Approaches a firm use to gather information on competitor

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Evaluate each of the following approaches that a business firm could use to gather information about competition. For each approach, mark your feeling about its appropriateness using the following scale:

1. definitely not appropriate, 2. probably not appropriate, 3. undecided, 4. probably appropriate, and 5. definitely appropriate

The business firm should try to get useful information about competitors by:

_ Careful study of trade journals

_ Wiretapping the telephones of competitors

_ Posing as a potential customer to competitors

_ Getting loyal customers to put out a phone “request for proposal” soliciting competitors’ bids

_ Buying competitors’ products and taking them apart

_ Hiring management consultants who have worked for competitors

_ Rewarding competitors’ employees for useful “tips”

_ Questioning competitors’ customers and/or suppliers

_ Buying and analyzing competitors’ garbage

_ Advertising and interviewing for nonexistent jobs

_ Taking public tours of competitors’ facilities

_ Releasing false information about the company in order to confuse competitors.

_ Questioning competitors’ technical people at trade shows and conferences

_ Hiring key people away from competitors

_ Analyzing competitors’ labor union contracts

_ Having employees date persons who work for competitors

_ Studying aerial photographs of competitors’ facilities

After marking each of the preceding approaches, indicate on the discussion board for any 5, 4, 2, or 1, why you thought these acts were either appropriate or inappropriate