What is marketing intelligence? Components of marketing intelligence

The marketing intelligence industry is a growing field that is quickly becoming an essential component of the business world. It's important for marketers to have a plan in place to monitor and track their competitors, as well as know about new technologies and consumer trends which will help them stay ahead of the curve. In this article we'll cover some basic definitions, what it takes to become successful in this career path, and how you can learn more about marketing intelligence today. 

What is marketing intelligence?

Marketing intelligence can be defined as the collection and analysis of data related to consumer trends, marketing campaigns, competitor activity, etc. in order to provide marketing professionals with greater insight into their own marketing efforts. It's very important for marketers to stay ahead of what is happening in their industry so they know how to move forward. Marketing intelligence helps marketers do this by providing them with the big picture.

Short history of marketing intelligence

The marketing intelligence industry is relatively new; it was only in the late 1980s when companies began to collect and analyze data related to what consumers want. Before that, marketers had to conduct surveys with their target market, or rely on third party reports which usually didn't provide the information they needed.

Nowadays, marketing intelligence companies can offer their services to either individual businesses or large corporations. For instance, some marketing intelligence companies provide a service that will monitor a company's competitor's website and report back with any changes made to it within a certain time frame. This can help that company stay on track, as it lets them know if their competitor is going after the same market.

Roles of marketing intelligence

Marketing intelligence plays an important role not just for marketers in building plans, strategies and making decisions.

Marketing intelligence provides insight into the market.

Marketing intelligence providers are able to provide marketing professionals with data about the industry they are in, so it is easier for them to plan what's best for their business.

Marketing intelligence provides information on competitors.

While this is not the only role of marketing intelligence, it does play a significant part in what marketing professionals can learn from marketing intelligence companies.

Marketing intelligence provides a good basement to build a proper marketing plans and strategies.

If marketers are able to use the information that marketing intelligence provides, they will have a foundation of what consumers want and how their competitors are targeting those consumers.

Marketing intelligence supports decision making.

Marketing intelligence helps marketers make decisions by providing them with insights and information on their competitors and the consumer market.

Components of marketing intelligence

A company's marketing intelligence usually have below components:

Market understanding

Market understanding includes the summary of data related to the market such as supplies and demands, government legislation, tax rates, quota... Market understanding help the company in many critical cases such as demand/supply forecasting, production planning, product pricing...

Customer insights

Customer insights includes the the summary of data related to the characteristics of target customers such as age, gender, occupation, religion, income, perception, education, life styles, purchasing power, social class...

Competitor understanding

Competitor understanding includes competitors' information covering rivals, their positions in the market and what have been done by them so far. It is beneficial for companies to understand their competitors not just for marketing but also for other important issues such as joint venturing or alliance creation.

Supplier understanding

Supplier understanding includes the summary of data related to suppliers, such as the numbers of suppliers, capability of each supplier, their market shares and prices, their development trends... Good supplier understanding helps companies in determining the best suppliers, avoid unfavorable supplier and reduce purchasing cost.

Distributor understanding

The distributors understand includes the summary of data related to distribution channels such as their names, positions held in a company, market shares... Good distributor understanding helps companies to identify which part of a supply chain is so important and what can be done to strengthen the performance of that part.

Macro-environment understanding

Macro-environment understanding includes the summary of data related to forces in the macro-environment such as the demographic environment, economic environment, natural environment, technology environment, social-political environment, cultural environment. Knowing changes in the macro-environment can help the company avoid possible risks and build many competitive advantages.

How to build a marketing Intelligence system for a business?

Marketing intelligence can be used as a tool for a business that is looking to build a competitive advantage. Though, the process of bulding a marketing intelligence system might include these steps:

Step 1. Identifying the elements that are needed in marketing intelligence

The first step is to take a deeper look at the company's market and its competitors. The company must take into account what type of information will be necessary to provide it with a competitive edge. Marketing intelligence can be created in many different ways depending on the market and the company's unique needs.

Step 2. Defining how to gather data

Once the company has identified what types of data it needs, the next step is to define how those data can be gathered. Data can be collected by many methods. There are traditional methods such as survey, interview, observation... In addition, more modern methods such as online data collection, social media data, device tracking...

Step 3. Defining how to store and organize data

Companies can store their data in different formats, depending on how it will be used. Some companies choose to have a marketing intelligence department within their organization that performs market analysis and creates reports for staff members. Other companies will outsource this task or have a third party perform the research and create a report for them.

Many companies have a specialized software (CRM, ERP...) to store and manage marketing intelligence data. Such software also need to provide communication tools such as data mining, interactive data visualization and sharing. If your company does not have it yet, you should consider building or buying one for using.

Step 4. Defining how to summarize, calculate and export intelligence data

Once data collection and storage is established, the next step is how to summarize, calculate and export intelligence data. Some companies choose to manually process their data or use a third party agency for this job. However, it would be easier and more efficient to develop an automated system that does this work in a few hours after you put the elements together.

Specialized software (CRM, ERP...) are built to summarize, calculate data and export them under a visual forms such as diagram, chart, tables...

Step 5. Defining how to use the intelligence data

Marketing intelligence can be used in many ways, but it is important to first understand the purpose of the intelligence before using it. This will ensure that the data being analyzed is relevant and appropriate for what a company needs at that particular time.

Conclusion

Marketing intelligence is a powerful tool that can be used to build competitive advantages for companies. Understanding your company's market and competitors, how data should be gathered, stored and summarized so it can be exported under visual forms such as charts or tables are all important steps in creating marketing intelligence systems.

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