The Ultimate Guide to Competition & Company Data for Lean Market Research

In brief

When it comes to lean market research competitive analysis is one of the most requested types of research. Indeed, competitive analysis allows its user to identify his surrounding environment. Consequently, this type of research makes the strategic vision way clearer. This post is about The Ultimate Guide to Competition & Company Data for Lean Market Research.

Indeed, in order to be able to perform an insightful and actionable competitive analysis, the researcher needs to have access to efficient and lean resources to do so. This is particularly true in the framework of lean market research.

Hence, let’s list and take a look at the major resources for competitive analysis.

Crunchbase

Crunchbase Provides financial data and facts about digital businesses.

It’s a Reliable source of data.

Crunchbase Provides data even on less known businesses.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Quantitative
• Qualitative

Craft

Craft Provides exhaustive qualitative and quantitative data about tech companies with elegant charts and figures.

It Provides a list of main competitors to a given searched business.

Craft is Elegant and user friendly.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Quantitative
• Qualitative

D&B Hoovers

D&B Hoovers is a suite of Paid services and solutions

It’s a Complete suite for market intelligence for entrepreneurs.

D&B Hoover provides High quality data and service around competitive intelligence.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Quantitative
• Qualitative

Owler

Owler is a Freemium solution.

It’s a Go to resource for a first screening.

Owler is Innovative since it provides company and competition  data based on data science and AI

Sometimes with Owler, quantitative information lacks accuracy

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Quantitative
• Qualitative

Pitch Book

Pitch Book is a Paid solution.

It provides a Good quality data and user experience.

it provides Versatile types of data.

Pitch Book provides Little features accessible for free.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Quantitative
• Qualitative

Glassdoor

Glassdoor Provides insightful information regarding salaries and companies worldwide.

It Can be used for assessing the job market status regarding a particular field or specialty geo based.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Quantitative
• Qualitative

Official Data

Official Data resources stand for Visiting the official site of any company of interest.

For instance, It Stands for Looking for the annual report that contains transparent and insightful information.

Applying this technique to major companies of a market provides already a good picture of the research.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Quantitative
• Qualitative

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is Used for gathering curriculum information about a given person or group of persons.

It Can be used for performing targeted surveys.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Qualitative
• Quantitative

Morning Star

Morning Star Provides mainly financial data about companies.

Among the provided data, Financial ratios and balance sheets are particularly valuable for assessing the major market players hence the market itself.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Qualitative
• Quantitative

Business of Apps

Business of Apps Provides mainly quantitative data about mobile apps.

It’s Valuable for conducting strategic studies regarding a particular app or app type.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Qualitative
• Quantitative

TechCrunch

TechCrunch Provides articles and analysis of tech businesses, mainly qualitatively.

It provides Good quality articles

TechCrunch is Valuable at early stages of the research.

It’s also Valuable for verifying facts and unveiling major trends.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Qualitative
• Quantitative

Sensor Tower

Sensor Tower is a Freemium solution.

It Provides data and ranking about mobile apps.

Sensor Tower provides Good quality data and pleasant user experience.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Quantitative

The Hustle

The Hustle Provides articles and contents about economy in general and tech businesses in particular.

It’s Gaining increasing popularity.

The Hustle provides Good inspirational articles regarding the writing level, quality and efficiency.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Qualitative

Financial Times Markets

Financial Times Markets is a Word class financial content provider.

It has High credibility and provides high quality resource.

It can be used by researchers as a high quality standard to be inspired by regarding the quality of the articles and their style.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Qualitative

Emis

Emis provides Paid reports regarding emerging markets.

It’s Valuable for conducting research about emerging markets.

Emis is specialized in key markets like Brazil, India, China, Argentina etc.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Quantitative
• Qualitative

Bloomberg Market

Bloomberg Market provides Educational content for performing efficient market analysis in general and competitive research in particular.

This platform Provides both data and insights.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Quantitative
• Qualitative

Yahoo Finance

Yahoo Finance provides Financial analysis of companies and recent trends.

It’s a World class financial resource.

Yahoo Finance is a Valuable for initial fast screening of a given competitive landscape.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Quantitative
• Qualitative

Merger Market

Merger Market is a Freemium solution.

It Focuses on mergers and acquisitions transactions before even they happen.

Merger Market is a Valuable data and insights for assessing a competitive landscape.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Quantitative
• Qualitative

Fact Set

Let’s continue The Ultimate Guide to Competition & Company Data for Lean Market Research with Fact Set. Fact Set is a Paid solution.

It provides a Complete toolbox for market intelligence.

Fact Set provides as well Good quality free content and reports.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Quantitative
• Qualitative

Intrinio

Intrinio is a Freemium solution.

It Provides quantitative and alternative data.

Intrinio is highly Valuable for assessing markets and particularly competitive landscape.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Quantitative

Eval Tech

Eval Tech Provides a valuation dataset of companies.

It Assesses quantitatively the competitive landscape.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Quantitative

Capital IQ

Capital IQ Provides data about S&P companies.

It’s a Good starting point even if the company is not in the S&P.

It provides a Good quality data and it has a pleasant platform.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Quantitative

US Security & exchange commission

US Security & exchange commission Uses the EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval) system for providing data about companies.

It’s Valuable even if it’s not easy to use.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Quantitative

Online Interviews

Here is another important component of The Ultimate Guide to Competition & Company Data for Lean Market Research: Depth and online interviews of individuals and experts is covered more deeply in a separate section.

It’s important to keep in mind that interviewing provides insightful facts about a given competitive landscape.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Qualitative

Being Where the Customer Is

“Being Where the Customer Is” technique inspired by classic market research for competition research.

It stands for gathering information from where the typical users of a product are.

For instance, typical users of a financial app are expected to be in business forums, golf sites etc.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Qualitative

Mystery Shopping

Mystery Shopping is a technique that is inspired by classic market research for competition research.

It stands for mimicking a buying process among different competitors.

This aims at assessing the user experience and service quality that different competitor are providing to the market.

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Qualitative

Success Hack the Competition.

Success Hack the Competition is a technique inspired by classic market research for competition research.

It stands for assessing what are the features, products and services that the competition is doing the best and how to reproduce it even better than that

The data that .. provides can be of the following types:

• Secondary
• Qualitative