杰米·約翰遜　莫海英/譯

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

通過收集和分析其所處市場的相關(guān)數(shù)據(jù)，企業(yè)可以在如何發(fā)展業(yè)務(wù)方面獲得寶貴的認(rèn)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.

無論經(jīng)營何種企業(yè)，了解競爭對手和行業(yè)狀況都是企業(yè)經(jīng)營中不可或缺的一部分。傳統(tǒng)上，這些信息被稱為“市場情報(bào)”。市場情報(bào)可以幫助企業(yè)更好地了解市場動(dòng)態(tài)，獲取更多利潤。

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.

市場情報(bào)的核心在于利用多種信息源，幫助企業(yè)全面了解現(xiàn)有市場情況。市場情報(bào)著眼于多方信息，包括企業(yè)客戶、現(xiàn)存問題、競爭對手，以及開發(fā)新產(chǎn)品和新服務(wù)的機(jī)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.

企業(yè)收集市場情報(bào)的途徑有很多，包括參考銷售記錄、客戶數(shù)據(jù)、市場調(diào)研及查閱社交媒體數(shù)據(jù)指標(biāo)等。英國多布尼市場研究咨詢公司首席執(zhí)行官索爾·多布尼表示，對小型企業(yè)來說，起步時(shí)采取常規(guī)方法會比較容易。

“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.”

“方法可能很簡單，比如：訪問競爭對手的網(wǎng)站或商店，查閱有關(guān)潛在客戶群體數(shù)量和類型的公開信息，以及通過雜志、報(bào)紙或商業(yè)協(xié)會等渠道了解所屬領(lǐng)域的行業(yè)發(fā)展動(dòng)態(tài)?！倍嗖寄嵴f，“搜集市場情報(bào)還包括查閱客戶的線上評價(jià)和反饋，這將有助于企業(yè)提升其產(chǎn)品或服務(wù)質(zhì)量?！?/p>

How do companies use market intelligence

企業(yè)如何利用市場情報(bào)？

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：

有效的市場情報(bào)可以回答關(guān)于現(xiàn)有客戶、潛在客戶和競爭對手的具體問題，幫助企業(yè)確定內(nèi)部目標(biāo)。市場情報(bào)可解決的問題包括：

· Where should the company devote more resources？

· 企業(yè)應(yīng)在哪些領(lǐng)域投入更多資源？

· Which markets should it try to enter next？

· 企業(yè)下一步應(yīng)嘗試進(jìn)軍哪些市場？

· What are the buying patterns of our best customers？

· 企業(yè)最佳客戶的購買模式是什么？

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

· 企業(yè)的哪些產(chǎn)品可以交叉營銷給現(xiàn)有客戶？

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

· 企業(yè)可以將新產(chǎn)品和已上市產(chǎn)品推給哪些人口細(xì)分市場？

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.

市場情報(bào)有助于企業(yè)分析其整體經(jīng)營環(huán)境。這可幫助企業(yè)發(fā)現(xiàn)潛在風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，識別新的發(fā)展機(jī)會。大多數(shù)企業(yè)在操作時(shí)會考慮四個(gè)方面的情報(bào)。

Competitor intelligence

競爭者情報(bào)

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.

競爭者情報(bào)指收集和分析企業(yè)競爭對手的信息。分析競爭對手的優(yōu)勢和劣勢有助于企業(yè)獲取關(guān)于自身的有價(jià)值信息，弄清客戶沒有一直選擇本企業(yè)產(chǎn)品或服務(wù)的原因。

Product intelligence

產(chǎn)品情報(bào)

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.

產(chǎn)品情報(bào)指對產(chǎn)品或服務(wù)質(zhì)量進(jìn)行分析。如果企業(yè)銷售實(shí)體產(chǎn)品，則需要仔細(xì)審查生產(chǎn)流程，并判斷現(xiàn)有的設(shè)計(jì)生產(chǎn)是否已盡可能高效。企業(yè)收集這方面信息有助于提高其產(chǎn)品價(jià)值。

Market understanding

市場認(rèn)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.

把握市場認(rèn)知有助于企業(yè)了解自身產(chǎn)品或服務(wù)向不同市場銷售時(shí)的總體狀況。這可以幫助企業(yè)評估自身在不同市場的表現(xiàn)，進(jìn)而判斷是否還有其他可以拓展的市場。

Customer understanding

客戶認(rèn)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.

