Post on 28-Mar-2023
INTRODUCTION
What is marketing information system?
According to Encyclopedia of information system,Voi.3(2003)
Elsevier science (USA),137-151 Defines MkIS as a computerized
system that is designed to provide an organized flow of
information to enable and support the marketing activities of
an organization. The MkIS serves collaborative, analytical and
operational needs. In the collaborative mode, the MkIS enables
managers to share information and work together virtually. In
addition, the MkIS can enable marketers to collaborate with
customers on product designs and customer requirements. The
analytical function is addressed by decision support
applications that enable marketers to analyze market data on
customers, competitors, technology and general market
conditions. These insights are becoming the foundation for the
development of marketing strategies and plans. The MkIS
addresses operational needs through customer management
systems that focus on the day-to-day processing of customer
transactions from the initial sale through customer service.
MkIS systems are designed to be comprehensive and flexible in
nature and to integrate with each other functionally. They are
formal, forward looking and essential to the organization’s
ability to create competitive advantage. The MkIS is the
firm’s “window on the world” and, increasingly, it is the
primary customer interface.
The following are the key consideration of marketing information
systems and .its subsystems
Figure1. The marketing information system. From marking management: analysis planning control prentice-Hall p.102
The explanation of this model of an MIS begins with a description of each of its four main constituent parts:
I. the internal reporting systems,
II. marketing research system,
III. marketing intelligence system
IV. Marketing models.
It is suggested that whilst the MIS varies in its degree of
sophistication - with many in the industrialised countries
being computerised and few in the developing countries being
so - a fully fledged MIS should have these components, the
methods (and technologies) of collection,
storing, retrieving Processing data notwithstanding.
Internal reporting systems: All enterprises which have been in
operation for any period of time nave a wealth of information.
However, this information often remains under-utilised because
it is compartmentalised, either in the form of an individual
entrepreneur or in the functional departments of larger
businesses. That is, information is usually categorised
according to its nature so that there are, for example,
financial, production, manpower, marketing, stockholding and
logistical data. Often the entrepreneurs, or various personnel
working in the functional departments holding these pieces of
data, do not see how it could help decision makers in other
functional areas. Similarly, decision makers can fail to
appreciate how information from other functional areas might
help them and therefore do not request it.
The internal records that are of immediate value to marketing
decisions are: orders received, stockholdings and sales
invoices. These are but a few of the internal records that can
be used by marketing managers, but even this small set of
records is capable of generating a great deal of information.
Below, is a list of some of the information that can be
derived from sales invoices.
· Product type, size and pack type by territory
· Product type, size and pack type by type of account
· Product type, size and pack type by industry
· Product type, size and pack type by customer
· Average value and/or volume of sale by territory
· Average value and/or volume of sale by type of account
· Average value and/or volume of sale by industry
· Average value and/or volume of sale by sales person
By comparing orders received with invoices an enterprise can
establish the extent to which it is providing an acceptable
level of customer service. In the same way, comparing
stockholding records with orders received helps an enterprise
ascertain whether its stocks are in line with current demand
patterns.
Market research is any organized effort to gather information about target markets or customers. It is a very important
component of business strategy.[1] The term is commonly
interchanged with marketing research; however, expert
practitioners may wish to draw a distinction, in that marketing
research is concerned specifically about marketing processes,
while market research is concerned specifically with markets.
Market research is a key factor to maintain competitiveness
over competitors. Market research provides important
information to identify and analyze the market need, market
size and competition.
Market research, which includes social and opinion research,
is the systematic gathering and interpretation of information
about individuals or organizations using statistical and
analytical methods and techniques of the applied social
sciences to gain insight or support decision making.
History
Market research began to be conceptualized and put into formal
practice during the 1920s, as an offshoot of the advertising
boom of the Golden Age of radio in the United States.
Advertisers began to realize the significance of demographics
revealed by sponsorship of different radio programs.
Market research for business/planning
Market research is a way of getting an overview of consumers'
wants, needs and beliefs. It can also involve discovering how
they act. The research can be used to determine how a product
could be marketed. Peter Ducker believed market research to be
the quintessence of marketing.
There are two major types of market research. Primary Research
sub-divided into Quantitative and Qualitative research and
Secondary research.
Factors that can be investigated through market research
include
Market information
Through Market information one can know the prices of
different commodities in the market, as well as the supply and
demand situation. Market researchers have a wider role than
previously recognized by helping their clients to understand
social, technical, and even legal aspects of markets
Market segmentation
Market segmentation is the division of the market or
population into subgroups with similar motivations. It is
widely used for segmenting on geographic differences,
personality differences, demographic differences,
technographic differences, use of product differences,
psychographic differences and gender differences. For B2B
segmentation firmographics is commonly used.
Market trends
Market trends are the upward or downward movement of a market,
during a period of time. Determining the market size may be
more difficult if one is starting with a new innovation. In
this case, you will have to derive the figures from the number
of potential customers, or customer segments. [Ilar 1998]
SWOT analysis
SWOT is a written analysis of the Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats to a business entity. Not only
should a SWOT be used in the creation stage of the company but
could also be used throughout the life of the company. A SWOT
may also be written up for the competition to understand how
to develop the marketing and product mixes.
