Services: Competitive Intelligence

Business Challenge

With a major trade show approaching and a key product to protect, our pharmaceuticals client needed to both improve its pre-show competitive intelligence gathering and the fluid communication of key learnings during and after the show.  Previous CI efforts -- which included uneven information collection, limited analysis, uncoordinated information dissemination, sporadic follow up and insufficient learnings naturally delivered disappointing results.

Approach

Outward Insights implemented a two-phased approach.  First, we identified and coached a conference quarterback, an internal CI resource responsible for collecting, organizing and managing decision-relevant and actionable intelligence.  Guiding his effort, we provided a timeline and specific list of activities to address before, during, and after the tradeshow.  Second, prior to the show, we trained all company attendees which included marketing managers, sales reps, CI professionals, R&D, etc - to ensure that the effort was coordinated and that changes could be made to the CI collection strategy during the show as new information was learned.

Results

With a nominal additional investment, working with Outward Insights, our client was able to leverage the resources it had already devoted to the trade show and maximize its competitive intelligence effort.  For the first time, company attendees went to the show with a strategic, organized and systematic CI approach from which they were able to make informed decisions and derive unprecedented value. Additionally, we provided a trade show CI template our client was able to independently utilize for future events.