Relationship between CI and Market Research

As indicated, a significant percentage (over 20 percent) of CI professionals polled indicated that their manager's area of work was market planning, research, or analysis. That raises the question of whether CI should, as a general rule, be considered as a part of market research and therefore located in that department.

At present, the differences between CI and market research are more profound than are the similarities (see Table 4.2, page 36).

Table 4.2: Difference between CI and Market Research
	Competitive Intelligence	Market Research
Typical Focus	External	External
Typical Orientation	Strategy-, tactics-, technology-, and/or target-oriented	Tactics-oriented
Typical Tools	Qualitative and quantitative	Largely quantitative
Source of Tools	Adapted from market research, planning, benchmarking, and so on.	Largely developed first for market research
Relative Perspectives	Macro- and micro-level	Largely micro-level
Time Horizons	Historical, current, and long-term future	Historical and current; occasionally near term future
Targeting	Constantly redefined by end users	Relatively stable

The result of these differences is that CI is often a poor fit in a market research department, and conversely, market research is also a poor fit within a CI unit. This conclusion is supported by a recent benchmarking survey which found that "When CI personnel had both market intelligence and marketing research responsibilities, the marketing research responsibilities took precedence (90%) and the intelligence shifted to a secondary function." ^[6] The one exception may be tactics-oriented CI, where the process typically supports marketing efforts. In such cases, so long as managers recognize the critical differences in approach and attitude between typical market research and typical CI, they can work within the same unit.

However, that does not mean that CI and market research should be operating independently of each other. Experience clearly demonstrates otherwise. For example, in the CI unit at PacBell, the market research and information research (internal information brokers) functions now all have established mechanisms for transferring critical information through networking.

One example where the synergy between [these three] groups was valuable was when [PacBell] was trying to determine what its level of involvement in the cable TV market should be. One of the pieces that affected the decision whether or not to create a cable TV subsidiary was put in place when market research determined that customers would switch cable companies if they had an option. From a competitive perspective that was the basis of entry into a new marketplace. ^[7]

^[1]Ted Howard-Jones and Fiona Walker-Davis, "Delivering and Maintaining Tactical Intelligence," in Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, Fifth Annual European Conference and Exhibit: Conference Proceedings (Alexandria, Va.: Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, 2000), 93, 101.

^[2]See Walle, Alf H., III, Qualitative Research in Intelligence and Marketing: The New Strategic Convergence (Westport, Conn.: Quorum Books, 2001).

^[3]Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, 2000/'01 Competitive Intelligence Professionals Salary Survey Report and Reference Guide on Analyst Job Descriptions (Alexandria, Va.: Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals), 55.

^[4]Ruth Stanat, "A Survey of Global CI Practices," Competitive Intelligence Review 4, no. 2/3 (Summer/Fall 1993), 20–24.

^[5]For example, Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, 2000/'01 Salary Survey Report, 53.

^[6]Conway L. Lackman, Kenneth Saban, and John M. Lanasa, "Organizing the Competitive Intelligence Function: A Benchmarking Study," Competitive Intelligence Review 11, no. 1 (1st quarter 2000), 17, 21.

^[7]Donald Baul, "Super synergy in CI: competitive analysis + market research + library science," SCIP.online 1, no. 4 (March 5, 2002).

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Relationship between CI and Market Research

Relationship between CI and Market Research