Competitive Intelligence

"Competitive intelligence refers to the act of intentionally and purposefully gathering information from every source possible to ascertain customer satisfaction, degree of competition, market evolutions, and whatever else can be gleaned."
I appreciate and agree whole-heartedly with the concept that companies are often wasteful of and inattentive to valuable information available through their employees and their customers.

Customer Satisfaction
I first began collecting my competitive intelligence by researching customer satisfaction. I quickly found information at About.com Mustangs indicating that based on independent studies and research, the 2008 Mustang ranked number two in the four-seat convertibles category. A separate study indicated that the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 ranked second place. As cited in the same resource, Mark Fields, president of The Americas, Ford Motor Company said, "The progress is real, and it’s encouraging, but we’re not letting up. We’re working hard to win customers back with strong product quality and a line-up of vehicles people really want." This indicates that Ford recognizes how consumers view the vehicle in comparison to other makes of vehicles.

Comparison

   Regarding the degree of competition, much information is widely available comparing the Mustang, Camero, and Challenger. The challenge is in identifying what information is provided by objective sources rather than subjective opinions, and also in identifying which criteria compared amongst the various sources is relevant. A reputable source for information is Motortrend.com. Here performance comparisons are available, rating the three vehicles in a numbers of categories. Here, positive results are found for the Mustang, indicating that "The galloping-away winner this time out is the Ford Mustang GT. It's simply the one pony car most of us covet, and it's the one that hews closest to the original concept of a lightweight (they weren't called draft-horse cars, after all), nimble body and chassis choc-full-o' V-8 muscle." (Read more.)

Evolution

While legendary and using the success of that legend to promote the vehicle, the Ford Mustang has nonetheless evolved since its launch in 1964. The evolution of the vehicle and specifications of the different model years can be reviewed at http://www.mustangevolution.com/mustang-history/.

Understanding the evolution of a vehicle, its popularity, and economical and societal circumstances that may impact purchasing behaviors can be extremely successful for a company in identifying future successes.

Something else Ford has done to glean competitive intelligence is their Contact Us option on their website with the first line of information reading "Your complete satisfaction is of primary importance to us." It is truly intelligent of an organization to invite information from its customers.