Competitive Intelligence Gathering Flashcards

A company wants to assess competitor pricing without direct access to their price lists. Which method is most effective?

Answer: Conducting a mystery shopping exercise

Mystery shopping — posing as a potential customer — is a common and ethical method for obtaining competitor pricing and sales process information.

In competitor financial analysis, 'gross margin compression' signals which competitive pressure?

Answer: The competitor faces pricing pressure or rising input costs eroding profitability

Gross margin compression means revenue growth is not keeping pace with cost of goods sold, often due to price wars, commodity cost increases, or operational inefficiencies.

Which analytical technique assigns numerical scores to competitor capabilities across predefined criteria to enable objective comparison?

Answer: Weighted competitive benchmark scorecard

A weighted competitive benchmark scorecard quantifies and compares competitors across standardized criteria, reducing subjective bias in capability assessments.

Which public database is most useful for CI analysts researching competitor patent activity in the US?

Answer: USPTO Patent Full-Text Database

The USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) Patent Full-Text Database provides searchable records of all US patent applications and grants.

A CI analyst wants to understand a competitor's distribution strategy. Which source would be LEAST useful?

Answer: The competitor's federal corporate tax return

Federal corporate tax returns are private and not publicly accessible, making them unavailable as a CI source regardless of their potential relevance.

The 'Red Team' approach in CI involves analysts who:

Answer: Simulate competitor decision-making to anticipate their next moves

Red Teaming requires analysts to think and act as the competitor would, stress-testing assumptions and forecasting competitive responses from the rival's perspective.

Which metric is most valuable when using web analytics tools to benchmark competitor digital performance?

Answer: Estimated organic traffic share and keyword overlap

Organic traffic share and keyword overlap (available via tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs) reveal a competitor's SEO strength and content strategy relative to your own.