competitor analysis - sources of information

Davidson (1997) describes how the sources of competitor information can be neatly grouped into three categories:

• Recorded data: this is easily available in published form either internally or externally. Good examples include competitor annual reports and product brochures;

• Observable data: this has to be actively sought and often assembled from several sources. A good example is competitor pricing;

• Opportunistic data: to get hold of this kind of data requires a lot of planning and organisation. Much of it is “anecdotal”, coming from discussions with suppliers, customers and, perhaps, previous management of competitors.

The table below lists possible sources of competitor data using Davidson’s categorisation:

In his excellent book [Even More Offensive Marketing], Davidson likens the process of gathering competitive data to a jigsaw puzzle. Each individual piece of data does not have much value. The important skill is to collect as many of the pieces as possible and to assemble them into an overall picture of the competitor. This enables you to identify any missing pieces and to take the necessary steps to collect them.