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Dr. Everett
Dr. Marchant
Dr. Siegel

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Dr. Everett
Dr. Marchant
Dr. Siegel

The assignment is due 2/3/05 at the beginning of class. Work submitted after that day/time will receive a 50 percent grade reduction. The assignment must be typed, in tables. Handwritten work will NOT be accepted. The assignment will be evaluated for thoughtfulness, completeness, effort, quality and depth of responses, and following directions. Neatness and spelling WILL count! Before you begin, read the following.

Marketing Competitive Intelligence
Before any enterprise begins planning its Web marketing site, it should find out what its competitors are doing. Don't think gathering information on the competition is an isolated practice. Major business books have been written on the subject, consultants specialize in conducting competitive intelligence (CI) for businesses and organizations, and there is a CI professional society (Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals - SCIP) with members in 50 nations around the world. Gathering competitive intelligence is legal, ethical, and makes good business sense. Don't mistake it for competitive espionage, which is illegal. Competitive or corporate espionage is stealing confidential company information, falsely obtaining company documents, hacking a corporate intranet, bribing company employees to obtain information, and/or other unethical and illegal activities.

Competitive intelligence is the process of gathering information about your competitors and using it to help improve your market offer. Traditional sources for competitive intelligence are public documents (SEC and other public reports), stories in business, trade and other types of publications, publicly distributed annual reports and other company documents, news and publicity releases, interviews with competitors' customers, information obtained from trade show booths, brochures, purchased products, etc. Now, CI can be performed on competitor's Web sites and their Web marketing activities.

A competitor is other businesses (enterprises) currently offering the same product (direct competitors). It can also be businesses (enterprises) that offer a different type good or service that a buyer might select in place of your product (indirect competitors). Your competitive analysis for this assignment will be of the marketing content, design, and technology of the multipage Web site of a direct competitor to your client's Web marketing site.

Select a Web Marketing Site Direct Competitor
Begin by searching for and evaluating sites marketing the same products as your client. Select the very best example you can find of a directly competitive and effective Web marketing site. The quality of your selection will determine to a great extent the value of your analysis, so don't select the first site you find. You must critically evaluate many sites, then select the very best one.

To find direct competitors, identify the key word descriptors that define your client's enterprise and use them as the basis for your search on Google. The choice of descriptors is very important because they are commands that direct a search engine to locate matching Web sites. For example, a Web marketing site search for a client selling bicycles might use such key words as bicycle shops, bicycles, mountain bikes; a flower shop might use flower shops, florists, cut flowers, dish gardens, roses. You may have to use several word combinations to locate competitive multipage Web sites marketing the same product as your client. Remember, the Web is global, so you are not restricted by geography. You may find competitors anywhere in the world. We are stretching this point a bit, since most of our clients have geographically restricted markets. For our purposes, as long as the competitor is marketing the same type product, we'll ignore their physical location. The sites should be for enterprises that are generally the same size as your client and local or regional, not national or international.

The site you select must have multiple pages (more than 4). Look for a site map and use it to familiarize yourself with the site's organization. Study the site carefully and analyze its content, design, and technology.
• Content is the information presented on the site that serves the marketing goal, is designed to provide value and benefit customers, and get them to return.
• Design is the way the site looks, its visual images, colors, appearance.
• Technology is how the site works, its download time, navigation ease.

Perform a Competitive Intelligence Analysis
Carefully and thoughtfully prepare written answers for the questions in Tables 1 through 4, a FAB analysis, and recommendations for your client's Web marketing site. The table format is available in a downloadable Word document. YOU MUST USE TABLES TO REPORT THE INFORMATION. Work that is not typed in tables will not be accepted. Download the tables and type your answers directly in the cells. Be concise -- quality NOT quantity counts, but your descriptions must be sufficiently detailed to demonstrate that you have thoroughly and thoughtfully evaluated the site. Organize your assignment as follows and begin each table or section on a separate page:

Cover sheet (Student name, assignment, class, date due)
Table 1 - Marketing Content
Table 2 - Design Issues
Table 3 - Technology Issues
Table 4 - FAB Analysis
Table 5 - Recommendations
Screen Shot (printed in color)
Site Map

Your work will be evaluated on the
• Quality of the site selected for the competitive intelligence
• Quality, completeness, clarity of evaluation - consumer insight
• Depth, quality of FAB analysis
• Quality and depth of recommendations
• Mechanics - spelling, grammar, and following directions
• Effort