Another factor that can be measured is marketing
effectiveness. This includes
Market research for the film industry
It is important to test marketing material for films to see
how an audience will receive it. There are several market
research practices that may be used:
(1) Concept testing, this evaluates reactions to a film idea
and is fairly rare;
(2) positioning studios, which analyze a script for marketing
opportunities;
(3) Focus groups, which probe viewers' opinions about a film
in small groups prior to release;
(4) Test screenings, which involve the previewing of films
prior to theatrical release; (5) tracking studies, which gauge
(often by telephone polling) an audience's awareness of a film
on a weekly basis prior to and during theatrical release
(6) Advertising testing, which measures responses to marketing
materials such as trailers and television advertisements; and
finally
(7) Exit surveys that measure audience reactions after seeing
the film in the cinema.
Influence from the Internet
The availability of research by way of the Internet has
influenced a vast number of consumers using this media; for
gaining knowledge relating to virtually every type of
available product and service. It has been added to by the
growth factor of emerging global markets, such as China,
Indonesia and Russia, which is significantly exceeding that of
the established and more advanced B2C E-Commerce markets.
Various statistics show that the increasing demands of
consumers are reflected not only in the wide and varied range
of general Internet researching applications, but in online
shopping research penetration.
This is stimulated by product-enhancing websites, graphics,
and content designed to attract casual "surfing" shoppers,
researching for their particular needs, competitive prices and
quality. According to the Small Business Administration (SBA),
a successful business is significantly contributed to by
gaining knowledge about customers, competitors, and the
associated industry. Market research creates not only this
understanding, but is the process of data analysis regarding
which products and services are in demand.
The convenience and easy accessibility of the Internet has
created a global B2C E-commerce research facility, for a vast
online shopping network that has motivated retail markets in
developed countries. In 2010, between $400 billion and $600
billion in revenue was generated by this medium also, it is
anticipated that in 2015, this
Online market will generate revenue between $700 billion and
$950 billion. The influence of market research, irrespective
of what form it takes, is an extremely powerful incentive for
any type of consumer and their providers!
The UK Market Research Society (MRS) reports research has
shown that on average, the three social media platforms
primarily used by millionaires, are LinkedIn, Facebook and
YouTube. Social Media applications, according to T Systems,
help generate the B2B E-commerce market and develop electronic
business process efficiency. This application is a highly
effective vehicle for market research, which combined with E-
commerce, is now regarded as a separate, extremely profitable
field of global business. While many B2B business models are
being updated, the various advantages and benefits offered by
Social Media platforms are being integrated within them.
Business intelligence organization have compiled a
comprehensive report related to global online retail sales,
defining continued growth patterns and trends in the industry.
Headed “Global B2C E-Commerce and Online Payment Market 2014”
the report perceives a decrease in overall growth rates in
North America and Western Europe, as the expected growth in
the online market sales, is absorbed into the emerging
markets. It is forecast that the Asia-Pacific region will see
the fastest growth in the B2C E-Commerce market and replace
North America as the B2C E-Commerce sales region leader,
within a few years. This effectively, offers a significant,
motivational platform for new Internet services, to promote
user market 'Marketing intelligence (MI) is the everyday
information relevant to a company’s markets, gathered and
analyzed specifically for the purpose of accurate and
confident decision-making in determining market opportunity,
market penetration strategy, and market development metrics.
Marketing intelligence is necessary when entering a foreign
market.
Marketing intelligence determines the intelligence needed,
collects it by searching environment and delivers it to
marketing managers who need it. Marketing intelligence
software can be deployed using an on-premises or software as a
service (SaaS, or cloud-based) model. These systems take data
from disparate data sources, like web analytics, business
intelligence, call centre and sales data, which often come
separate reports, and put them into a single environment. In
order to collect marketing intelligence, marketing managers
must be in constant touch with relevant books, newspapers and
trade publications. They must talk to various stakeholders
like customers, distributors and suppliers. In addition to
this they must also monitor social media and carry out online
discussions. Marketing managers can design reports that
correlate and visualize data coming from a variety of
departments and sources (even, in some cases, external data.)
This allows them to see current key performance indicators in
real time (or as quickly as sources provide data) and analyze
trends, rather than wait for analysts to deliver periodic
reports.
Marketing intelligence systems are designed to be used by
marketing managers and often viewed by employees throughout an
organization. They may have user interfaces that closer
resemble consumer software than the software around individual
data sources, which are designed for use by analysts. Business
intelligence for example, can collect highly accurate, timely,
granular data, but often requires IT support to build and edit
custom reports.
Organizationally, marketing intelligence can be the name of
the department that performs both the market intelligence and
competitor analysis roles. Business intelligence of any kind
may also be their responsibility, in tandem with (or solely
performed by) the Finance department, for measuring market
share and setting growth targets, the mergers and acquisitions
group for exploring acquisition opportunities, the legal
department to protect the organization's assets or research
and development for cross-company comparison of innovation
trends and the discovery of opportunities through innovative
differentiation.
