Since Tim Powell did such a great job summarizing our podcast, it would be a shame not to include his salient points here. This is why he’s such a great interview on the subject of market research, competitive intelligence, and more:
- Businesses have always wanted and needed to know about each other’s activities. Until the 20th century, this was mostly handled by direct conversations among business leaders.
- The conditions that created the need for modern competitive intelligence in the US began to be laid by the anti-trust legislation of the early 20th century. When businesses were legally prevented from sharing information, they had to devise some other way to obtain it.
- The mid-century rise of TV as a business force gave rise to one of the immediate predecessors of competitive intelligence – market research. Companies needed structured information about the world outside their borders, so they could increase the return on their advertising spending.