For restaurateurs, there is no better time to stay ahead of the competition than by using competitive intelligence. In an increasingly competitive market, staying ahead of the curve can seem impossible. Fortunately, competitive intelligence tools help even the playing field for businesses operating in the restaurant space. Through these tools, it is possible to gain an understanding of key trends that will shape the current customer experience and drive future success.
What Is Competitive Intelligence?
Competitive intelligence (CI) is the collection of information and analysis of competitor’s strategies, tactics, and initiatives in order to determine the opposing organization’s competitive advantage and vulnerabilities. Competitive intelligence is essential for restaurants to stay current with their competition. With the right CI tool, franchisors can gain full understanding of the industry landscape, gain insights on local food trends, and make decisions that will lead to the greatest success for their restaurant concept.
Benefits of Competitive Intelligence
Having a tool to compare restaurant performance to competitors helps restaurateurs gain valuable insights into their competitors’ strategies, better understand the competition’s pricing, discover data.com/en/platform/’ target=’_blank’>menu trends, and devise better marketing strategies tailored to their customers. Being armed with this data — and the insights collected along the way — improves the decision-making process and tiering system when it comes to pricing and menu items.
Additionally, competitive intelligence helps restaurants with their expansion efforts, especially when it comes to franchising. For example, CI tools can help franchisors gain unique data fields specific to the food service industry, such as in-depth menu data and restaurant technology coverage. This type of data can offer deep insights that can be used to target prospects, find kitchens, and expand operations.
Getting Started with Competitive Intelligence
To get started with a competitive intelligence tool, it is important to understand the type of data needed — both for marketing and prospecting. Knowing the target audience is essential as well. For example, if the goal is to attract customers for a new restaurant concept, the tool needs to have data that can highlight trends that will shape the current and future customer experience.
When researching a tool, franchisors should look for features such as data-driven insights and analytics, data enrichment capabilities, and marketing strategies tailored to the food service industry. They should also look for tools that can help streamline production innovation and expand their brand.
A good competitive intelligence tool should also be able to give detailed insights on the competition’s pricing, product offerings, and advertising strategies that extend beyond a single location — and it should offer more than just standard segmentation tools. Instead, look for a tool that blends traditional segmentation with unique data in order to gain a deeper understanding of your market.
Finally, consider the data enrichment capabilities of a tool. Look for a tool that will create a comprehensive process for researching, enriching, and transforming data into actionable insights. This will enable restaurants to make better decisions with greater confidence.
Overall
Competitive intelligence tools have become increasingly popular in the restaurant space, and with the right tool, franchisors can level the playing field and gain an edge on the competition. With detailed data on the competition’s pricing, product offerings, and advertising strategies, restaurateurs can make informed decisions and attract, convert, and close more leads. Enriching data with the right competitive intelligence tool will help turn data into actionable insights, improving decision-making processes and tiering systems for pricing and menu items.
