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Competitive Intelligence

We've grouped together all the information our site contains on competitive intelligence to help you quickly and easily find related articles, suppliers, events, jobs, associations, glossary definitions and more.

Recent Articles

Below are the 5 most recent articles on this topic. These articles were published within the last three years and are only available to registered subscribers.

Built well to work well
The various groups within a company that will be using a mystery shopping program must agree on many things at the outset, such as what the program will measure, how the information will be used and how the program will be organized. Only then can all parties benefit from the process and get the most from what can be an expensive and labor-intensive exercise.
A prescription for continued growth
Since beginning its mystery shopping program, drug store giant Walgreens has seen consistent improvement in its scores. Company-wide buy-in and management backing are credited with helping the program succeed.
Beyond mere gut feel
The author explains the market response modeling process and argues for its ability to show a company how its marketing expenditures are contributing to the bottom line.
Beyond customer service
Mystery shopping has a number of applications beyond the usual measurement of frontline employee performance, including brand-building, image tracking, performance improvement, and competitive audits.
Improve the customer experience
The author lists five issues to consider when developing and deploying a mystery shopping program and provides steps to take in order to secure consistent, worthwhile data.

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Related Articles

There are 52 articles in our archive related to this topic. Below are 5 selected at random and available to all users of the site.

Sharing a common purpose
People's Bank employed on a variety of research tools to make sure its service was up to customer standards, including an annual mailed survey of checking account holders, focus groups at branch locations and an ongoing mystery shopping program.
Blueprints to successful concept development
The second of a two-part series on successful concept development, this article explains the tactical process and specific qualitative and quantitative tools for evaluating and enhancing concepts that lead to products consumers will love.
Similar but different
Companies need customer satisfaction information in order to serve customers better both immediately and in the long run. In this article, customer satisfaction studies and customer service measurement studies, such as mystery shopping, are compared and contrasted.
The pharmacist is foremost
Standard Drug Company conducted a three-phased research program to determine its marketing strategy. To compare service levels among competitors, in Phase 1, participants shopped at Standard drug and its competitors, completed a questionnaire and participated in focus groups. The results of the first phase led to the development of 16 drugstore concepts that were tested using focus groups in Phase 2. The final phase applied a quantitative approach using telephone surveys of selected households.
How to ensure an objective mystery shop
Mystery shopping won't work if managers and employees claim it isn't objective. This article discusses how to ensure an objective and credible mystery shop, including scoring-sheet design and review, potential mystery shopper screening, shopper trial runs and re-shop encouragement.

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Related Glossary Terms

Competitive Intelligence (CI)
A systematic program for gathering, analyzing, and managing external information that can affect your company's plans, decisions, and operations.

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Related Discussion Topics

How does one analyze subconscious decision making?
05/01/2008 by Ad Johnson
What type of Competitive Intelligence?
03/27/2008 by Lisa Deforey
Preferred competitive intelligence vendors?
03/26/2008 by Heath Row

Related Events

AMA MARKETING RESEARCH BOOT CAMP
May 22-23, 2008
The American Marketing Association will hold its Marketing Research Boot Camp on May 22-23 at the Embassy Suites in Chicago. For more information visit www.marketingpower.com.
AMA SUMMER MARKETING EDUCATOR"S CONFERENCE
August 8-11, 2008
The American Marketing Association will hold its summer marketing educator’s conference on August 8-11 at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina in San Diego. For more information visit www.marketingpower.com/research.

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