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Competitive Analysis & Market Intelligence Flashcards

7 cards from real CSM practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.

Read the first 7 Competitive Analysis & Market Intelligence flashcards as text

  1. The Ansoff Matrix maps growth strategies along two dimensions. Which strategy involves selling NEW products in EXISTING markets?

    Answer: Product Development

    Product Development involves creating new or modified products for the firm's current market base, leveraging existing customer relationships.

  2. A blue ocean strategy is characterized by:

    Answer: Creating uncontested market space where competition is irrelevant

    Blue ocean strategy focuses on creating new demand and market space rather than fighting over existing customers in a crowded, competitive market.

  3. A company discovers that its main competitor has filed patents for technology that could make the company's core product obsolete. This is an example of a:

    Answer: Threat

    A competitor's disruptive patent is an external, negative factor—a threat in the SWOT framework—that could erode the firm's competitive position.

  4. Which approach to competitive intelligence is UNETHICAL and should be avoided?

    Answer: Posing as a potential customer to extract proprietary information

    Misrepresentation—pretending to be a customer to extract confidential information—is an unethical and potentially illegal form of intelligence gathering.

  5. A company in a mature, slow-growth industry holds several business units with low market share and low growth potential. According to the BCG Matrix, these units are classified as:

    Answer: Dogs

    Dogs have both low market share and low growth, offering little return on investment, and are often candidates for divestiture.

  6. Scenario planning in competitive analysis is primarily used to:

    Answer: Create multiple plausible future environments to test strategic resilience

    Scenario planning prepares organizations for multiple possible futures, enabling strategies that remain robust under different competitive conditions.

  7. When a strategic manager identifies that two competitors are pursuing nearly identical strategies—same price range, similar product features, overlapping target segments—they are most likely in the same:

    Answer: Strategic group

    Firms in the same strategic group follow similar strategies along key dimensions, making them each other's most direct competitors.