Developing Successful Market Intelligence: A Case Study

Marketing departments spend endless time and energy on marketing the company and its products to the outside world, yet they often overlook the importance of their models and expertise to internal services within the company. The author describes the setting up of a market intelligence function within the UK subsidiary of a multinational computer company, using marketing techniques to research and “sell” the service to other departments within the company. The value‐activities of marketing – market understanding, strategy formulation, detailed planning and marketing operations are discussed, and how each of these informed the establishment and development of the market intelligence function is considered. Having established market intelligence in the company, the author discusses the management of the service, particularly the eed for constant evaluation and adjustment, and the importance of computer systems which meet the user′s needs.