Market Intelligence in Austrian Companies

Insights / Market Intelligence

Market Intelligence in Austrian Companies

Assessment, Critical Evaluation, and Ideas

Wortwolke in Form einer Glühbirne mit bunten Begriffen rund um Marketing Management.

Many companies and entrepreneurs report frustration, feeling overwhelmed, or wasted time when the topic of Marketing Intelligence comes up.

This prompted us to conduct a survey of 20 executives from large Austrian companies (retail, high-tech, food industry, banks, etc.) to learn more.

Observation 1: Many incidental or routine measures – clear integration into strategic processes occurs only in rare cases

If the necessary information modules are not derived from the company’s strategic goals and challenges (e.g., desired positioning, new target markets, new service priorities, innovation ideas), top management does not know who in the company collects what information in what form and how it is used. There is a lack of knowledge about and availability of market information for the strategic management of the company. Activities often arise from routine; what has once been established is rarely questioned. As a result, the ongoing collection of market information has the dubious reputation of providing a lot of data but no decision-relevant information base. Data is collected, but anyone who wants to use this knowledge for a strategic decision perceives the available data as unusable – because it is too general, too specific, or not current enough.

“We have too much information; the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Besides that, there's information that's purchased because it always has been, even though nobody actually looks at it.”

The collection of market information in many companies is based on intuition or habit – strategic considerations remain in the background. Only in a few companies is the collection and use of market information clearly integrated into strategic processes. Through continuous review, routine activities that produce largely unused information can be identified and eliminated. The budget is freed up for currently relevant issues, the answers to which directly contribute to decision-making or verification. Stronger alignment between strategic decision-making processes and market information collection would certainly be worthwhile. Companies should regularly and consciously question their information map and underlying collection activities and review them for their strategic value.

“Ideally, it all flows into a big database, but then what? I'm quite sure we collect a lot of data that we don't use optimally. And then there's the danger that it becomes a pile that nobody looks at in the end. The challenge is: How is the information distributed and how do we find out what's really important in the entire information flow?”

Observation 2: The Myth: “We know a lot because our employees are close to the market.”

The belief that it is sufficient for responsible employees to go through the world with open eyes and ears is still widespread. Companies lull themselves into a false sense of security, unaware of the information gaps that a focus on internal feedback entails. Employees (e.g., sales representatives) report what seems useful to them but keep executives in the dark about “unsuitable” facts. The type of information collected by “customer-facing” individuals is strongly related to immediate operational issues, in line with their tasks. Therefore, the information gained is primarily suitable for operational purposes, leads to reactive behavior by decision-makers, and is only of limited use for strategic course-setting.

“In our company, every employee (management team, middle management) is tasked with keeping their eyes and ears open and bringing back ideas when they are on vacation.”

The myth of knowing a lot is responsible for the fact that...

there is no equivalent to accounting with similar importance in companies (people confidently look to the past!).
new media are used only very hesitantly for information gathering.
there is hardly any information about how customers perceive their own company compared to the competition.
there is no continuous information maintenance.

All of this leads to “surprises.” Such an approach cannot replace chance with error (from which one could learn). Through a structured and planned approach to information gathering, companies should be able to create a market-side equivalent to internal accounting – a kind of “market success statement” – to put an end to actual or impending blind flying.

“There is no equivalent to the accounting/controlling department with similar importance. Our sales managers are absolute pragmatists, and they are interested in facts.”

Observation 3: Well-informed individuals ≠ well-informed organization

The attempt to automate information collection and distribution, or at least information storage, by installing complex knowledge management systems and making individual knowledge more widely available, often fails due to the “user-friendliness” of the systems. Or due to the importance attributed to information within the company: data maintenance is seen by employees as an annoying extra effort. Technical solutions at best provide support. The foundation for functioning information flow is laid in the corporate culture. Companies like to rely on their internal experts who are close to the market and provide current knowledge combined with many years of experience to other employees. This approach becomes problematic when these individuals leave the company or when their continuous involvement in strategy workshops hinders them in their actual tasks.

“It's a never-ending story. You think you've solved the problem by creating IT drives. But that's not binding enough. In the sense of: Responsibility: everyone; Deadline: ongoing.”

A structured process to make existing information accessible or to convert this individual knowledge into organizational knowledge and distribute it correctly is lacking in many companies. Chance, or the respective interest and initiative of individuals, determines when and in what form relevant information reaches decision-makers.

Our Recommendations

Recommendation 1

The company’s strategic objectives must guide information gathering. For a repositioning, customer expectations as well as one’s own strengths and those of competitors must be analyzed. For geographical expansion, information on potential target markets and the capabilities required for market entry is needed. For technological innovations, customer expectations and the feasibility of the idea should be in focus.

Recommendation 2

An information map should define what information is particularly important, what sources are used, and what methods are employed – and be regularly reviewed. It needs to be clarified what information is actually needed in what quality and quantity, what strategic decisions it should support, who collects it, who receives it internally, and what activities are built upon it.

Recommendation 3

Top managers must continuously demand and visibly utilize important information, break established routines by specifying and limiting information fields, and require clear, decision-relevant statements from information gatherers. Only then will information gathering gain the necessary importance within the company.

Recommendation 4

Knowledge about the perception of one’s own company or brand(s) by important stakeholders is an absolute must for effective organizational management. While customer satisfaction and competitor observation are still very present in information gathering, the topic of brand perception by customers holds a far less significant position in the canon of strategic market information. Given the enormous success potential of a strong brand, companies should pay significantly greater attention to it.

Recommendation 5

IT systems serve as support but do not automatically guarantee the quality of strategic information. They are only as good as the continuous input they receive. IT systems are particularly useful when they help to structure strategic information, continuously develop it, and quickly make the most important information accessible from the abundance of data (e.g., through internal WIKIs with comment functions, dashboards with decision-relevant or control-necessary KPIs and data cockpits, internal newsletter systems for information dissemination). No IT system should obscure the fact that informal, personal exchange among information carriers still holds enormous importance, especially where fertilization, creativity, and critical questioning are concerned.

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Lächelnder Mann mit Brille und Dreitagebart blickt freundlich direkt in die Kamera.

From Mag. Christoph Antretter 08.03.2023

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