How to Do Company Research in Less than 30 Minutes? 

Conducting company research seems like a lot of work – and it is, indeed! But it’s worth the effort. Lucky for you, nowadays, the basis of good research is AI tools. With them, everything becomes simpler… and faster!

Company research means gathering business information and data to gain various insights, for example, into a company’s market position, competitors, and growth opportunities. It provides a deeper understanding of everything the company does and helps make informed decisions.

In this article, I’ll show you the steps you should take to research a company in less than 30 minutes!

What is company research? Definition

Company research is the process of collecting and analyzing various company information. A lot of them can be found on the Internet.

Here are just a few of the places worth checking when researching company:

• Company websites
• Social media platforms (especially company profiles are full of company news)
• Articles and publications
• Forums and community discussions
• Different types of reports – industry reports, company reports, annual reports, market research reports, etc.
• Various databases

Keep in mind that the availability of information depends on whether the company is public or private – private companies aren’t required to report.

The goal of company research

The goal of company research can vary depending on your needs.

Typically, the objective is to gather information about your or any other company to:

• Learn about the company and analyze its performance.
• Keep up with recent news and updates.
• Spot strengths and weaknesses.
• Make informed decisions for investment, partnerships, etc.
• Understand the company’s market position and its competitors.

Example?

Imagine you are one of McDonald’s investors, and you want to see how the company has been doing lately.

You find out that they announced a big comeback of Snack Wraps!

People are thrilled, flooding social media with excitement and nostalgia for the beloved product.

However, McDonald’s is also in the spotlight for a different reason…

A McDonald’s employee called the police on Luigi Mangione (a 26-year-old suspect in the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO) after he had placed an order at one of their restaurants.

It sparked a media frenzy, dividing public opinion. A lot of voices criticize McDonald’s (!).

This scenario shows the importance of monitoring not just financial performance but also public perception and company reputation.

How to do company research?

There are many ways to conduct company research. Most of them are pretty time-consuming.

But I have great news for you: you can reduce your research time to a minimum without sacrificing quality!

How? With AI!

In this short guide, I will show you how to do it.

It doesn’t matter what the reason behind your research is; you can use it in any case:

Step 1: Ask AI tools

By asking the right AI tool the proper questions, you can quickly get a great deal of information about any company.

The market is dominated by 3 tools:

• ChatGPT (180 million monthly active users)
• Google Gemini (40 million monthly active users)
• Perplexity (15 million monthly active users).

They mainly rely on search engine data, but unfortunately, some of them don’t provide real-time data and can’t accurately analyze company sentiment.

Sentiment analysis is a crucial aspect when it comes to researching on a company.

And this is where Brand24’s Brand Assistant comes in, one of the best company research tools.

It combines ChatGPT’s deep knowledge with real-time data from your Brand24 projects.

Together, these resources help to understand your company’s position within its industry and make predictions for the future.

Brand Assistant is also a chatbot – you write a prompt, and it responds.

Let’s see how each tool will answer this question: “What is McDonald’s sentiment?”.

ChatGPT:

Google Gemini:

Perplexity:

Brand Assistant:

Responses can be ranked from the best to the worst:

1. Brand Assistant: Provided real-time data, detailed analysis, and precise charts that can be included in company reports.
2. Perplexity: Delivered quality insights and referenced sources, making it a solid choice for simple research.
3. ChatGPT: Gave quite general answer – follow-up questions to provide more detailed information are needed.
4. Google Gemini: Provided the most general response with no references to sources.

As you can see, only Brand Assistant delivers real-time data and tailored insights.

Here’s a master list of prompts that can help you with researching companies:

General questions:

1. Provide detailed company information.
2. What are the products and services offered by [company name]?
3. Provide a brief history of [company name].
4. What is [company name] mission and vision?
5. What is the organizational structure of [company name]?

Market position and competitors:

6. Conduct competitor analysis of [company name].
7. How do customers perceive [company name] compared to competitors?
8. What is [company name]’s share of voice compared to competitors?
9. What are the strengths and weaknesses of [company name] compared to its competitors?

Financial information:

10. What are [company name] latest financial highlights?
11. What financial challenges or risks does [company name] face?

Public perception:

12. How many mentions did [company name] receive last month?
13. What is the primary source of mentions?
14. What is the sentiment about [company name]?
15. What are the top topics associated with [company name]?
16. Are there any controversies around [company name]?

Strategy and growth:

17. What are the latest trends for [company name]?
18. What are [company name]’s future goals and growth strategies?
19. How does [company name] innovate within its industry?
20. What partnerships or collaborations does [company name] have?
21. What new products or services is [company name] planning to launch?

Customers and employee insights:

22. Present customer insights.
23. How do customers feel about [company name]?
24. Based on reviews, what is it like to work at [company name]?

Save this image – you’ll thank me later!

Step 2: Ask the target audience

This step is essential only if you’re researching your own company.

By reaching out to your potential and current clients, you gain valuable information about what truly matters to them.

Sometimes, it’s even more precise than what AI tools can offer!

Choose questions carefully and focus on those your target audience is realistically able to answer.

Step 3: Benchmark with competitors

The final step is comparing your (or any other) company with its competitors.

Benchmarking helps assess whether a company is thriving within the industry.

It also allows you to:

• Spot opportunities where your company can expand.
• Create innovative products and services to address market needs.
• Uncover trends to shape future strategies.
• Optimize your marketing and sales efforts.

But how to do it?

You can analyze key metrics effortlessly using the Comparison feature in Brand24:

Or perform a deeper competitor analysis using Brand Assistant.

Just remember to ask nicely 😉

Just so you know, I didn’t paste Brand Assistant’s full analysis – it’s incredibly detailed and far too extensive to share here!

Conclusion

The length of the research depends on your goals – analyzing specific aspects of a company is always faster than performing comprehensive research.

Nevertheless, company research is always a time-consuming task.

But AI tools can make it much faster and easier!

I’ve prepared a cheat sheet on how to do company research – feel free to save it:

Final thoughts:

• You can research any company, not only your own but others – international companies, nonprofit organizations, private companies, public companies, etc.
• AI speeds up the research process and ensures accuracy and relevance in data.
• With Brand Assistant, you get up-to-date information from the moment you ask – unlike many other chatbots that provide outdated data from one or two years ago (or even more!).

Want to keep up to date with business information about your company and get actionable insights?

Make it happen with Brand24’s Brand Assistant – start your free trial now!