Competive intelligence - Case Study
The corporate division of a major UK bank wished to understand its competitors’ operating structures and service propositions to a level of detail which would not have been possible solely relying on desk research, perceived wisdom and internal knowledge.
IQ designed a research approach which involved working with the bank’s internal information and research, conducting desk research, interviewing commercial finance brokers, relationship managers, processing and service support centres, product development managers and investment analysts amongst peer competitors.
The interviewing approach always entailed presenting information to respondents with a view to sharing insight derived from discussions with other respondent groups. This collaborative approach enabled us to solicit answers to complex questions in a commercially responsible and ethical manner, without compromising the respondent or the client.
By understanding the competition in much greater depth the client was able to identify specific areas of weakness in certain banks’ propositions which its own, customer facing managers were able to exploit in a business development capacity.