A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step
Lao Tzu, Dao De Jing, 6-th century BC
You might have heard about the importance of market intelligence a lot already, but are you using it yet? Do you know how many companies save their time, efforts, and increase profits with a market intelligence solution?
Take, for instance, one of the largest food chain brands in the world, McDonald’s. McDonald’s entered the Indian market in the early 1990s. We all know it’s a food chain known for its meat recipes, which was a little controversial with certain sections of the Indian consumers. The company did thorough market research that primarily focused on:
- What recipes the Indian consumers are willing to eat?
- What price are they willing to pay?
Answers to these questions formed a strong base for their market understanding that resulted in a new line of vegetarian items like McVeggie Burger, etc. That paved the success path for McDonald’s in India. If it had not done that research, it would have been a different case study. That’s how crucial market intelligence is for businesses.
Ultimately, all organizations want to win customers and increase profits. But how to do it is the million-dollar question. Market intelligence involves understanding multiple areas of your business proposition, conversion, and strategizing an action plan towards your goals. So to begin your thousand-mile journey, let’s guide you with the small steps, to begin with.
Gaining Market Insights
Business is all about making decisions at the right time. The decisions might be related to a new product launch or entering a new market or even exploring a new geography. Here are some questions that every business encounters at some point.
- Is there a need to develop a new product or a service?
- Who are the target segments?
- Should we enter new markets?
- What can be the price for my product (one of the toughest questions ever)?
- How can we improve our sales?
- What can I do to increase the demand?
When you start your market research with the help of sites like Frost and Sullivan that help in market research and analysis, or Gartner, a leading research and advisory company, or a survey through google forms or even a meticulous google research can help you make the best decisions possible. In short, market research is what drives and decides your business direction.
Knowing Your Customers
The customer is the king and we still believe in this quote. Understanding your customers is the foundation stone for any business.
With the right data and insights, you can filter and segregate target customers and their behavior in a particular market. Market intelligence solutions like Xtract.io’s Analysis and Business Intelligence can help you with sentiment analysis of your customer and potential customers.
You can also check reviews about your brand and other brands on social media to understand their likes and dislikes. Your social listening and resonating with our customers’ views will help the customer feel connected with your brand and business easily.
Not only during acquisition, understanding your customer when they are likely to leave your service will help a lot in customer retention. The bottom line, customer relationship management is a key component that again cannot grow on its own without an informed market intelligence.
Understanding Competitors
Strong research that forms the basis of market intelligence provides the best insights and competitor intelligence is the one that can help you the most. Vendor comparison websites like Capterra, TrustRadius, and Gartner Peer Insights can give you an idea of the top players in your target market and the core aspects that you have to match the competition to stay relevant with the race. These insights help you get a clear picture of the market with actionable data.
With the right actionable insights, it will be a lot easier to track and stay ahead of your competitors. Once your competitive market intelligence is in place, a better decision-making process is easy to win the market.
Importance of Data and Analytics
Be it researching your market, understanding target segments, tracking your competitors, or making decisions, all these essential steps in market intelligence require accurate numbers to arrive at a clear conclusion. That’s where the inevitable role of analytics comes in.
With powerful analytics in place, market intelligence becomes exciting and insightful once for all. There are a lot of analytics and business intelligence solutions available in the market catering to organizations of different sizes.
Xtract.io’s Market Intelligence Solution
Every business needs a market intelligence solution to stay ahead in the competition, but due to multiple constraints, they are unable to invest time and energy. Well, that’s why we provide solutions crafted to your exact business needs.
Check out our solution and see whether it can meet your requirements. Reach us for a demo, and we’ll be more than happy to start a conversation with you.
