Assessing Marketing

Information Needs
• A 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.
• Assess the information needs
• Develop needed information
• Analyze information
• Distribute information

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Assessing Marketing
Information Needs

The marketing information system

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Assessing Marketing
Information Needs
• MIS provides information to the company’s
marketing and other managers and external
partners such as suppliers, resellers, and marketing
service agencies

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Assessing Marketing
Information Needs
• A good MIS balances the information users would
like to have against what they need and what is
feasible to offer.
• Issues to consider:
• Amount of information
• Availability of information
• Costs

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Developing Marketing Information
Marketers can obtain information from:
• Internal data
• Marketing intelligence
• Marketing research

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Developing Marketing Information

Internal Data
• Internal databases are electronic collections of consumer
and market information obtained from data sources within
the company network, including accounting, marketing,
customer service, and sales departments.

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Developing Marketing Information
Advantages and Disadvantage of Internal
Databases
Advantages: Disadvantages:
• Can be accessed more • Incomplete information
quickly • Wrong form for decision
• Less expensive making
• Timeliness of information
• Amount of information

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Developing Marketing Information

Marketing Intelligence
• Marketing intelligence is the systematic collection
and analysis of publicly available information about
competitors and developments in the marketplace.
• The goal of marketing intelligence is to:
• Improve strategic decision making,
• Assess and track competitors’ actions, and
• Provide early warning of opportunities and threats.

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

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Marketing Research

Steps in the marketing research process

1. Defining the problem and research objectives

2. Developing the research plan
3. Implementing the plan
4. Interpreting and reporting the findings

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Marketing Research

Defining the Problem and Research Objectives

Types of objectives:
• Exploratory research
• Descriptive research
• Causal research

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Marketing Research

Defining the Problem and Research Objectives

• Exploratory research is the gathering of preliminary
information that will help to define the problem and
suggest hypotheses.
• Descriptive research is to describe things such as
market potential for a product or the demographics
and attitudes of consumers who buy the product.
• Causal research is to test hypotheses about cause-and-
effect relationships.

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Marketing Research

Developing the Research Plan

The research plan

• Outlines sources of existing data
• Spells out the specific research approaches,
contact methods, sampling plans, and instruments
that researchers will use to gather data

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Marketing Research

Developing the Research Plan

The research plan is a written proposal that includes:

• Management problem
• Research objectives
• Information needed
• How the results will help management decisions
• Budget

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Marketing Research

Developing the Research Plan

• Secondary data consists of information that

already exists somewhere, having been collected
for another purpose
• Primary data consists of information gathered for
the special research plan

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Marketing Research
Gathering Secondary Data
+ Advantages: – Disadvantages:
• Speed • Availability
• Cost • Relevance
• Provides data that a • Accuracy
company cannot • Impartial
collect on its own

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Marketing Research

Primary Data Collection

• Research approaches
• Contact methods
• Sampling plan
• Research instruments

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Marketing Research

Research Approaches

• Observational research involves gathering primary

data by observing relevant people, actions, and
situations.

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Marketing Research

Research Approaches

• Survey research is the most widely used method and is

best for descriptive information—knowledge,
attitudes, preferences, and buying behavior.
• Flexible
• People can be unable or unwilling to answer
• Gives misleading or pleasing answers
• Privacy concerns

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Marketing Research
Research Approaches

• Experimental research is best for gathering

causal information
• Tries to explain cause-and-effect relationships.

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Marketing Research
Contact Methods
Mail questionnaires
• Collect large amounts of information
• Low cost
• Less bias with no interviewer present
• Lack of flexibility
• Low response rate
• Lack of control of sample

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Marketing Research
Contact Methods

Telephone interviewing
• Collects information quickly
• More flexible than mail questionnaires
• Interviewers can explain difficult questions
• Higher response rates than mail questionnaires
• Interviewers communicate directly with respondents
• Higher cost than mail questionnaires
• Potential interviewer bias

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Marketing Research

Contact Methods

Mail, telephone, and personal interviewing

• Personal interviewing
• Individual interviewing
• Group interviewing

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Marketing Research

Sampling Plan
• A sample is a segment of the population selected for
marketing research to represent the population as a
whole.
• Who is to be surveyed?
• How many people should be surveyed?
• How should the people be chosen?

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Marketing Research
Sampling Plan
• Probability samples: Each population member has a
known chance of being included in the sample.
• Non-probability samples: Used when probability
sampling costs too much or takes too much time.

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Marketing Research
Research Instruments
• Questionnaires

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Marketing Research
Research Instruments
• Questionnaires
• Most common
• Administered in person, by phone, or online
• Flexible
• Open-end questions
• Closed-end questions

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Marketing Research
Research Instruments
• Closed-end questions include all the possible answers,
and subjects are to make choices among them.
• Provides answers that are easier to interpret and tabulate
• Open-end questions allows respondents to answer in
their own words.
• Useful in exploratory research

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Marketing Research
Implementing the Research Plan
• Collecting data
• Processing the information
• Analyzing the information

Issues to consider:
• What if respondents refuse to cooperate?
• What if respondents give biased answers?
• What if interviewer makes mistakes or takes shortcuts?

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Analyzing Marketing Information
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Consists of sophisticated software and analytical
tools
• Integrates customer information from all sources
• Analyzes it in depth
• Applies the results to build stronger customer
relationships

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Analyzing Marketing Information
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Data warehouses are comprehensive companywide
electronic databases of finely-tuned, detailed customer
information.
• Uses:
• To understand customers better
• To provided higher levels of customer service
• To develop deeper customer relationships
• To identify high-value customers

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Analyzing Marketing Information
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Touch points: Every contact between the customer and
company
• Customer purchases
• Sales force contacts
• Service and support calls
• Web site visits
• Satisfaction surveys
• Credit and payment interactions
• Research studies

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Distributing and Using Marketing
Information
• Information distribution involves entering information
into databases and making it available in a time-
useable manner.
• Intranet provides information to employees and other
stakeholders.
• Extranet provides information to key customers and
suppliers

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