Competitive intelligence is the practice of using data and insights to stay ahead of the competition in the marketplace. It enables companies to anticipate the moves of their rivals, identify new opportunities, and develop effective strategies. It plays an important role in product experience management (PEM) and PIM system optimization.
Competitive intelligence can provide businesses with valuable insights into the design and performance of their products as well as insights into how their competitors’ products are being used. With this data, product experience managers can develop smarter segmentation strategies and improve the user experience delivered to the customer.
The benefits of competitive intelligence in product experience management
Competitive intelligence can offer product experience managers a range of benefits when it comes to managing product performance and customer experience. Here are some of the key advantages of using competitive intelligence in PEM :
Information on competitors' products
Competitive intelligence allows product experience managers to monitor the performance of their competitors' products and identify new opportunities in the market. With this data, they can better understand customer preferences and develop better segmentation strategies.
Insights into different customer experiences
Competitive intelligence can provide product experience managers with revelatory insights about their customers. They can use this data to understand how their own products are used in different contexts and how the customer's experience could be improved.
Analysis of social media trends
Competitive intelligence gives product experience managers valuable insights into the latest developments in their target markets. By analyzing social media trends, they can identify new customer interests to focus on, emerging trends to capitalize on, and new opportunities to pursue.
Trend forecasting
Competitive intelligence enables product experience managers to predict future market trends. They can use this data to develop agile strategies that allow them to quickly respond to changing market conditions and seize new opportunities.
Risks of competitive intelligence in product experience management
Despite the wealth of benefits offered by competitive intelligence, there are some risks associated with using such data. Here are some of the potential pitfalls that product experience managers should be aware of :
Data entry errors
Competitive intelligence relies on accurate data, which can be difficult to achieve. Data entry errors can lead to faulty conclusions and inaccurate insights, so product experience managers must exercise caution when making decisions based on competitive intelligence.
Legal compliance
Using competitive intelligence to gain insights into competitors' products can be seen as a violation of antitrust laws. Product experience managers must be mindful of legal compliance when using this data and exercise caution when using such data.
Expense of valuable resources
Competitive intelligence requires significant resources to acquire and analyze data. This can be costly and time-consuming, and product experience managers must decide whether the benefits of such data outweigh the costs and resources requirement.