Steps to be taken by a Company to improve its Marketing
Intelligence
(1) Train and Motivate Sales Force: A company's sales force
can be an excellent source of information about the current
trends in the market. They are the "intelligence gatherers"
for the company. The acquired facts can be regarding the
company's market offerings, whether any improvements are
required or not or is there any opportunity for new products,
etc. It can also provide credible source to know about
competitor activities, consumers, distributors and retailers.
(2) Motivate Distributors, retailers, and other intermediaries
to pass along important intelligence: Specialists are hired by
companies to gather marketing intelligence. In order to
measure the quality of production, the way the employees are
behaving with customers, quality of facilities being provided;
retailers and service providers send mystery shoppers. Firms
can also assess the quality of customer experience with the
shops with the use of mystery shoppers.
(3) Network Externally: Every firm must keep a tab on its
competitors. Competitive intelligence describes the broader
discipline of researching, analyzing and formulating data and
information from the entire competitive environment of any
organization. This can be done by purchasing the competitor's
products, checking the advertising campaigns, the press media
coverage, reading their published reports, etc. Competitive
intelligence must be legal and ethical.
(4) Set up a customer advisory panel: Companies can set up
panels consisting of customers. They can be the company's
largest customers or representatives of customers or the most
outspoken customers. Many business schools set up panels
consisting of alumni who provide their knowledge and expertise
and help in constituting the course curriculum.
(5) Optimal usage of Government data resources: Governments of
almost all countries publish reports regarding the population
trends, demographic characteristics, agricultural production
and a lot of other such data. All this data must be or can be
referred to as base data. It can help in planning and
formulating policies for the companies.
(6) Information bought from external suppliers: Certain
agencies sell data that can be useful to other companies. For
example, television channels will require information on the
number of viewership, ratings of TV programs, etc. An agency
which calculates this information and generates this data will
provide it to companies that need it.
(7) Collect Competitive Intelligence through online customer
feedback: Customer's view about a product is most essential
for any company. Ultimately it's the customer who's buying the
product. Hence customer feedback must be taken. Online
platforms like chat rooms, blogs, discussion forums, customer
review boards can be used to generate customer feedback. This
enables the firm to understand customer experiences and
impressions. It becomes easier for companies to apply a
structured system to do so as it can then scan out the
relevant messages without much of a trouble. With the above
steps being applied, a company's marketing intelligence system
will prove to be beneficial to its effective functioning..
Marketing models: Within the MIS there has to be the means of
interpreting information in order to give direction to
decision. These models may be computerised or may not. Typical
tools are:
· Time series sales modes
· Brand switching models
· Linear programming
· Elasticity models (price, incomes, demand, supply, etc.)
· Regression and correlation models
· Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) models
· Sensitivity analysis
· Discounted cash flow
· Spreadsheet 'what if models
These and similar mathematical, statistical, econometric and
financial models are the analytical subsystem of the MIS. A
relatively modest investment in a desktop computer is enough
to allow an enterprise to automate the analysis of its data.
Some of the models used are stochastic, i.e. those containing
a probabilistic element whereas others are deterministic
models where chance plays no part. Brand switching models are
stochastic since these express brand choices in probabilities
whereas linear programming is deterministic in that the
relationships between variables are expressed in exact
mathematical terms.
Marketing information systems are intended to support
management decision making. Management has five distinct
functions and each requires support from an MIS. These are:
planning, organising, coordinating, decisions and controlling.
Information systems have to be designed to meet the way in
which managers tend to work. Research suggests that a manager
continually addresses a large variety of tasks and is able to
spend relatively brief periods on each of these. Given the
nature of the work, managers tend to rely upon information
that is timely and verbal (because this can be assimilated
quickly), even if this is likely to be less accurate then more
formal and complex information systems.
Managers play at least three separate roles: interpersonal,
informational and decisional. MIS, in electronic form or
otherwise, can support these roles in varying degrees. MIS has
less to contribute in the case of a manager's informational
role than for the other two.
Three levels of decision making can be distinguished from one
another: strategic, control (or tactical) and operational.
Again, MIS has to support each level. Strategic decisions are
characteristically one-off situations. Strategic decisions
have implications for changing the structure of an
organisation and therefore the MIS must provide information
which is precise and accurate. Control decisions deal with
broad policy issues and operational decisions concern the
management of the organisation's marketing mix.
Conclusion
in marketing information system particular and internet-based
technologies are being transformed as these new technologies
that enable the integration of marketing, sale and customer
service activities. The primary drivers of this shift are the
promises of delivering increased value to the customs more
rapidly and increasingly involve the customer in the value
creation process and work to more effectively align the
enterprise and supply chain on rapidly changing market
opportunities.
References
1. Kotler, P., (1988) Marketing Management: Analysis Planning and
Control, Prentice-Hall p. 102.
2. Agnilar, F.. (1967) Scanning The Business Environment, Macmillan,
New York, p.47.
3.Encyclopedia of information system,Vo.3 (2003) Elsevier
science (USA),137-151