Acquired Market Intelligence Reports & Market Studies
Industry reports, market studies and other business intelligence are being made available in many formats and sizes. Any industry or market have their major players in terms of research, market observation and monitoring who create and provide studies, reports, overviews, key market data, trends and indicators.
To pick the right blend of reports and studies can be crucial for the successful utilization of published business intelligence and decision making upon market & competitive intelligence. Some standard intelligence can be found and gathered in circulating newsletters, trade journals and web portals, dedicated (e.g. market specific web portals such as juststyle.com) or not (e.g. Yahoo! Finance, Hoover).
More in-depth intelligence though, specific trends and thorough analysis are available as reports, studies and works from major research institutes and consultants for a fee. Although those fees can be pretty steep (4-to-5 digits US$), most of this specific intelligence can be invaluable if utilized the right way. Most of the time market studies and industry reports providers only allow a certain number of users to consume their work. License agreements are negotiable though for the more specific reports. The more expensive and the more an organization purchase the better the chance to negotiate the variables like licenses and other fees.
To take it even further many industry specialists offer their service to conduct individual studies and analysis and provide customized reports or studies. This can be necessary and invaluable if an organization or corporation requires very specific intelligence for certain defined activities like new market penetration, product range launches, geo-location adjustments or change in market targeting. Such reports and studies can run well into the 6-digits (US$) or more (e.g. major airline contracts, aerospace, automotive, etc.).
Larger organizations with a less structured and managed intelligence process might run the risk to find various managers and employees acquiring the same reports multiple times over without knowing. Large sums of money are being wasted this way, much to the dismay or the intelligence community inside corporations but to the obvious benefit of the intelligence providers. This is by far one of the largest benefit areas and arguments pro a well structures and established intelligence unit. Stopping such double spending can already achieve self-funding of an intelligence unit.