The document introduces the concept of Social Market Intelligence (SMINT) as an evolution of competitive intelligence (CI) that leverages social media and big data. SMINT allows CI professionals to develop insights in near real-time by establishing a dynamic process for identifying relevant data sources. It emphasizes insight agility - being first to develop actionable insights from opportunities and threats - over just access to data. By enabling constant strategic iteration, SMINT helps businesses adapt to disruption through a sustained strategic flux. While some criticize SMINT as not being new, the document argues it significantly improves the speed and relevancy of the intelligence cycle.

1. January 2013 | Vol. 5 Issue 1 In Collaboration with the Frost & Sullivan Institute
By Luis Madureira
Business Partner
OgilvyRED
CONNECT
SOCIAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
An Introduction to “Future Ready CI”
Starting at the End
The biggest criticism I have received about S(ocial) M(arket)
INT(elligence) (abbreviated as SMINT) is that it is nothing new. Well,
though this might be true it is also wrong. Because SMINT, as I will
explain, is an optimization of competitive intelligence (CI) as we
know it, it is not a new way of doing CI. However, it is wrong to say
SMINT is nothing new because it allows for greater efficiency and
relevancy by speeding up the intelligence cycle and the data to
process intelligence. If SMINT were business as usual, competitive
intelligence professionals (CIPs) would already be using it. Are you
The other criticism is that social media will only allow for tactical
intelligence development, not strategic development. My point of
view on this is twofold: Can you split strategy from tactics? And, if you
are paying attention to the external environment, the industry, and
the market — how can this not be strategic?
Putting SMINT Into Context
Over the last few years, I have witnessed an ever­increasing rate of
change in the competitive environment both globally and locally.
Meanwhile, key intelligence topics (KITs) for business decision­
making are changing accordingly. In parallel, the response time
given to CIPs to develop intelligence on KITs is diminishing.
A quick analysis leads us to three main reasons: First, more than
ever before, the consumer and customer are amplifying social nature
through the social media megaphone, out there in the open domain;
Second (and partly as a consequence of the first), big data is today a
fact of life, with quantity, velocity, and variety of data becoming
unmanageable, specially if you are trying to make sense of a
volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment;
Third, due to advances in technology, and namely the Internet of
Things, big data will only become bigger.
Some additional notes need to be highlighted at this stage. Many
businesses are already struggling to make sense of the data they
already possess, either being their own data (e.g., for business
intelligence), or customer service and consumer data (e.g., from
consumer or market research), to give just a few examples. On the
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2. other side, CIPs struggle to integrate the data scattered across the
information silos across their own company (e.g., integrate consumer
research with revenue data with market shares, etc.). The
increasingly social mindset, corporate social responsibility, and
governance transparency pressures creates the need of for an
optimized counterintelligence. The amount of critical data that is
being ”dumped” into the public domain under these flags — or even
by just pure carelessness of employees is staggering.
As technology, business management, and consumer expectations
change, CIPs need to be aware of these changes, sometimes even
”master,” in order to keep up and be able to sustain their company’s
competitive advantage. Most times, buzzwords are twisted in
meaning and the only way to really understand if something is really
important is to actually deep dive on the subject. Again, time and
resources restraints apply. The question is how do you keep up?
SMINT as an Opportunity for CI
In my executive address at the 18th SCIP 2012 European Summit, I
tried to bring these dilemmas to the attention of the CI community at
large and ignite the discussion on what could be at first sight
considered a big threat, can actually turn out to be an opportunity to
CI development, bringing the recognition it deserves in modern
business.
The concept I developed to encapsulate all this is social market
intelligence (SMINT).
S(ocial) M(arket) INT(elligence) deliberately avoids the confusion
with social intelligence (a discipline in the realm of social sciences),
to differentiate from ”CI­as­usual” to highlight the ”social” approach
as a means to integrate the five strategic vectors of CI. All of this has
been encapsulated into an easy memorable acronym SMINT. I did
not call it CI 2.0 or CI 3.0 on purpose. This is to reinforce the fact that
this is an evolutionary school of thought rather than a new CI
paradigm.
