杰米·约翰逊　莫海英/译

By collecting and analyzing data about the markets in which they are situated， companies gain valuable insight into how to grow their business.

通过收集和分析其所处市场的相关数据，企业可以在如何发展业务方面获得宝贵的认知。

Keeping track of your competition and the state of your industry is an integral part of operating any business. Traditionally， that information has been termed “market intelligence.” Market intelligence can help you understand your market better and run a more profitable business.

无论经营何种企业，了解竞争对手和行业状况都是企业经营中不可或缺的一部分。传统上，这些信息被称为“市场情报”。市场情报可以帮助企业更好地了解市场动态，获取更多利润。

At its core， market intelligence uses multiple sources of information to create a broad picture of the companys existing market. It looks at a companys customers， problems， competition， and opportunities for creating new products and services.

市场情报的核心在于利用多种信息源，帮助企业全面了解现有市场情况。市场情报着眼于多方信息，包括企业客户、现存问题、竞争对手，以及开发新产品和新服务的机遇等。

You can collect market intelligence by referencing sales logs， customer data， surveys and looking at social media metrics1. Saul Dobney， CEO of research consultancy group Dobney.com， says it is easy for small companies to get started with a common-sense approach.

企业收集市场情报的途径有很多，包括参考销售记录、客户数据、市场调研及查阅社交媒体数据指标等。英国多布尼市场研究咨询公司首席执行官索尔·多布尼表示，对小型企业来说，起步时采取常规方法会比较容易。

“It can be as simple as visiting your competitors websites or stores， finding published information about the number and type of potential customers， and keeping up to date with developments in your area from magazines， journals or business associations，” Dobney said. “It also includes checking for customer comments and feedback online that will help the business improve its offer or service.”

“方法可能很简单，比如：访问竞争对手的网站或商店，查阅有关潜在客户群体数量和类型的公开信息，以及通过杂志、报纸或商业协会等渠道了解所属领域的行业发展动态。”多布尼说，“搜集市场情报还包括查阅客户的线上评价和反馈，这将有助于企业提升其產品或服务质量。”

How do companies use market intelligence

企业如何利用市场情报？

Successful market intelligence answers concrete questions about current and potential customers and competitors， and helps the company determine internal goals2. Questions that market intelligence can address include：

有效的市场情报可以回答关于现有客户、潜在客户和竞争对手的具体问题，帮助企业确定内部目标。市场情报可解决的问题包括：

· Where should the company devote more resources？

· 企业应在哪些领域投入更多资源？

· Which markets should it try to enter next？

· 企业下一步应尝试进军哪些市场？

· What are the buying patterns of our best customers？

· 企业最佳客户的购买模式是什么？

· What products could be cross-marketed3 to existing customers？

· 企业的哪些产品可以交叉营销给现有客户？

· Into what demographic segments4 can the company push new and existing products？

· 企业可以将新产品和已上市产品推给哪些人口细分市场？

Market intelligence helps businesses analyze the overall environment they are operating in. This helps them spot potential risks and identify new opportunities for growth. Most companies do this by looking at four different criteria.

市場情报有助于企业分析其整体经营环境。这可帮助企业发现潜在风险，识别新的发展机会。大多数企业在操作时会考虑四个方面的情报。

Competitor intelligence

竞争者情报

Competitor intelligence involves gathering and analyzing information about your competitors. Analyzing your competitors strengths and weaknesses can help you gain valuable information about your own company and why customers dont always choose your product or service.

竞争者情报指收集和分析企业竞争对手的信息。分析竞争对手的优势和劣势有助于企业获取关于自身的有价值信息，弄清客户没有一直选择本企业产品或服务的原因。

Product intelligence

产品情报

Product intelligence involves analyzing the quality of your product or service. If you sell a physical product， it involves looking at the manufacturing process and whether youre building the product as efficiently as possible. The information you gather will help you improve the value of your product.

产品情报指对产品或服务质量进行分析。如果企业销售实体产品，则需要仔细审查生产流程，并判断现有的设计生产是否已尽可能高效。企业收集这方面信息有助于提高其产品价值。

Market understanding

市场认知

Market understanding helps you get a sense for the different markets where youre selling your product or service. It helps you get a sense for how well youre performing in those markets， and whether there are additional markets you could expand to.

把握市场认知有助于企业了解自身产品或服务向不同市场销售时的总体状况。这可以帮助企业评估自身在不同市场的表现，进而判断是否还有其他可以拓展的市场。

Customer understanding

客户认知

Customer understanding involves learning more about your current customers and why they buy from you. It can also help you understand any challenges you face with those customers to improve satisfaction and customer retention rate5. The information you gather can also help you in your future marketing campaigns.

