Competitors' data

Competitors' data is secondary data taken from other enterprises — businesses selling in the same market. It already exists and was collected by someone else, so it counts as secondary market research.

It appears in four main forms:

• Financial data — published company reports with turnover and profit figures, which show how much a rival sells and how profitable it is.
• Marketing data — the prices a rival charges, the promotions it runs and the products it launches.
• Customer information from online sales and transactions — the sales volumes and best-selling ranges a rival reports.
• Loyalty or incentive scheme data — the limited buying patterns a rival makes public from its points card or reward card, such as a top-ten list of popular items.

Advantages

A key advantage is that the information is free and publicly available. A rival's reports, adverts and price lists can be read without paying anyone or filling in a questionnaire.

It is also highly relevant, because a direct competitor sells to similar customers in the same market. If a rival's sales of reusable water bottles are rising, that tells you something real about the customers you want to attract.

Disadvantages

Rivals keep commercially sensitive details private: they will not release information that could help another business compete against them. The most valuable data — exactly how they set prices, who their suppliers are, the full detail behind their reward-card sales — stays hidden. You see the advert, not the sales figures behind it.

Data for a large company cannot easily be compared with a small one's, because they operate on a different scale. A national chain spending £2 million on advertising tells a market stall holder very little about what a sensible advertising budget looks like for them.