Marketing information system

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Why Information?

• Companies with superior information enjoy a competitive advantage.

• The company can :1)choose its markets better, 2)develop better offerings, and 3)execute better marketing planning

Marketing information system

• A marketing information system is a management information system designed to support marketing decision making.

Marketing information

system• PHILIP KOTLER:• "A marketing information system is a

continuing and interacting structure of people, equipment and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute pertinent, timely and accurate information for use by marketing decision makers to improve their marketing planning, implementation, and control".

• A marketing information system (MIS) is a set of procedures and methods designed to generate, analyze, disseminate, and store anticipated marketing decision information on a regular, continuous basis. An information system can be used operationally, managerially, and strategically for several aspects of marketing.

marketingDecision support system

Internal reporting systems

• Supplies results data.• The internal records of production, warehousing,

distribution , direct selling, cash flow , creditors are in internal reporting department system.

• E.g. sales, orders, customer profiles, stocks, customer service reports etc

Internal reporting system has focus on four marketing activities

• The order to payment cycle• Sales information system• Data base , data warehousing and

data mining

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Order-to-Payment Cycle

1.Customers and sales representatives fax or e-mail their orders.

2.Computerized warehouses quickly fill these orders.

3.The billing department sends out invoices as quickly as possible.

using the Internet and extranets to improve the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of the order-to-payment cycle.

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Internal Records

Sales Information System

Marketing managers need timely and accurate reports on current sales.

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Databases, Data Warehousing, and Data Mining

companies organize their information in databases:

1.customer databases, 2.product databases, 3.salesperson databasesOrganizations combine data from the

different databases.

Internal Records

Marketing intelligence systems:

• Supplies happenings data• A set of procedures and data sources used by

marketing managers used to obtain every day information from the marketing environment that they can use in their decision making.

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Steps to Improve Marketing Intelligence

• Train and motivate sales force• Motivate channel members to share intelligence• Network externally• Utilize customer advisory panel• Utilize government data resources• Purchase information • Collect customer feedback online

Marketing Decision Support System

• A set of statistical tools and techniques models with hardware and software support that helps the manger in analysing the information properly and using it in making better and effective marketing decisions

Marketing research systems

• Marketing research:• Systematic gathering recording and analysing

of data about problems relating to the marketing of goods and services

Marketing research• According to American

Marketing Association, “Marketing Research is the function that links the consumer, customer and public to the marketer through information-information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems, generate, refine and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process.”

Marketing research

• PHILIP KOTLER• It is the systematic design , collection and analysis

and reporting of data analysis and findings relevant to specific marketing situation facing the company.

Marketing research characteristics

• Systematic

• Objective

Who Is Responsible for Marketing Research

Most large companies have their own marketing research departments.

At much smaller companies, marketing research is often carried out by everyone in the company

Business Organizations normally budget marketing research at 1 to 2 percent of company sales

Marketing research & firmsType Examples

Syndicated-service research firms Gather & sell

Custom marketing research firms hired to carry out

Specialty-line marketing research firms

(specialized in services) sells field interviewing services to other firms.

The Marketing Research Process

six steps as shown in

this Figure

Step 1) Defining the Problem

• Should not be defined too broadly or too narrowly . Clarity on the following:

a. What is to be researched? (the content , the scope)

b. Why it is to be researched? (the decision that are to be made)

Step 2) Developing Research Plan

Designing a research plan calls for decisions on the data sources, research approaches, research instruments, sampling plan, and contact methods

Research design• A research design encompasses the

methodology and procedure employed to conduct research.

Data sources

Primary data

Secondary data

Research approaches

Primary data can be collected in five ways:

Observation Focus groupsSurveysBehavioral dataExperiments.

Observational research

• Gather fresh data by observing the relevant actors and settings

Focus Group

Gathering of six to ten people who are carefully selected based on certain demographic, psychographic, or other considerations and brought together to discuss at length various topics of interest.

Behavioral Data

Customers leave traces of their purchasing behavior in store scanning data, catalog purchases, and customer databases.

Survey Research Companies undertake surveys to learn

about people's knowledge, beliefs, preferences, and satisfaction, and to measure these magnitudes in the general population.

Requires development of a survey instrument.

Experimental Research

The most scientifically valid. The purpose of experimental research is to capture cause-and-effect relationships by eliminating competing explanations of the observed findings.

• Experiments call for selecting matched groups of subjects, subjecting them to different treatments, controlling extraneous variables, and checking whether observed response differences are statistically significant.

Three main research instruments in collecting primary data:

1) questionnaires, 2) qualitative measures, 3) Technological devices.

RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS

Questionnaires• Consist of a set of questions presented to

respondents.• To collect primary data.Closed-end questionsOpen-end questions

Qualitative research

QR techniques are relatively unstructured measurement approaches that permit a range of possible responses, and they are a creative means of ascertaining consumer perceptions that may otherwise be difficult to uncover.

Technological Devices• Mechanical devices are occasionally used in marketing

research. • Eye cameras study respondents' eye movements to see

where their eyes land first, how long they linger on a given item, and so on.

• Audiometers can be attached to television sets in participating homes to record when the set is on and to which channel it is tuned.

SAMPLING PLANSAMPLING PLAN After deciding on the research

approach and instruments, the marketing researcher must design a sampling plan.

1. Sampling unit: Who is to be surveyed?2. Sample size: How many people should be surveyed?3. Sampling procedure: How should the respondents

be chosen?

• Simple random sample: Every member of the population has an equal chance of selection.

• Stratified random sample: The population is divided into mutually exclusive groups (such as age groups), and random samples are drawn from each group.

• Cluster (area) sample: The population is divided into mutually exclusive groups (such as city blocks), and the researcher draws a sample of the

groups to interview.

A. Probability Sample

B. Non-probability Sample • Convenience sample: The researcher selects

the most accessible population members. • Judgment sample: The researcher selects

population members who are good prospects for accurate information.

• Quota sample: The researcher finds and interviews a prescribed number of people in each of several categories.

CONTACT METHODS

Once the sampling plan has been determined, the marketing researcher must decide how the subject should be contacted:

Step 3: Collect the Information • Getting the right respondents is critical. • In the case of surveys, four major problems

arise. 1) Some respondents will not be at home and

must be contacted again or replaced. 2) respondents will refuse to cooperate.3) some will give biased or dishonest answers. 4) some interviewers will be biased or dishonest.

Step 4: Analyze the Information

The next-to-last step in the process is to extract findings from the collected data.

The researcher tabulates the data and develops frequency distributions.

Averages and measures of dispersion are computed for the major variables.

The researcher will also apply some advanced statistical techniques and decision models in the hope of discovering additional findings.

Step 5: Present the Findings

The researcher should present findings that are relevant to the major marketing decisions facing management.

Step 6: Make the Decision

• The last step is decision-making process. Evaluating the decision made. Managers decide:

• To use• To discard • To carry more research