M.Tech. Business Administration. Business School. / The purpose of the study is to investigate the needs, awareness and implementation of competitive intelligence and the role competitive intelligence plays in the formulation of marketing strategy by South African companies. There is a need for competitive intelligence programmes, with high awareness at senior management level but needs to be filtered down to all employees. The study does offer some insight into current competitive intelligence practices by South African companies in terms of competitive intelligence with particular reference to the sources of competitive intelligence, the types of information gathered and analysis tools used by South African companies.