Knowledge will forever govern ignorance.

The US’s number one  pain reliever, TYLENOL was extremely profitable for Johnson and Johnson, selling retail at 2.89 a bottle.

Bristol Meyers thought this price was obscene, and developed a similar painkiller, DATRIL, which they test marketed in Peoria, Illinois, and Albany, New York, two cities they traditionally used to test market.

Johnson and Johnsons’ business intelligence unit (no matter what it is called) picked up on this and other signals that Bristol-Meyers had nefarious plans. Further sleuthing revealed that Bristol-Myers was going to attempt a price penetration for Datril at 1.89 a bottle, and launch date was April 15.

On April 1, Johnson & Johnson splashily announced to the world in general, and the long suffering American populace in particular, that the drug development costs for Tylenol had been recovered sooner than expected, and the price for Tylenol would be reduced to $1.89 a bottle, retail. They also included a little coupon for anyone who had purchased the drug Tylenol during the last 30 days, for a $1.00 refund.

So successful was this strategy that Datrils entire advertising campaign (which had been largely formulated on price differential) was disrupted, and had to be pulled, until a new campaign could be developed. So successful was the strategy, that eventually the media refused to take any Datril ad space until they could get their act together. (And launch time is when advertising is the most critical)

Datril's market penetration never reached more than 1% even when, a year later, the Tylenol-cyanide murders were on all the newscasts, and Tylenol should have suffered greatly.

J&J's CI monitoring of Bristol Meyers allowed J&J to discover Bristol Meyers intentions. CI techniques elicited enough strategic information that an effective strategy could be developed. Once the strategy was developed, J&J acted. All three steps, particularly the last, were necessary. However the last is not possible without the first.

If you did not know that CI was involved, would you not say that the actions to diffuse Datril's attack on J&J's mandate was brilliant?

I thought so.