What’s the difference between research and intelligence?

Technically, market intelligence is still part of the domain of market research. But there’s a very important distinction between the two.

Market research is scientific and purposive. It seeks to discover something about the market, and the researcher then devices scientific ways to arrive at this information. You know what you want, and you set about trying to get it.

But market intelligence? It’s more serendipitous than anything else. Intelligence is about getting leads, getting info from various sources, and picking up things with your “ears” (which, aside from your actual ears, include your network of informants among others).

Example: A few years ago, it became “fashionable” for companies to hire investigators to rifle through the garbage of their competitors. They didn’t know what they were going to get, but if they did get something, it may be a goldmine of information.

Years ago, a big beer company pirated the brewmaster of its competitor, with the hope of stealing the secrets as to how the competing brand was formulated. Talk about “buying intelligence.”

And here’s a typical tactic done by many large firms: they come out with ads for very high corporate positions. For instance, “Looking for a VP for Operations. Must be familiar with high-volume beverage production…” The requirements would be so specialized that the only person who can possibly qualify is, surprise surprise, the person who happens to run the competitor’s plant!

It doesn’t end there. Chances are, the scheming company doesn’t really need a new VP. They simply want to gather intelligence. So they’ll offer an astronomical salary and hope that the VP does show up. Once he does, the interviewer pretends to be unimpressed, leading the hopeful VP to begin tossing in more and more information about the way his company works. The interviewer then starts asking very specific questions, getting a rich pile of intelligence about the competitor!

And of course, the company never calls back. And the VP, defeated, never tells anybody about how he applied and failed.

Moral of the story: Um, is there one? Well, perhaps the best moral for this is to take care of your employees. Because if they are not happy, then there is ALWAYS a way for someone else to get crucial information about your company.