Managing Marketing Information

1. Managing MarketingInformation Chapter 4

2. 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

3. 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

4. Fig.4.1.The Marketing Information System

5. 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

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

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

8. Company employees Internet Garbage Published information Competitor’s employees Trade shows Benchmarking Channel members and key customers Sources of Competitive Intelligence Goal 2: Define the Marketing Information System

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

10. 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.

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

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

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

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

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

19. 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.

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

21. Table.4.3 Strengths and Weaknesses of Contact Methods

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

23. Table.4.4 Types of Samples

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

25. Table.4.5 A Questionable Questionnaire

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

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 Goal 5: Discuss Special Issues Facing Market Researchers