Quantum² Resources : Marketing & Management Tools : Building Competitive Advantage Begins with Intelligent Marketing

Building Competitive Advantage Begins with Intelligent Marketing

A lot of work has been done. You've reviewed your sales goals. Analyzed target markets. Defined problems and opportunities. Prepared a thorough marketing plan.

You know what needs to be accomplished: Retain current customers. Increase purchases. Generate more service or product trials. Get repeat business. The question is, how to go about it? How can your firm gain that elusive edge called competitive advantage? By putting together a marketing strategy, the road map that will aid in achieving your objectives.

Developing the best tactics can be a complex task. Are you going to generate a new market or gain market share? Develop programs for primary and secondary audiences? Generate product, packaging, and pricing strategies? Advertising, promotion, and merchandising strategies? The answer to all of these questions may be yes.

A good foundation for building a strategy may be a careful examination of what competitors are doing. By taking a look at their activities, you may uncover areas where advantage may be gained. Secondary research — existing information found in outside sources — is an ideal starting point for this analysis.

Scoping the Competition
First, begin by clearly identifying exactly who the competitors are. This can be done very efficiently using files like D&B—Dun's Market Identifiers® (File 516) and D&B Dun's Financial Records Plus™ (File 519). Jeff Buschman, research and operations manager of Roster Inc., Ft. Wayne, Indiana, has developed lists of competitors for clients of his human resources consulting firm, sometimes revealing new players. "We utilize the Dun's files—Files 515, 516, and 519. It's amazing how many clients don't know the full extent of the competition." Sometimes he turns up surprises. "Once I looked through Thomas Register Online® (File 535) sorting for 'dyes, progressive' and identified about 45 progressive dye shops." The client got a clear picture of competitors. "They were surprised to discover that the number one competitor was actually in Pennsylvania, contrary to what they had thought."

If identifying competitors is the first step, analyzing their current share of market may be the next.

"A good foundation for building a strategy
may be a careful examination
of what competitors are doing.
By taking a look at their activities,
you may uncover areas
where advantage may be gained."

Analyzing Market Data
Marketing professionals are constantly challenged to come up with accurate, relevant, and comprehensive data for developing sales projections, market share forecasts, and market trend analyses. Finding just the right numbers can be a laborious task without the aid of an online resource like Dialog.

Dialog's collection of marketing databases falls into three key categories: Research reports, trade and news publications, and directory databases. Each of these allows you to hone in on just the type of data you need.

Research Reports
Many Dialog files contain market research data, like Euromonitor Research Reports (File 762) and Datamonitor Market Research Reports (File 761), and Freedonia Market Research (File 763). Many provide published market research reports, like Arthur D. Little Online (File 192), which can be used to determine where to go for information such as approximate market share by brand, media usage, brand loyalty measures, and product user demographics.

Investext® (File 545), where thousands of analyst reports are compiled for specific companies and industries, is also an excellent research source. It contains a broad range of information on companies and industries, including trends, outlooks, and hard data. The DIALINDEX®/OneSearch® categories MKTRES and BUSSTAT allow you to search a number of files containing marketing information simultaneously, and the MARKETFULL OneSearch category provides full-text access to specialized reports on both consumer and industrial products—including key statistics on market share, price, and sales.

Uncovering competitor advertising expenditures
and strategies can also be key to understanding
the shape of markets and developing plans.

Trade and News Publications
Full-text publications, particularly those that are highly vertical such as those in McGraw-Hill Publications Online (File 624), are especially helpful. Gerald Najarian, president of the Princeton, N.J. based Remington Group, a manufacturing consulting firm, began analyzing market data for recycled PET (as used in beverage bottles) gathered from File 624. "Publications like Hazardous Waste Business and Integrated Waste Management gave me critical data. By using Dialog to gain access to them, I was able to get the first part of tackling the problem ironed out." Sales data can also be accessed directly in many Gale Group databases, including PROMT® (File 16), Newsletter Database™ (File 636), and others.

Directory Sources
Dialog's family of U.S. and international company directories can help you quickly size up the competition. What were competitors' annual sales? Where are they located? How many employees do they have? What are their primary lines of business? How profitable are they?

...Many searchers turn to D&B—International Dun's Market Identifiers (File 518) for information on international companies.

Tracking Competitor Moves
You can shed new light on your marketing objectives by conducting a well-thought-out analysis of competitor activities. Through this effort, you can reveal points of advantage: places in which to market "anticategory," for example, in which you establish your company as better than others by positioning against a problem; marketing product attributes, so that dominance is attained relative to a specific competitor; or by developing new or improved product, packaging, selling, or merchandising techniques. Dialog databases have information related to all these topics. Many marketers set up a Dialog Alert so they can regularly retrieve important information automatically.

Uncovering competitor advertising expenditures and strategies can also be key to understanding the shape of markets and developing plans. Trade publications like Adweek and Crain's, found in Business Dateline® (File 635), and Advertising Age, found in Trade and Industry ASAP™ (File 648), can be indispensable, and any of the hundreds of industry-specific journals found in the aforementioned files can round out the details.

These are just a fraction of the total marketing applications of Dialog information. Demographic databases, company directories, industry-specific trade journals, and other files can be used in a variety of ways. Accompanying articles in this issue can help you focus on precise sources.