To understand what the competition is doing, managers should

• A. Review published press releases only.
• B. Actually experience what the competition has to offer.
• C. Rely on guest reminiscences about competitors.
• D. Monitor only the competitors' social media accounts.

Answer: (B)

Direct, firsthand experience of competitors is the most reliable way to understand how they actually perform. When managers go and actually experience what the competition offers, they see the real product and service in action—the menu items, portion sizes, consistency, wait times, staff interactions, ambiance, and overall guest journey. This direct immersion reveals issues and strengths that marketing material can miss or gloss over, providing a clear picture of how a rival operates in practice.

Relying only on published press releases captures only what the company wants to present, not the full reality. Guest reminiscences are useful but memory-based and biased, and they don’t provide a current, comprehensive view of offerings or operations. Monitoring social media alone can be misleading or incomplete, highlighting only what people choose to post and missing in-person execution and day-to-day performance. By experiencing the competition firsthand, managers gain practical, actionable insights to benchmark against and inform strategic improvements for their own operation.