Effective Competitor Monitoring
June 2008
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Introduction
•Why monitor your competitors?
•Types of competitors
•Sources of information to monitor
•Monitoring tools
•Deliverables from competitor monitoring
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Why Monitor Your Competitors?
B) It just makes good business sense
C) You can learn a lot from competitors
D) You can pick up ‘weak signals’ from competitors
E) Everyone is doing it except YOU
ANSWER: All of the above!!!
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Types of Competitors
Before initiating the monitoring process, consider the following four
types of competitors:
2. Stealth Competitors
 Undetected to industry players until the firms offer new or improved products and
services to consumers
 Born out of acquisitions in the industry
3. The WOW! Factor – Competitors
 Born out of merger and acquisitions that tend to shock existing firms to a point that
strategists scramble to rethink their short-term and long-term plans
4. Surprise Collaborators
 Competitors that are created from an alliance that seems to be odd to most industry
analysts
 The driving force behind the alliance is to seek the advantages in joining forces to
become a major competitor in a profitable industry
5. Emerging Challengers
 Originates from the creation of new industries within an established sector
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Sources of Information To Monitor
Consider:
• Competitors’ website
• Competitors’ blog
• Local press (i.e., radio, television, newspaper)
• National press (i.e., radio, television, newspaper)
• Industry publications and analysis reports
• Trademark databases
• Patent databases
• Discussion groups
• RSS feeds
• Blogsphere
• Podcasts and Videocasts
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Monitoring Tools
To have an effective and efficient competitor monitoring process,
consider utilizing the following applications:
• For all online published content, use alert applications such as
Google Alert, Copernic Tracker or any monitoring tool that comes
along with content aggregators
• For website changes, use monitoring tools such as: WebSite
Watcher, Digimind Website Agent
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Deliverables From Competitor Monitoring
Main Deliverables:
• Competitor profiles
• Industry profiles
• Marketing plan adjustments (i.e., product mix, pricing strategy)
• Strategic plan adjustments
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About Intelegia
Intelegia, a subsidiary of E&B DATA, is a company that strives to
assist individuals in understanding the changes in the business
environment through internet intelligence. Via training, consulting
and publications, Intelegia aims to provide the best approaches
and tools to obtain the best information and utilize decision-
making frameworks.
For training solutions to improve your competitive intelligence
researching and analysis skills, contact Isabelle Poirier at +1 (514)
276-1700 Ext. 104 .
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