Ditch Dumpster Diving. Monitor Media to Ethically Collect Competitive Intelligence. There is no doubt of the need and importance of Competitive intelligence especially when it is leveraged as Media Intelligence tools for informing strategic business decisions about your products, messaging, business expansions, customers and more. However, what is also important is the extent to which competitive intelligence is used? The question that arises is when does competitive research slip into the more morally ambiguous areas of corporate espionage?
Corporate espionage has been doing the rounds for several years. We have heard of old-fashioned dumpster diving to hiring investigators to pose as journalists or volunteers; corporate espionage has adopted several practices, novel and innovative ideas over the years of its existence. More recently, technological upgradation has seeped into corporate espionage with electronic espionage being mostly used. Media Insights refer hacking and electronic surveillance to have been added to the toolbox of the corporate spy. Notwithstanding the extreme value carried by corporate espionage as media intelligence solutions, but how far would you go to gain valuable intelligence about your competitors? While most of us would prefer to maintain a line at digging through competitors’ trash bins, there is a possibility of grey areas. This may thus demand a careful analysis of corporate codes of conduct and weighing those codes against whether certain activities violate your company’s, and your own, ethics and integrity.
So what is ethical competitive intelligence? Let’s define by talking about what it’s not:
It’s not spying. If done ethically- it does not fall within the purview of corporate espionage. Usage of Media Intelligence, such as publicly available information such as online news, TV broadcasts, social media, and radio to analyse competitor’s position is completely legitimate, primarily because everyone has access to the same information. Using media insights to draw specific conclusions on the basis of one’s own analysis is definitely permissible and unique.
It’s not in a morally grey area. Leveraging Media Intelligence solutions by working ethically with publicly available information is not corporate espionage. This activity didn’t require you to hack into someone’s social media account, or pose as someone you’re not. Your competitive intelligence is based on publicly available information.
It’s not as easy as a Google search. Competitive intelligence includes substantial media monitoring intelligence. Simply developing search strings on Google would yield much less and relevant results. What you need, is access to an automated media monitoring and analysis platform for the most comprehensive set of news and information possible and the best tools for media monitoring to visualize trends, measure frequency and more. You do not get that with a simple Google search.
It does not give you new insights. This is an incorrect assumption. Strategic use of Media Intelligence solutions by developing ethical competitive intelligence based on publicly available information does not necessarily mean there are not insights hidden in those data. Such insights may not immediately be obvious to others, but maybe developed through thorough analysis.
Utilising the best tools for media monitoring intelligence and advanced analytics, you can uncover significant competitive intelligence. If you want to garner greater insights into your competition's strategies and strengths, what you need is effective media intelligence tools, comprehensive media monitoring and analytics to develop effective and ethical insights. 3 Ways to Apply This Information Now Find out why you need a broader definition of ‘Competitive Intelligence’ in our white paper, Making Competitive Intelligence Work: Why Some CI Strategies Fall Short & How to Ensure Yours Don’t. Check out the LexisNexis Newsdesk video overview to learn more about this powerful media monitoring and analytics solution. https://internationalsales.lexisnexis.com/in