Definition:
定义：

Competitive intelligence is the gathering of information about a business’s competitors to make one's own business more competitive.
竞争情报指的是收集某一行业竞争对手的商业信息从而使本企业更具竞争力。

Competitive intelligence, then, is the kind of market research designed and carried out to find and keep a business’s market share.
竞争情报也是一种设计用于寻找和获得商业市场份额的市场研究手段。

Gathering information about the competition and analyzing it is an important part of working through a business plan, but is just as important to established businesses. New competitors may move into a market; existing competitors may change their practices.
收集关于商业竞争的情报并对其进行分析，对于商业计划是一个很重要的环节，不过这也只限于成立企业公司的层面而已。当新的市场竞争对手出现的时候，已有的竞争对手就会改变他们的策略。

For successful small businesses, competitive intelligence is regular and ongoing. Without it, you won’t be able to make the marketing decisions that will keep or draw customers and/or clients.
对于成功的小型企业，竞争情报的获取是有规律和持续的。如果没有这些情报，你将没有办法为保留或吸引新客户而作出营销计划。

What sorts of information might a small business building competitive intelligence gather? Information about a competitor’s products and/or services and the prices they’re charging for them, of course, but also information such as who their suppliers are, what their customer or clients say about them, what their company policies are, what sorts of communications they send out... In short, any information that’s going to help you know more about them.
哪一类信息属于小型企业获取的竞争情报呢？其中关于竞争对手的产品或服务，价格的信息，当然，还有他们的供应商，还有客户对他们的评价，以及公司政策，还有他们所发布的推广方式。简而言之，就是任何可以帮助你了解对方公司的信息。

Competitive intelligence sources for small businesses include media such as newspapers, television and the Internet, other business people, your competitors’ staff and your competitors’ customers or clients.
小型企业获取竞争情报的渠道有很多包括大众传媒，如报纸，电视和网络，还有其他商务人士，竞争者的员工和客户等。

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