客戶認(rèn)知指深入了解企業(yè)現(xiàn)有客戶群體，掌握他們的購買動(dòng)機(jī)。這還可以幫助企業(yè)了解，要想提升客戶滿意度和客戶保留率，會面臨怎樣的挑戰(zhàn)。企業(yè)收集這方面信息也會有助于將來的營銷活動(dòng)。

How to collect market intelligence

如何收集市場情報(bào)？

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.

雖然企業(yè)收集市場情報(bào)沒有固定方案，但很多企業(yè)都采取多形式深入分析的策略。以下是企業(yè)在收集市場情報(bào)時(shí)可采取的四種不同策略。

Your current customers

聚焦現(xiàn)有客戶

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

美國藍(lán)海市場情報(bào)有限公司的高級副總裁阿吉特·桑卡蘭表示，企業(yè)常常會忽略一點(diǎn)，即客戶是市場情報(bào)的潛在來源。他指出：“小型企業(yè)可以通過建立流程體系的方法來維護(hù)客戶名錄，也可以制定某種形式的客戶反饋計(jì)劃來收集客戶情報(bào)，這樣做易于實(shí)施，大多成本較低。”

“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.

企業(yè)的銷售團(tuán)隊(duì)也是獲取市場情報(bào)的一個(gè)獨(dú)特途徑。這是因?yàn)殇N售代表們經(jīng)常與潛在客戶和現(xiàn)有客戶進(jìn)行交流，他們可以提供有關(guān)行業(yè)趨勢更多不一樣的見解。通常，使用客戶關(guān)系管理系統(tǒng)是企業(yè)集中管理和分享這種客戶信息的最佳方式。

Surveys

開展市場調(diào)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.

如果小型企業(yè)想收集相關(guān)市場調(diào)研數(shù)據(jù)，還可以考慮向客戶發(fā)放在線調(diào)查問卷或組織線上民意測驗(yàn)。桑卡蘭強(qiáng)調(diào)，若企業(yè)妥善保存了客戶名錄，這種方法會很有用。開始時(shí)，企業(yè)可以使用相關(guān)工具（如SurveyMonkey或Typeform）來收集市場情報(bào)。另外，在客戶收據(jù)上附上調(diào)查問卷鏈接也是一個(gè)不錯(cuò)的選擇。

Website analytics

利用網(wǎng)頁分析

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.”

多布尼還推薦企業(yè)利用好已有的、易獲取的資源：電子商務(wù)分析報(bào)告。他說：“企業(yè)可以查看客戶在網(wǎng)站上的訪問軌跡。了解的內(nèi)容包括：有多少用戶訪問了網(wǎng)站，這些用戶都來自哪里？用戶登錄網(wǎng)站后第一步操作是什么？有多少用戶添加商品進(jìn)了購物車？有多少用戶下單付款？企業(yè)應(yīng)尋找規(guī)律，然后測試不同的內(nèi)容、標(biāo)語、指示標(biāo)志和促銷活動(dòng)對客戶選擇有什么影響，利用市場情報(bào)來改進(jìn)產(chǎn)品或服務(wù)?！?/p>

Hire a specialist

聘請行業(yè)專家

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.

作為行業(yè)專家，分析師可對市場情況做出更細(xì)致的分析。他們通過與制造商、經(jīng)銷商、客戶及其他參與企業(yè)產(chǎn)品生產(chǎn)和銷售的人員進(jìn)行交流，來了解市場行情。這種對話，加上硬數(shù)據(jù)和市場調(diào)研成果，構(gòu)成了企業(yè)市場情報(bào)的絕大部分內(nèi)容。

Dont overlook market intelligence

切勿忽視市場情報(bào)

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.

市場情報(bào)能幫助企業(yè)深入洞察行業(yè)情況，鑒別業(yè)務(wù)拓展的新機(jī)遇。但前提是，企業(yè)獲得的信息必須準(zhǔn)確。

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.

對于小型企業(yè)來說，可能一個(gè)人就可以處理好大部分的市場調(diào)研工作，但隨著企業(yè)規(guī)模的不斷擴(kuò)大，會面臨諸多新的挑戰(zhàn)，需要花費(fèi)足夠多的時(shí)間來獲取市場情報(bào)。多布尼表示，隨著數(shù)據(jù)量的逐步增加，可能需要使用統(tǒng)計(jì)工具和更復(fù)雜的技術(shù)來管理及分析數(shù)據(jù)。

（譯者單位：大連外國語大學(xué)高級翻譯學(xué)院）