How Big Data Can Drive Competitive Intelligence Posted on : May 22 - 2015

Companies increasingly mine their own customer data for insights into the market. But what about data that tracks your competitors’ activities – in an ethical but profitable way?

Oh, sure. Coca-Cola isn’t likely to just send Pepsico a terabyte of sales data for kicks. But what if Pepsi knew how often people buy Coke at the supermarket, and what else is likely to be in their shopping cart at the same time?

It’s time for businesses to start a competitive intelligence process -- while lowering the cost of analyzing information. In short, you need to continuously gather data online, from social media, website changes, news sources, and posted documents online, looking for clever bits of gold in the digital stream.

You’ll need to blend baseline of competitive intelligence (to prevent surprises in your own business) with proprietary data sets obtained on the market (to create surprises –you’re your rivals).

Indeed, a universe of third-party data can add context to internal marketing data and can provide strategic insight into the vulnerabilities of competitors. Consider these three market trends:

1. Vendors like Acxiom, KBM Group, Bluekai and Datalogix have been increasingly vacuuming up that marketing data for resale. A 2013 study from the Tata Group looking at big data trends estimated that half of firms producing big data sets sell their digital data today. The average sale earned those companies $22 million in 2012.

2. Of the industries producing big data byproducts for sale, telecommunications firms and tech businesses tend to be the most prolific vendors as well as the most prolific users of external data, according to Tata. Insurance companies tend to make the most money from selling their data, however.

3. Manufacturing firms and energy companies tend to sell the least amount of big data, while consumer goods and media companies tend to use external data the least, despite the obvious value. That’s changing though, because it’s becoming easier to find buyers.

“Third-party data is barely used, and it should be used more,” said Keith Sayewitz, chief marketing officer and head of sales for the Big Data Exchange in Seattle, a Seattle startup that works like a stock market to trade Big Data sets. “Imagine, if you’re a brick-and-mortar retailer, and every consumer walked in with a sign showing you what they had been shopping for in the last month.”  View more