Gathering information about your competitors makes good business sense. However, you must do so in an ethical and reasonable manner. Competitive intelligence from public sources, customers, and third parties can help companies anticipate market opportunities, trends, and competitive strengths and weaknesses.
These guidelines provide a step-by-step guide to acquiring the information you need without crossing the line.
1. Ask questions: If you find or are offered competitive information that you think may be confidential or proprietary, ask questions to find out how the information was obtained or why it was made available.
2. Be ethical – How would you or your company react if you found out that your competitors are receiving the type of information that you acquired? If you believe that a particular way of collecting competitive intelligence may be unethical, you must assume that your competitors would view it the same way.
3. If it doesn’t seem right, don’t do it: If you are ever in doubt as to whether a source of information or a contemplated technique for gathering information is appropriate or legal, you should contact your manager or attorney.
4. Breaking the law has consequences: If you collect or misuse competitive information, you could be disciplined or fired, and could face criminal and civil penalties. Failure to comply with the law can also result in adverse publicity for your business. Think about how you would feel if your actions were featured on the front page of a newspaper.
5. Legitimate sources of competitive information include:
Public sources. You can collect information about your competitors from public sources such as:
For. Newspapers, magazines, other published articles and television shows.
B. Advertisements and brochures intended for public distribution
vs. Information freely available on the Internet and online search services
D. Public presentations made to government or regulatory authorities, such as SEC reports, patent applications, and litigation records.
me. Analyst reports
F. Industry surveys or reports
gram. Public presentations made by competitors at trade shows and conferences.
h. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and similar requests from government or regulatory agencies
Conversations with clients.
Talking to customers is essential. The more you know about your customers and their businesses, the better you can meet their needs. However, you should not contact customers for the purpose of obtaining confidential information about a competitor. Customers can reveal information about a competitor’s products or prices, as long as the information is not confidential.
Hiring of third parties to obtain information.
Sometimes the company hires third parties to help us gather competitive intelligence and market information for products and services. Third parties are held to the same standards of behavior that you adhere to, so you must assume that if we cannot do this directly, you will not be able to hire someone else to do it.
Third parties who conduct focus groups or interviews with a competitor’s suppliers or customers generally do not have to identify you as their customer, as long as they identify themselves and your company. While a third party does not have to reveal the purpose of the focus group or interview, the third party must not intentionally misrepresent the purpose.
Some of your competitors may have informed you that you cannot subscribe to their products and services. In these cases, you should not hire third parties to access the products or services of the competition. However, in the absence of knowledge that a competitor would have prohibited or prohibited your access, you can hire a third party to subscribe to the product or service.
Keep in mind that your company can sometimes be legally liable for damage or loss caused by a third party if you authorized or appear to have authorized any illegal action. This may be the case even if you do not give direct instructions to the third party, but you know the likely conduct of the third party and “turn a blind eye.”
If you engage a third party to collect competitive information, you must have the third party confirm that you are aware of and agree to comply with applicable laws related to competitive intelligence.
However, some types of information collection may violate the law or may be considered unethical. Some examples include:
New hires. What you can and cannot ask former employees of your competition.
You must not ask or encourage employees who previously worked for a competitor to disclose confidential or proprietary information about the competitor, such as specific details about a competitor’s operations and intentions, including prices, future plans and forecasts that may have been considered confidential or patented. by a competitor.
If you previously worked for a competitor, you should not disclose information about your former employer that you believe to be confidential or proprietary, or bring this information to your office.
However, you can discuss matters of a general nature with an employee who has previously worked for a competitor, including any matter that is in the public domain or that the employer has not treated as confidential.
Misrepresenting your identity. You must not misrepresent your identity to obtain competitive information, if the person from whom you are seeking information would not normally give you the information if they knew your true identity. This can be considered fraud. For instance:
For. You should not contact a competitor, posing as a customer, student, private investigation firm, or potential vendor / vendor, for information.
When providing information to gain access to a competitor’s website, you must answer all the required blanks accurately, but you do not have to fill in the blanks that are not required.
Steal information.
B. You must not attempt to acquire confidential or proprietary information from a competitor by illegal means, such as theft, espionage, or hacking.
vs. You must not conduct any surveillance or monitoring of competitors outside of public places or engage in any form of electronic eavesdropping. However, if you are sitting on an airplane or at an industry conference and overhear a competitor discussing a confidential matter in the line in front of you, the competitor may not have reasonable expectations of privacy.
D. Give gifts for confidential or proprietary information. When collecting competitive intelligence, you must not provide entertainment, gifts, favors, or gratuities to induce someone to provide you with information that is confidential or proprietary. However, you can pay third parties for competitive intelligence derived from legitimate sources.
me. Anonymous packages containing confidential information. If you receive anonymous submissions of competitive information, you must not distribute or use the information.
Information marked “Confidential”. etc. You must not use or buy information belonging to a competitor that is marked as “confidential” or “proprietary”.
F. Offers to access competitive products and services. If a customer, friend, or other person offers you access to a competitor’s product or service, and you would not normally be able to access the product or service on your own, you should decline the offer.
gram. Confidential information lost or neglected. You must not use confidential information belonging to a competitor that is accidentally lost or left unattended.
h. Diving in containers. This is inappropriate and can also be illegal.
I. Competitive offer information. You should not seek or use information that you may receive about a competitor’s bid if you participate in a tender, especially government contracts. However, you are free to use government-released, publicly available, or retrievable information pursuant to a FOIA or other similar request.
j. Information offered in commercial plots. If a client offers us competitive information during a business presentation, we must understand that the client may have an obligation of confidentiality with our competitors who are also promoting the company. As such, we should generally decline to receive information under these circumstances. However, if they tell us something very general or high-level, it may be appropriate for us to use this information in our offering and in our broader business strategy.
Regardless of the method you use to collect competitive intelligence, if you have any questions about the legality of your activity, be cautious and choose another method!
Use these techniques and you will know your competitors better than anyone else. This information is not only beneficial, but can be obtained without breaking the law. Make sure your competitive intelligence practices are up to date.