SMINT is an integrative thinking mindset applied to competitive
intelligence that builds on top of ”CI as usual,” namely the
intelligence cycle, and leverages all the analysis techniques and
frameworks we have been using for a few decades, namely since
Michael E. Porter who gave a big push with its model thinking
approach to competitive strategy and analysis.
As such, and as a proposed definition, SMINT makes sense of the
increasingly fast­changing business ecosystem by developing
actionable insights on the external environment, market, industry,
players, and consumers to understand, compete and win in near
real­time, though establishing a sustainable competitive advantage
in the marketplace.
Real­Time Strategy…
As per my executive address presentation, and building on the
OODA Loop from John Boyd as the closest thing to real­time
strategy, the competitive advantage will come not from access to
data, not from the quality of analysis alone, but from the trade­off
between speed and quality of insight, let’s call it insight agility. This
means being the first to spot an opportunity or threat, and transform it
into actionable insights that can be derived into strategy and
executed to gain market position. As per the definition above, CIPs
can understand, compete, and win in near real­time. Again, please
note that I am referring to insight agility, not just being first for the
sake of it.

3. I believe that the near real­time claim is probably the most important
part and can spur more controversy. Many CIPs can claim they
already integrate and approach the full business ecosystem, but the
speed at which one can digest and transform data from the
competitive environment into strategy is something I highly
challenge any CIP to do. This, I believe, is something that only a
SMINT­type approach can enable, or at the very least considerably
improve from the current status quo.
…and the Strategic Flux
The other side of this is that I am considering strategy and execution
as one. As such, the aim for SMINT is to enable a strategic flux that
will enable a constant and sustained iteration that will ultimately be a
single strategic direction slowly or rapidly correcting its way,
according to the external environment impacts, change drivers, and
competitor moves. If that is the case, then modern business is
becoming more about adapting to disruption and pure chaos.
Important Small Details
Another small detail that makes a huge difference is the dynamic
aspect of SMINT, namely in regards to the usage of data and
information sources. On a given KIT, the capability of Listening 2.0,
versus the monitoring capability of Listening 1.0 (and ”CI as usual”
web tools as well), implies that the sources are dynamic. Dynamic
means the sources are being identified and added in real­time to
include relevant data as it is generated. Instead of identifying and
then monitoring, now the data for a given KIT is collected from a
sources set that may not have been previously defined — or
identified.
On top of all this, analytics need to be brought into a whole new
advanced level because the ability to crunch big data, and derive
meaningful information from it, is paramount. This is a topic that has
been widely covered, so I am just making sure this is brought into the
overall SMINT equation here.
Are You, Really?
Again, are we really approaching CI from a SMINT approach? In my
view there are two approaches that have come the closest to SMINT.
The first, in B2B, uses an inbound marketing approach that utilizes
the intelligence derived from a similar process to SMINT (but
identical in mindset), to differentiate and sustain a competitive
advantage in a highly commoditized market. I am referring to Edwin
Vlems and MCB, a metals wholesaler. The second comes from the
B2B and B2C environment, and uses a command center to
strategically direct the brands communication and engagement with
fans. Yes, they are doing it at the brand and marketing level mainly,
but what will happen when they find out the power of applying it
through a CI lens perspective and the company as a whole?
For further information and an overall view on the impacts of SMINT
in CI please visit my LinkedIn profile or consult my Slideshare slide
deck presented at SCIP’s European Summit last November.
About the Author
Luis Madureira holds a unique and balanced set of skills derived
from 17 years of proficient and resilient International leadership in
senior roles across Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom and Angola. He
has a vast functional expertise in Competitive Intelligence, Strategy,
Advisory, General Management and Commerce (Marketing, Trade
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