In market competition, information about competitors is extremely valuable to enterprises. Due to the special relationship between enterprises and competitors, enterprises often use some indirect channels and methods to conduct online market research on competitors. The research content of this part includes the following aspects.
① Basic information of competitors. You can browse the website of competitors, collect relevant information, and analyze and study it. You can also participate in BBS (Bulletin Board System, electronic bulletin board system) and online news group discussions with strong pertinence to obtain indirect information about competitors from third parties.
② Market share owned by enterprises and competitors. The market share of an enterprise can be obtained by dividing its sales volume by the estimated size of the entire market. There are various sources for estimating the market share of competitors: one is the comprehensive research report of the industry, some of which are obtained from professional survey companies (such as comScore), some from industry associations or from investment analysts who track the market; the second is that enterprises conduct online surveys, ask the respondents about their brand purchases, and estimate the market share of different brands, but this kind of survey estimate is prone to large errors.
③ Resources and strategies of competitors. Information about competitors’ financial status, key personnel changes, changes in factory production capacity or other resources, new products under consideration, target markets and marketing strategies are all very valuable. Pay attention to obtaining them from the following aspects: the company’s financial information can be obtained from the annual report. Now some companies, especially Internet companies, have begun to publish quarterly and annual financial reports on their websites; information such as personnel changes and new products can be obtained from industry publications or industry websites; target markets and sales strategies can usually be inferred from competitors’ marketing activities, such as advertising content and advertising placement. It should be pointed out that obtaining competitive intelligence must comply with legal regulations and ethical standards.