The Value of Market Intelligence

In the current volatile market with thin margin as heavy competition reigns, it is essential to place some good premium on being market ‘smart’ by ensuring you have some good intelligence with which you operate in your space in the market.

As Wikipedia puts it, that Marketing intelligence (MI) is the everyday information relevant to a company’s markets, gathered and analyzed specifically for the purpose of accurate and confident decision-making in determining market opportunity, market penetration strategy, and market development metrics.

As simple and straight forward this definition is, I can’t help but ask the following questions:

•           How many companies in local market (e.g. in Nigeria and other developing markets in Africa) have the right information about their product and the market they operate?

•           How many company know where they are with facts in relation to the market and the market potential?

•           Do companies know who their competitors are and what the competitors are up to in facts and figures?

•           Do companies know, based on facts and credible information, where their biggest opportunities are in the market?

It is easier to hide under the guise that a market is big, backed by the obvious situations where the population is huge, but what is the extent, the breath and the depth of the market potential?

How or what is the relevance of such potential to your product and services in factual data terms?

Digging deep into what value and opportunity relevant information brings to a business venture,it gives the organization a sharp cutting edge in milking the juices in a market.

It’s high time businesses began to have predictable business plans and what will help achieve that is keeping up to date with proper Market Intelligence.

Closing with the words of Rustam Lalaka that "Innovation has to be moved to market quickly and marketed aggressively. The early comer who can establish the market standard often wins over the better technology."

Bola Adisa is an IT Business Analyst based in Lagos Nigeria. He currently leads the West Africa sub-region, out of Lagos Nigeria, for a premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets. Email: [email protected] Phone: 07061547518.