Crayon Competitive Intelligence Blog

The foundational goals of a competitive intelligence program are to enable the organization to better understand their market, make stronger strategic decisions, and ultimately increase revenue. But,...

Executive leadership makes critical business-directing decisions every day. In order for those decisions to be sound, executives need a clear view of the competitive landscape and how the company...

With the continuous advancement of technology, the Competitive Intelligence (CI) industry has seen many changes over the last five to ten years. Technology aside, we’ve seen many trends arise that...

Competitive Intelligence (CI) is growing. According to the recent State of Competitive Intelligence Report, more than half (57%) of businesses have CI teams of two or more dedicated CI professionals,...

The entire tech world, and many other industries, are suddenly grounded at home, working remotely. Events have been postponed or canceled, but we’re all still hungry to learn and develop. On top of...

When a global market event takes hold and catches everyone by surprise, executives are left scrambling to get a handle on how their industry is responding. With the latest crisis, our customer...

Competitive Intelligence (CI) is a critical part of a smart business strategy. Even still, Competitive Intelligence is questioned by those unfamiliar with the process. In particular, we often hear...

Baking a cake and crafting your competitive intelligence (CI) program surprisingly have a lot of overlap. If you’ve ever watched an episode of the Great British Baking Show, you’ll know there’s no...

Competitive intelligence (CI) skills need to be honed and sharpened regularly. The field of competitive intelligence changes constantly, with new tactics, strategies, and technologies popping up and,...

Sophisticated competitive intelligence (CI) programs are not built overnight. They require investment - in the form of people, budget, and time - that likely isn’t available on day one. Effective CI...

Most marketers and competitive intelligence (CI) pros would agree that gathering competitive insights is only a valuable activity if those insights are used to further key business goals. Almost...

With every new initiative comes its own set of challenges. Creating and executing a competitive intelligence (CI) program isn’t always easy, no matter how experienced the professional or how robust...

The Competitive Intelligence (CI) process can be time-consuming. Whether or not you’re a full-time CI professional, researching, analyzing, and communicating competitive intelligence information can...

Competitive landscapes are fast-moving and complex. Professionals specialized in this field learn the best practices in capturing and analyzing competitor moves and translating that into effective...

One of the hardest problems for many competitive intelligence (CI) professionals is how to measure the impact of programs that they put into place. In fact, less than half (44%) of CI teams have...

Competitive intelligence (CI) is not a new business function. The way businesses and CI practitioners are approaching competitive intelligence, however, is changing quickly. We recently surveyed...

If a business wants to maintain any sort of competitive advantage, having a competitive intelligence (CI) function is crucial. But how are businesses doing CI today? How much are they investing, and...

Today, we’re excited to share the results of the third annual market and competitive intelligence research study, the 2020 State of Competitive Intelligence report. This is the largest study on the...

The following post was written by Jeanne Hopkins. As Chief Marketing Officer at Lola.com, Jeanne Hopkins leads the company’s marketing organization as well as its customer success organization. She...

Competitive Intelligence (CI) is an integral piece of every successful business strategy. It’s important for a company to understand where they stand within their market, so they can make...

Poking fun at your competitors is a marketing tactic that has been used for years. Whether you’re making a discreet pass or totally throwing shade at your competition, competitive ads are prominent...

Every business has competitors, whether that be status quo or a laundry list of similar companies. How effective we are at winning deals against our competitors is one of the key measures of a...

Pricing is one of the most sought-after pieces of competitive intelligence. But many companies keep their pricing under wraps, off their website, and especially out of the hands of their competitors....

Choosing the best competitive intelligence (CI) solution for your business isn’t always a quick and easy process. To ensure that the solution you choose meets all of your needs and delivers results,...