I love football. We Americans call the game “soccer” and we have no logical reason why. Our “football” rarely uses an actual “foot” to play and is really a mutant version of rugby. American football should be called “American Rugby” and it should be the National Rugby League (NRL), not the NFL. I could go on.
When I was in highschool in the late 1980’s it was next to impossible to stay in touch with international football. There was no internet, no streaming, no Twitter. There was just the off chance that the Fort Worth Star Telegram would print box scores on the back page of the sports section. That all changed in 1990 when ESPN broadcasted the World Cup for the first time. The 1990 World Cup Tournament was hosted in Italy and the games played while I was in class, so I programmed my parents’ VCR (remember that?) and recorded dozens of matches on dozens and dozens of VHS tapes.
I watched those tapes over and over and over again. I watched Roger Milla and Cameroon beat the defending world champions, Argentina, in the opening match and I saw England’s Paul Gascoingne breakdown into tears during the semi-final. I watched my Team USA lose all three of their colossally boring matches.
And I absolutely fell in love with the squad from West Germany.
The Germans were perfection – a perfectly crafted team that played a perfectly formed game. Rudi Völler and Jürgen Klinsmann were electrifying goal scorers. The German midfield, pillared by captain Lothar Matthäus, covered the entire field relentlessly, and the team’s backline was brutally physical with Andy Brehme and Thomas Berthold. The Germans would run you out of breath, punch you in the stomach, and before you knew it, Klinsmann put a goal in the net.
When I think of that 1990 World Cup Champion team, I am reminded of what gap intelligence is bringing to Germany thirty years later – a perfect combination of people, methodology, and data.
We have the team.
gap intelligence is a values-led company, meaning that our core values (Trust, Willingness, Ownership, Passion, Professionalism) are the foundation of our business. We hire based on our values and we hold ourselves accountable to our values everyday. Our core values have become our DNA and extend through to our relationships with our clients. We are not a data company, we are a people company and an extension of your market research department. When our clients call, they aren’t reaching out to a vendor, they are reaching out to the cubicle right next to theirs.
gap intelligence is also unique in that we have category specific analysts and data specialists who only work on specific sets of product categories. Because their focus is so narrow, our team understands the products better than the product managers themselves – features, specifications, availability, price history, variant product versions – all of these variables are lost on any research firm that tracks “consumer electronics” or “home appliances”. In order to produce perfectly accurate data, to know what is really happening, a research firm must narrow its focus to “televisions”, “refrigerators”, and “notebook computers”.
We have the system.
Over the course of our 17 years in business, gap intelligence has been absolutely obsessed with producing Great Freakin’ Data (GFD). As a company and as individuals, we are committed to producing 99.9999999% (nine-nines) accurate data every day, every week, every month. Our research methodology, which combines advanced technology with the human touch, is costly, takes a bit of time, and in the end produces the most comprehensive, accurate, and timely data in the world.
We have technology that allows our field data collectors to collect retail pricing from any location on the planet. We have built software that can grab any data point on the web and we have our own digital tools that scrub, analyze, and automate the rigors of cleaning and verifying data. Yet, even with all of this high-technology, you can’t truly realize 99.999999% accurate data without a human being, with intimate product knowledge, verifying the data fields.
There are a lot of false prophets in the data world, those who claim to scrape the pricing landscape every 20 minutes, but rarely deliver accurate data – the 1990 Netherlands’ squad for example. However, there is only one firm that is truly dedicated to the craft of producing perfect data (1990 West Germany Team).
We’re your teammate.
Lothar Matthäus famously turned down the opportunity to kick the World Cup winning penalty kick because his shoes were too new as they weren’t ideal for shooting. He gave the honor to his teammate, Andy Brehme, who scored the infamous winning goal. We are that kind of teammate to our clients, locked arm-in-arm for collective success.
At gap intelligence, we don’t just drop the data off on your desk and walk away. Our analysts and data specialists help bring that data to life with meaningful insights and analysis. In time, you’ll learn not only what happened, but why it happened through our summaries, reports, pictures, and online tools. Our team serves as a concierge desk to our clients, who lean on us to help with their own projects, initiatives, and plans. We are truly that extension to your research team.
gap intelligence is not a research firm or data provider, we are a lifestyle for our clients.
Wir sind in Deutschland and the things that make us great are what makes Germany great. We are great people, with great systems, that are focused to do great things for each other, our clients, and our communities.
We look forward to working with you.
Weiter, weiter, immer weiter!
For more than 16 years, gap intelligence has served manufacturers and sellers by providing world-class services monitoring, reporting, and analyzing the 4Ps: prices, promotions, placements, and products. Email us at info@gapintelligence.com or call us at 619-574-1100 to learn more.
