ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Market and Competitive Intelligence

Market and competitive intelligence is like playing a game of "Who's Who?" but for companies.

Imagine you are playing "Who's Who?" and you have to guess who the person is by asking questions about their appearance or occupation. In the same way, market and competitive intelligence is about guessing and gathering information about companies to see who is doing what and how you can compete with them.

Market intelligence could mean collecting information about the industry you are in, the costs involved, the needs of your customers, and the trends that move your market. It helps you understand your customers and what they want, so that you can tailor your products or services to meet their needs.

Competitive intelligence, on the other hand, is like trying to figure out what your competitors are up to. If you are playing "Who's Who?" and you're trying to guess who your opponents are, you will ask questions like "do they wear glasses?" or "do they have curly hair?" Similarly, in competitive intelligence, you gather information about your rivals in order to determine their strengths and weaknesses, what they're doing better than you, what you're doing better than them, and what it would take you to win in the marketplace.

Overall, market and competitive intelligence is all about gathering and analyzing information about the market (industry) and your competitors to make better decisions, improve your products or services, and ultimately win in the, you guessed it, market!