold

on competitors. The problem is one of analysis and dissemination. The

sales force and customer service staff are a primary source of CI. They are

well positioned to ‘pick-up’ CI from customers, suppliers and industry

contacts. Organisations need to establish mechanisms, such as internal

networks, to facilitate this process. It is also possible to set up internal sys-

tems to monitor competitors (e.g. monitoring competitor’s prices on

a weekly basis). Finally, ‘third party’ information – specific sources not

directly connected to the competitor (e.g. market research agencies,

media/journalists, credit rating organisations and consumer groups).

Many electronic sources exist, providing powerful search engines

enabling detailed inquires to be made. The Internet provides a vast array

of free and fee paying information services. Some commonly used

Internet sites are listed in Table 3.2. However, the problem is often dealing

with the sheer volume of information Internet searches generate.

44 Strategic Marketing: Planning and Control

Table 3.2Common Internet sources

Search engines Financial/business information

http://www.google.co.uk http://www.FT.com

http://www.yahoo.com http://www.thisismoney.com

http://www.realnames.com

Meta search engines Specialist search engines

http://www.Askjeeves.com http://www.DejaNews.com

http://www.MetaCrawler.com http://www.Newsbot.com