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Invest in Intelligence Resources |
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Information is crucial to winning. |
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Successful ventures do good intelligence homework so they can target their products. |
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Accurate intelligence allows for better use of your resources. The information derived reduces risks because you have the data which gives you better odds. Only a gambler with inside information can rationally bet his whole stake on a single race. Good marketing research management puts you in the business of managing risks instead of taking risks. |
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The key assumption of intelligence is that an impression of what is not known can be pieced together by studying what is known. Good strategy needs good assumptions, and good assumptions are a product of good intelligence. |
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America's most successful corporations have large cadres of internal and external market research services. They treat marketing research as a corporate asset because it helps them market more effectively and efficiently. |
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It is easy to do bad market research because we so often want to ask the questions that will tell us what we want to hear. Before determining questions, you must learn everything you can about the area you want to study. That means a series of personal visits to the places where your product or service is consumed. |
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Too often, we think that knowledge of ourselves and our opponent is a destination we've already reached. Gathering knowledge is an ongoing, dynamic, feedback process. |
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An abundance of information incorrectly interpreted can lead to fatally wrong conclusions. Improper action from advance signals can even exacerbate the problem. |
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In intelligence failures, the problem is not that the information is unavailable, but rather that it is not taken seriously by commanders who, once committed to a course of action based on bureaucratic consensus, refuse to recognize the validity of contrary data and are unwilling to abandon the original operation. |
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You must know your opponent and understand his strengths and weaknesses. You must understand everything you can about the market for your product, service, or idea. |
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