Managing MarketingInformation

Chapter 4

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Marketing Info. System

Marketing Information System (MIS)

Consists of people, equipment, and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely, and accurate information to marketing decision makers.

Goal 2: Define the Marketing Information System

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Marketing Info. System

Begins and Ends with Information Users:

Interacts with information users to assess information

Develops needed information from internal and external sources

Helps users analyze information for marketing decisions

Distributes the marketing information and helps managers use it for decision making

Goal 2: Define the Marketing Information System

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Fig.4.1.The Marketing Information System

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Assessing Marketing Information Needs

The MIS serves company managers as well as external partners

The MIS must balance needs against feasibility:• Not all information can be

obtained.• Obtaining, processing, sorting, and

delivering information is costly

Goal 2: Define the Marketing Information System

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Developing Marketing Information

• Internal data is gathered via customer databases, financial records, and operations reports.

• Advantages include quick/easy access to information.

• Disadvantages stem from the incompleteness or inappropriateness of data to a particular situation.

Internal dataMarketing intelligenceMarketing research

Sources of Sources of InfoInfo

Goal 2: Define the Marketing Information System

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Developing Marketing Information

• Marketing intelligence is the systematic collection and analysis of publicly available information about competitors and trends in the marketing environment.

• The goal of marketing intelligence is to improve strategic decision making, assess and track competitors’ actions, and provide early warning of opportunities and threats

• Many sources of competitive information exist.

Internal dataMarketing intelligenceMarketing research

Sources of Sources of InfoInfo

Goal 2: Define the Marketing Information System

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Sources of Competitive Intelligence

• Company employees

• Internet• Garbage• Published

information

• Competitor’s employees

• Trade shows• Benchmarking• Channel

members and key customers

Goal 2: Define the Marketing Information System

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Developing Marketing Information

Marketers often needformal studies of

specific situations.

Marketing research is the systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data relevant to a specific marketing situation facing an organization.

Internal dataMarketing intelligenceMarketing research

Sources of Sources of InfoInfo

Goal 2: Define the Marketing Information System

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Companies use marketing research in a wide variety of situations.

• It can help marketers understand customer satisfaction and purchase behavior.

• It can help them assess market potential and market share.

• It can measure the effectiveness of pricing, product, distribution, and promotion activities.

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Steps in the Marketing Research Process:

1. Defining the problem and research objectives.

2. Developing the research plan for collecting information.

3. Implementing the research plan – collecting and analyzing the data.

4. Interpreting and reporting the findings.

Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

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Step 1: Defining the problem and research

objectives The manager and the researcher must work

together. The manager and researcher must set the research

objectives. There are three types.– The objective of exploratory research is to

gather preliminary information that will help define the problem and suggest hypotheses.

– The objective of descriptive research is to describe things, such as the market potential for a product or the demographics and attitudes of consumers who buy the product.

– The objective of causal research is to test hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships.

These objectives guide the entire process.

Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

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Step 2: Developing the Research Plan

The research plan is a written document that outlines the type of problem, objectives, data needed, and the usefulness of the results.

To meet the manager’s information needs, the research plan can call for gathering secondary data, primary data, or both.

• Secondary data: Information collected for another purpose that already exists.

• Primary data: Information collected for the specific purpose at hand

Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

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Gathering Secondary Data

Secondary data sources: Government information Internal, commercial, and online databases Publications

Advantages: Obtained quickly Less expensive than primary data

Disadvantages: Information may not exist or may not be

usable

Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

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Evaluate the Following When Judging Data Quality

RelevanceAccuracy

CurrencyImpartiality

Secondary Data

Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

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Primary Data Collection

Primary research decisions: Research approaches Contact methods Sampling plan Research instruments

Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

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Primary Data

Observation research using people or machines

Discovers behavior but not motivations.

Ethnographic research, trained observers watch people.

Survey research Effective for descriptive

information. Single-source data

systems start with surveys of huge consumer panels.

Experimental research Investigates cause and

effect relationships.

Research ApproachContact MethodSampling PlanResearch Instrument

DecisionsDecisions

Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

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Primary Data

Key Contact Methods Include: Mail surveys Telephone surveys Personal interviewing:

• Individual or focus group

Online research

Research ApproachContact MethodSampling PlanResearch Instrument

DecisionsDecisions

Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

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• Advances in communications have resulted in a number of high-tech contact methods.– Computer assisted telephone

interviewing (CATI) is where interviewers sit at computers, read questions on the screen, and type in respondents’ answers.

– Completely automated telephone surveys (CATS) enables respondents to be dialed by computer and asked prerecord ed questions.

– Online (Internet) marketing research includes Internet surveys, experiments, and online focus groups.

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Strengths and Weaknesses of Contact Methods Relate to:

Marketing Info. System

FlexibilitySample controlData quantityCost

Interviewer effectsSpeed of data collectionResponse rate

Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

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Table.4.3 Strengths and Weaknesses of Contact Methods

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Primary Data

Sample: subgroup of population from whom information will be collectedSampling Plan Decisions:

Sampling unit Sample size Sampling procedure:

• Probability samples• Non-probability

samples

Research ApproachContact MethodSampling PlanResearch Instrument

DecisionsDecisions

Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

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Table.4.4 Types of Samples

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Primary Data

Questionnaires • Include open-

ended and closed-ended questions

• Phrasing and question order are key

Mechanical instruments

• Nielsen’s people meters

• Checkout scanners• Eye cameras

Research ApproachContact MethodSampling PlanResearch Instrument

DecisionsDecisions

Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

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Table.4.5 A Questionable Questionnaire

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Step 3: Implementing the Research Plan

The researcher next puts the marketing research plan into action. The data collection phase of marketing research process is generally the most expensive and the most subject to error.

Data is collected by the company or an outside firm

The data is then processed and checked for accuracy and completeness and coded for analysis

Finally, the data is analyzed by a variety of statistical methods

Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

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Step 4: Interpreting and Reporting the Findings

The research interprets the findings, draws conclusions and reports to management

Managers and researchers must work together to interpret results for useful decision making

Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

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Analyzing Marketing Information

Statistical analysis and analytical models are often used

Marketing scientists have developed numerous models to help marketing managers make better marketing mix decisions, design sales territories and sales call plans, select sites for retail outlets, develop optimal advertising mixes, and forecast new-product sales.

Goal 4: Explain how companies analyze/distribute marketing information

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Customer Relationship Management

• Smart companies capture information at every possible customer touch point. These touchpoints include customer purchases, sales force contacts, service and support calls, Web site visits, satisfaction surveys, and every contact between the customer and the company.

• CRM consists of sophisticated software and analytical tools that integrate information from all sources, analyze it in depth, and apply the results to build stronger customer relationships.

• CRM analysts develop data warehouses. • Once the data warehouse brings the data

together, the company uses high-powered data mining techniques

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Distributing and Using Marketing Information

Routine reporting makes information available in a timely manner.

User-friendly databases allow for special queries.

Intranets and extranets help distribute information to company employees and value-network members.

Goal 4: Explain how companies analyze/distribute marketing information

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Other Considerations

• Marketing research in small businesses and not-for-profit organizations

• International marketing research

• Public policy and ethics Consumer privacy issues Misuse of research findings

Goal 5: Discuss Special Issues Facing Market Researchers