客户认知指深入了解企业现有客户群体，掌握他们的购买动机。这还可以帮助企业了解，要想提升客户满意度和客户保留率，会面临怎样的挑战。企业收集这方面信息也会有助于将来的营销活动。

How to collect market intelligence

如何收集市场情报？

While there is no set plan for how companies should gather market intelligence， many do so by performing various forms of high-level analysis6. Lets look at four different strategies you can use to collect marketing intelligence.

虽然企业收集市场情报没有固定方案，但很多企业都采取多形式深入分析的策略。以下是企业在收集市场情报时可采取的四种不同策略。

Your current customers

聚焦现有客户

Ajith Sankaran， senior vice president of market intelligence at Blueocean Market Intelligence， said companies often forget that customers are a potential source of data.

美国蓝海市场情报有限公司的高级副总裁阿吉特·桑卡兰表示，企业常常会忽略一点，即客户是市场情报的潜在来源。他指出：“小型企业可以通过建立流程體系的方法来维护客户名录，也可以制定某种形式的客户反馈计划来收集客户情报，这样做易于实施，大多成本较低。”

“Small businesses can set up processes to maintain customer lists and some kind of customer feedback program to collect customer intelligence in an effective and largely inexpensive manner.”

Your sales team is also uniquely positioned to help with market intelligence. Since sales reps7 speak to prospects and customers regularly， they can provide additional insights into industry trends. Using a CRM8 is often the best place for a company to share this information on customers in one place.

企业的销售团队也是获取市场情报的一个独特途径。这是因为销售代表们经常与潜在客户和现有客户进行交流，他们可以提供有关行业趋势更多不一样的见解。通常，使用客户关系管理系统是企业集中管理和分享这种客户信息的最佳方式。

Surveys

开展市场调研

If small business owners want to gather their own market research data， they can also consider sending customers online surveys or polls. Sankaran noted that this can be a useful approach， especially if customer lists are maintained effectively. You can use tools like SurveyMonkey9 or Typeform10 to get started. Another good option is to include a survey link on the customers receipt.

如果小型企业想收集相关市场调研数据，还可以考虑向客户发放在线调查问卷或组织线上民意测验。桑卡兰强调，若企业妥善保存了客户名录，这种方法会很有用。开始时，企业可以使用相关工具（如SurveyMonkey或Typeform）来收集市场情报。另外，在客户收据上附上调查问卷链接也是一个不错的选择。

Website analytics

利用网页分析

Dobney also recommended using information to which you already have easy access： your e-commerce analytics. “You can look at the customer journey through the website，” he said. “How many people arrive and where from？ What is their next step after arriving？ How many get through to the basket？ How many check out？ Looking for patterns and then testing different content， taglines， signposts and offers， using market intelligence to improve the offer.”

多布尼还推荐企业利用好已有的、易获取的资源：电子商务分析报告。他说：“企业可以查看客户在网站上的访问轨迹。了解的内容包括：有多少用户访问了网站，这些用户都来自哪里？用户登录网站后第一步操作是什么？有多少用户添加商品进了购物车？有多少用户下单付款？企业应寻找规律，然后测试不同的内容、标语、指示标志和促销活动对客户选择有什么影响，利用市场情报来改进产品或服务。”

Hire a specialist

聘请行业专家

As a specialist， the analyst can develop a more nuanced11 picture of the market. Theyll do this by communicating with manufacturers， distributors， clients， and others involved in the creation and distribution of a companys products. This type of dialogue， along with hard data12 and marketing research， makes up the majority of a companys market intelligence.

作为行业专家，分析师可对市场情况做出更细致的分析。他们通过与制造商、经销商、客户及其他参与企业产品生产和销售的人员进行交流，来了解市场行情。这种对话，加上硬数据和市场调研成果，构成了企业市场情报的绝大部分内容。

Dont overlook market intelligence

切勿忽视市场情报

Market intelligence can give you greater insights into your industry and help you identify new opportunities for expansion. But its only useful if the information you receive is accurate.

市场情报能帮助企业深入洞察行业情况，鉴别业务拓展的新机遇。但前提是，企业获得的信息必须准确。

While an individual can handle much of the work of market research for a small company， as your company grows you may face new challenges devoting sufficient time to intelligence. As the amount of data gets larger， it may become necessary to use statistical tools and more complex technologies to handle and manipulate the data， Dobney said.

对于小型企业来说，可能一个人就可以处理好大部分的市场调研工作，但随着企业规模的不断扩大，会面临诸多新的挑战，需要花费足够多的时间来获取市场情报。多布尼表示，随着数据量的逐步增加，可能需要使用统计工具和更复杂的技术来管理及分析数据。

（译者单位：大连外国语大学高级翻译学院）