or value migrations within the industry. It might also indicate a new pricing strategy such as penetration, price discrimination, price skimming, product bundling, joint product pricing, discounts, or loss leaders. It may also indicate a new promotion strategy such as push, pull, balanced, short term sales generation, long term image creation, informational, comparative, affective, reminder, new creative objectives, new unique selling proposition, new creative concepts, appeals, tone, and themes, or a new advertising agency. It might also indicate a new distribution strategy, new distribution partners, more extensive distribution, more intensive distribution, a change in geographical focus, or exclusive distribution. Similar techniques can be used by observing a competitor's search engine optimization targets and practices. A competitor's media strategy reveals budget allocation, segmentation and targeting strategy, and selectivity and focus. From a tactical perspective, it can also be used to help a manager implement his own media plan. By knowing the competitor's media buy, media selection, frequency, reach, continuity, schedules, and flights, the manager can arrange their own media plan so that they do not coincide. Other sources of corporate intelligence include trade shows, patent filings, mutual customers, annual reports, and trade associations. Some firms hire competitor intelligence professionals to obtain this information. The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals maintains a listing of individuals who provide these services. New competitors In addition to analysing current competitors, it is necessary to estimate future competitive threats. The most common sources of new competitors are: Companies competing in a related product/market Companies using related technologies Companies already targeting the target prime market segment but with unrelated products Companies from other geographical areas and with similar products New start-up companies organized by former employees and/or managers of existing companies The entrance of new competitors is likely when: There are high profit margins in the industry There is unmet demand (insufficient supply) in the industry There are no major barriers to entry There is future growth potential Competitive rivalry is not intense Gaining a competitive advantage over existing firms is feasible Dissatisfaction with the existing suppliers See also Marketing Industry information Marketing management Marketing plan Competitive intelligence Porter's five forces analysis PEST analysis Notes References Craig Fleisher and Babette Bensoussan: "Business and Competitive Analysis: Effective Application of New and Classic Methods." FT Press, 2007. Craig Fleisher and Babette Bensoussan: "Strategic and Competitive Analysis: Methods and Techniques for Analyzing Business Competition." Prentice Hall, 2003. Ian Gordon: Beat