The Marketing Information System
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1. Internal Record System
2. Competitive Marketing Intelligence
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Provides reliable information of the company.
Most basic information system to get internal data.
Provides present data.
The systematic collection and analysis of publicly available information about consumers, competitors and developments in the marketing environment.
Goals: Improve strategic decision making by understanding consumer environment, assessing and tracking competitors' actions, and providing early warnings of opportunities and threats.
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3. Marketing Research System
Marketing Research Process
- Defining problems and setting research objectives.
The systematic design, collection, analysis and reporting data relevant to a specific marketing situation facing an organisation. Used by managers when detailed information cannot be found using marketing intelligence.
Mainly involves the marketing manager and researcher.
After defining a problem one has to choose between three objectives.
Exploratory research: Research to gather preliminary information that will help define issues and suggest hypothesis.
Descriptive Research: Conducted to better describe problems or markets
Casual Research: Tests hypothesis about cause-and-effect relationships.
- Developing the Research Plan
Determines the information needed and develops a plan for gathering it efficiently.
Analyses the type of data, research and contact methods that the plan will consist of.
Should be presented in a written proposal.
Can call for gathering secondary data or primary data.
Types of data
Quantitative: Data collection from postal, telephone or personal questionnaires or survey methods from a sufficient volume of respondents to allow statistical analysis. Only allows for specific answers and numerical results.
Qualitative: Primarily exploratory research used to uncover customer's motivations, attitudes and behaviour. Can be obtained by observation and asking open-ended questions in focus groups or in-depth interviews. more accurate, deeper and requires less people, yet it is much more expensive.
Research Approaches
Observational: Gathering primary data by observing relevant people, actions and situations. Best suited for exploratory research. An example is the placement of products in supermarkets.
Ethnographic: Involves sending trained observers to watch and interact with consumers in their natural environment.
Experimental: Best suited for collecting casual information. Involves gathering primary data by selecting matched groups of subjects, giving them different treatments, controlling related factors and checking differences in the group. Tries to explain cause-and-effect relationships
Lab experiments: Can never be fully accurate as they are unnatural, a considerate amount of people are needed yet it is easier and faster than field experiments.
Field experiments: Carried out on products that are almost finished. They are expensive and competitors know what you are doing.
Placement tests: Samples are given to a small amount of people in a given amount of time to receive feedback.
Store tests: Versions of similar products are sold in similar stores
Test marketing: Extremely expensive and works by selling in the actual market
Contact methods
Postal/mail surveys
Telephone interviewing
Personal interviewing
Online marketing/ research
Individual interviewing
Focus group interviewing (gathers quantitative information)
Sampling plan
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Population (entire group under study)
Sample (A subset group that represents the whole population)
Sample frame (A master list)
Sample unit (All sample units form a sample frame).
Sampling error (Error which comes up using a sample).
Census (An account of the entire population and is more accurate than samples).