Competitive Intelligence - Telecom Client Facing Potential Competitor Threat

A  North American telecom company was faced with a potential European rival entering their market. They needed solid intelligence to determine the likelihood of this threat taking place.

Over 3 weeks we:

• Interviewed executive recruiting firms to see what they knew. (Several identified 2 overseas telecoms as possibilities).

• Studied annual reports of these 2 European telecoms for clues as to likelihood of either foreign telecom entering the market.

• Interviewed speakers at a telecom conference who subsequently identified the probable entry.

• Notified a newspaper business columnist of this potential entry, who then got the telecom to confirm what we had deduced.

The paper published the story, 6 months before this competitor's launch date.

Our client used this opportunity to pre-empt the competitor by pursuing an aggressive ad campaign to win new customers and reengage lapsed customers