What are your competitors up to? Do you know? If you don't know or fail to pay close attention to the movements of your competition, you could be placing your joint venture in jeopardy. While you are blissfully oblivious to competitors' marketing efforts, they may be employing strategies to take more of the market share, enticing your customers to change loyalty and even ultimately putting your JV out of business. If you and your JV partner want to continue a successful venture, then you must keep your proverbial ear to the ground on others' marketing efforts. Here are five easy ways how: 1. Visit in Person Regularly Some of the best competitor intelligence you can gather for your JV business is done in person. If your competition is local, keep a regular schedule to visit their stores often. A personal visit, even to "browse", can reveal important details as to how the stores operate, their customer service level, and their frequent promotions. Keep an eye on displays and merchandise promotions. Go through and make notes on their pricing. If visiting in person is not viable, be a regular browsing customer on the websites of your competition. By frequent web browsing, you can gather much intelligence, such as site design, special promotions and coupons, and even biographical information on the leadership. 2. Be a Customer Visiting a business can be helpful, but becoming a customer is even more valuable. Make a purchase every once in a while. Buy in person, over the phone, and online to see how they manage the transaction process. Take special note of the customer service they use. If you are afraid of being recognized, hire a "secret shopper" to do the intelligence gathering. With this information, you can acquire tips on how you can improve your own service and transactions to beat the competition. 3. Subscribe If your competition offers customers a way to sign up for special deals and promotions then get your name, or an alias, on the list. You will want to know how often your competition sends coupons or special offers through the mail or email, and how they contact their customers. Newsletters are also a great way to get valuable information for your own JV promotions. 4. Watch the Advertisements Part of your JV competition research should be a regular review of published ads. You should already know the best places for media ads, such as television, newspapers, magazines, etc. Keep subscriptions of these and watch how and where your competition places ads. Check the size and quality of color and graphics. What are the promotions? You can formulate your own JV marketing strategies to beat the competition when you know how and where their ads are placed. Market research is always an ongoing process, especially when it involves your competition. Never let your JV business lag behind. Get into the habit of keeping up with your competition so your own JV marketing strategies stay fresh.
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