November 2010 Insight
Competitive Intelligence Use is Growing Among Companies Despite the Economic Downturn
After taking the pulse of our clients and of other CI consultants and CI firms, we can come to only one conclusion. Business is up!
In some cases, budgets are smaller for a project, but overall the number of projects has increased. There are more problems to address, and companies are more concerned about maintaining their competitive edge. With fewer customers, there is more reason to understand what the competition is doing to take yours.
Companies are getting smarter -- they understand that having a competitive advantage is even more important than ever before.
There is no extra money to spend on R&D for products that have no chance of success. There are no marketing dollars for campaigns that don't address your key market differentiators. There are no funds for unproven strategies.
We are becoming sharper, better, and more cost-effective, and there are times when only competitive or market intelligence can provide that. So kudos to companies that are meeting a difficult market head-on with real information that can help them compete.