1. Managing Marketing Information
Chapter 5
Managing Marketing Information

2. Learning Goals
Explain the importance of information to the company and its understanding of the marketplace
Define the marketing information system
Outline the steps in the market research process
Explain how companies analyze and distribute marketing information
Discuss the special issues some marketing researchers face, including public policy and ethical issues

3. Learning Goals
Explain the importance of information to the company and its understanding of the marketplace
Define the marketing information system
Outline the steps in the market research process
Explain how companies analyze and distribute marketing information
Discuss the special issues some marketing researchers face, including public policy and ethical issues

4. Case Study - Dove
Born in 1957 as a beauty soap. It is sold in more than 80 countries with more than $5 billion in sales revenues.
Dove is a powerful brand name. Consumers trust it and see it as honest but also as boring.
Unilever needed to reposition the brand to make Dove a beauty brand.
Need solid research and insight before the repositioning task could be undertaken.

5. Case Study - Dove
Key question: “how women’s self-esteem is affected by body image”
Global survey and ethnographic research to understand the meaning of beauty and what women consider beautiful.
1% consider themselves beautiful
63% strongly agree women are expected to be more attractive than previous generation
9 year-old girls are dissatisfied with their body image
All women want to be beautiful in their own unique way
36% describe themselves as natural, few as “sexy”, “stunning”, or “gorgeous”.
Women explain beauty in a much broader sense

6. Case Study - Dove Time to change the definition of beauty
Unilever launched the “Campaign for Real Beauty”
Women look at themselves and open a dialogue on what they consider as beauty
Campaign featuring everyday women (“Fab? Or Fat?.”, “Bald? Or Beautiful?”).
Beyond Compare Photo Tour
The resulting Marketing campaign won Unilever Canada multiple awards.

7. Learning Goals
Explain the importance of information to the company and its understanding of the marketplace
Define the marketing information system
Outline the steps in the market research process
Explain how companies analyze and distribute marketing information
Discuss the special issues some marketing researchers face, including public policy and ethical issues

8. Marketing Information 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.

9. Marketing Information System
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

10. 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

11. Developing Marketing Information
Information collected from different sources within the company, and stored within the organization’s information system
Accounting system
Operations/production
Sales reporting system
Past research studies
Internal data is cheap, quick, and easy
May not be in a usable form for the decision to be made
May be incomplete or inappropriate to a particular situation

12. Developing Marketing Information
Marketing intelligence is the systematic collection and analysis of publicly available information about competitors and trends in the marketing environment.
Proactive approach to keeping track of what is going on within the organization’s marketing environment
Many sources of competitive information exist:
Employees, customers, trade shows, websites, marketing communications, suppliers, resellers, professional information services, and “dumpster diving”

13. Developing Marketing Information
Marketing research is the systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data relevant to a specific marketing situation facing an organization.
A multi-step, purpose-driven process
Measure effectiveness of marketing actions, sales potential, try to understand consumer behaviour
Can be done by company personnel or contracted out to outside companies

14. Learning Goals
Explain the importance of information to the company and its understanding of the marketplace
Define the marketing information system
Outline the steps in the market research process
Explain how companies analyze and distribute marketing information
Discuss the special issues some marketing researchers face, including public policy and ethical issues

15. Step 1: Defining the problem and research objectives
Helps to know what you are looking for!
The manager and the researcher must work together.
These objectives guide the entire process.
Exploratory, descriptive, and causal research each fulfill different objectives.

16. Step 2: Developing the Research Plan
Translating the research objectives into specific information needs
Research plan is a written document which outlines the type of problem, objectives, data needed, and the usefulness of the results. Includes:
Secondary data: Information collected for another purpose which already exists
Primary data: Information collected for the specific purpose at hand

17. Gathering Secondary Data
Secondary data sources:
Government information
Internal data, commercial, and academic sources
Publications
Online databases
Advantages:
Obtained quickly
Less expensive than primary data
Disadvantages:
Information may not exist or may not be usable

18. Primary Data Primary research decisions: Research approaches
Contact methods
Sampling plan
Research instruments

19. Primary Data Research Approaches Contact Methods Sampling Plan
Research Instrument
Observation research using people or machines
Discovers behavior but not motivations
Survey research
Effective for descriptive information
Experimental research
investigates cause and effect relationships

20. Primary Data Research Approaches Contact Methods Sampling Plan
Research Instrument
Key Contact Methods include:
Mail surveys
Telephone surveys
Personal interviewing:
Individual or focus group
Online research

21. Primary Data Research Approaches Contact Methods Sampling Plan
Research Instrument
Sample: subgroup of population from whom information will be collected
Sampling Plan Decisions:
Sampling unit
Sample size
Sampling procedure:
Probability samples
Non-probability samples

22. Primary Data Research Approaches Contact Methods Sampling Plan
Research Instrument
Questionnaires
Include open-ended and closed-ended questions
Phrasing and question order are key
Mechanical instruments
Nielsen’s people meters
Checkout scanners
Eye cameras

23. Discussion Question ?
A digital camera manufacturer wants to determine what is most important to older (50+) camera buyers
Suggest a research approach, contact methods, sampling plan, research instruments

24. Step 3: Implementing the Research Plan
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

25. Step 4: Interpreting and Reporting the Findings
The research interprets the finding, draws conclusions and reports to management
Managers and researchers must work together to interpret results for useful decision making

26. Learning Goals
Explain the importance of information to the company and its understanding of the marketplace
Define the marketing information system
Outline the steps in the market research process
Explain how companies analyze and distribute marketing information
Discuss the special issues some marketing researchers face, including public policy and ethical issues

27. Analyzing Marketing Information
Statistical analysis and analytical models are often used to help marketers make better decisions.
Companies are turning to Customer relationship management (CRM) to manage detailed information about individual customers and “touchpoints” to maximize customer loyalty
CRM consists of sophisticated software and analytical tools to provide a 360-degree view of the customer relationship.

28. Analyzing Marketing Information
CRM analysts develop data warehouses and use sophisticated data mining techniques to understand customer data
CRM data systems offer many benefits and can help a firm gain a competitive advantage when used as part of a total CRM strategy

29. 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.

30. Learning Goals
Explain the importance of information to the company and its understanding of the marketplace
Define the marketing information system
Outline the steps in the market research process
Explain how companies analyze and distribute marketing information
Discuss the special issues some marketing researchers face, including public policy and ethical issues

31. 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

32. Learning Goals
Explain the importance of information to the company and its understanding of the marketplace
Define the marketing information system
Outline the steps in the market research process
Explain how companies analyze and distribute marketing information
Discuss the special issues some marketing researchers face, including public policy and ethical issues