0. Managing Marketing Information
Chapter 4

1. 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

2. 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

3. Fig.4.1.The Marketing Information System

4. 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

5. 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.
Sources of Info
Internal data
Marketing intelligence
Marketing research
Goal 2: Define the Marketing Information System

6. 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.
Sources of Info
Internal data
Marketing intelligence
Marketing research
Goal 2: Define the Marketing Information System

7. 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

8. Developing Marketing Information
Marketers often need
formal 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.
Sources of Info
Internal data
Marketing intelligence
Marketing research
Goal 2: Define the Marketing Information System

9. 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.

10. Steps in the Marketing Research Process:
Defining the problem and research objectives.
Developing the research plan for collecting information.
Implementing the research plan – collecting and analyzing the data.
Interpreting and reporting the findings.
Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. Evaluate the Following When Judging Data Quality
Secondary Data
Evaluate the Following When Judging Data Quality
Relevance
Accuracy
Currency
Impartiality
Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

15. Primary Data Collection
Primary research decisions:
Research approaches
Contact methods
Sampling plan
Research instruments
Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

16. Primary Data Decisions 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 Approach
Contact Method
Sampling Plan
Research Instrument
Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

17. Primary Data Decisions Key Contact Methods Include: Mail surveys
Telephone surveys
Personal interviewing:
Individual or focus group
Online research
Research Approach
Contact Method
Sampling Plan
Research Instrument
Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

18. 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 prerecord­ed questions.
Online (Internet) marketing research includes Internet surveys, experiments, and online focus groups.

19. Strengths and Weaknesses of Contact Methods Relate to:
Marketing Info. System
Strengths and Weaknesses of Contact Methods Relate to:
Flexibility
Sample control
Data quantity
Cost
Interviewer effects
Speed of data collection
Response rate
Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

20. Table.4.3 Strengths and Weaknesses of Contact Methods

21. Primary Data Decisions
Sample: subgroup of population from whom information will be collected
Sampling Plan Decisions:
Sampling unit
Sample size
Sampling procedure:
Probability samples
Non-probability samples
Decisions
Research Approach
Contact Method
Sampling Plan
Research Instrument
Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

22. Table.4.4 Types of Samples

23. Primary Data Decisions Questionnaires
Include open-ended and closed-ended questions
Phrasing and question order are key
Mechanical instruments
Nielsen’s people meters
Checkout scanners
Eye cameras
Decisions
Research Approach
Contact Method
Sampling Plan
Research Instrument
Goal 3: Outline the steps in the market research process

24. Table.4.5 A Questionable Questionnaire

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. Customer Relationship Management
Smart companies capture information at every possible customer touch­point. 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

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.
Goal 4: Explain how companies analyze/distribute marketing information

30. 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