PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
Chapter 3
Marketing Information System
(MIS) and Marketing Research
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
1 Explain the importance of information to the company and
its understanding of the marketplace
2 Define the marketing information system and discuss its
parts
3 Outline the steps in the marketing research process
4 Explain how companies analyze and distribute marketing
information
5 Discuss the special issues some marketing researchers face,
including public policy and ethics
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Chapter Outline
1 Assessing Marketing Information Needs
2 Developing Marketing Information
3 Marketing Research
4 Analyzing Marketing Information
5 Distributing and Using Marketing Information
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Marketing information and todays big data:
Big data : The huge and complex data sets
generated by today’s sophisticated information
generation, collection, storage, and analysis
technologies.
Customer insights: Fresh marketing information-
based understandings of customers and the
marketplace that become the basis for creating
customer value, engagement, and relationships.
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Difference between information system (IS) and
information technology (IT) :
Information system (IS) : is all the components and
resources necessary to deliver information and
functions to the organization.
Information technology (IT) : is hardware, software,
networking and data management.
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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.
1. Assessing the information needs
2. Developing needed information
3. Analyzing information
4. Distributing information
(helping decision makers use the 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
● Need for sophisticated
equipment and
techniques
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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
1. 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
2. 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.
● Ethnographic research involves sending trained
observers to watch and interact with consumers in
their natural environment.
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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, telephone, and personal interviewing, and
online marketing research
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
● Personal interviewing
● Individual interviewing
● Group interviewing
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Marketing Research
Contact Methods
● Personal interviewing
● Individual interviewing
● Involves talking with people at home or the office, on
the street, or in shopping malls
● Flexible
● More expensive than telephone interviews
● Group interviewing or focus group interviewing
● Involves inviting 6 to 10 people to talk with
a trained moderator
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Marketing Research
Contact Methods
Online marketing research
● Internet surveys
● Online panels
● Online experiments
● Online focus groups
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Marketing Research
Contact Methods
Online marketing research
● Low cost
● Speed to administer
● Fast results
● Good for hard-to-reach groups
● Hard to control who’s in the sample
● Lack of interaction
● Privacy concerns
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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
• Mechanical devices
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Marketing Research
Research Instruments
1- 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
Research Instruments
2- Mechanical Instruments: Although questionnaires are
the most common research instrument, researchers
also use mechanical instruments to monitor consumer
behavior. For example, Nielsen Media Research
attaches people meters to television sets in selected
homes to record who watches which programs.
Retailers use checkout scanners to record shoppers’
purchases. Other marketers use mobile phone GPS
technologies to track con sumer movements in and
near their stores
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Marketing Research
3. Implementing the Research Plan The researcher next
puts the marketing research plan into action. This involves
collecting, processing, and analyzing the information. Data
collection can be carried out by the company’s marketing
research staff or outside firms.
• 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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Marketing Research
4. Interpreting and reporting the findings
The market researcher must now interpret the findings,
draw conclusions, and report them to management. The
researcher should not try to overwhelm managers with
numbers and fancy statistical techniques. Rather, the
researcher should present important findings and insights
that are useful in the major decisions faced by
management.
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Analyzing Marketing Information
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• CRM consists of sophisticated software and
analytical tools that integrate customer
information from all sources, analyze it in depth,
and apply the results to build stronger customer
relationships.
Big data and marketing analytics
• Marketing analytics: The analysis tools,
technologies, and processes by which marketers
dig out meaningful patterns in big data to gain
customer insights and gauge marketing
performance
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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
● Marketing information has no value until it is used to
make better marketing decisions. Thus, the marketing
information system must make information readily
available to managers and others who need it
● 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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