MARKETING INFORMATION How companies gather, develop, sort and manage information about important elements in the marketing

environment customers, competitors, products and marketing strategies. We will examine marketing information systems designed to give managers right information, in the right form, in the right quantity, at the right time to help them make better marketing decisions. We will also look at the marketing research process and some special marketing research considerations. (In 1985 New Coke after 99 years. Dont mess with mother Coke, bombed in spite of great market research) MI needed to produce superior value and satisfaction to customers good products and marketing programs begin with understanding consumer needs and wants, information about competitors, resellers and other actors and forces in the market. MI is not just an input; it is a strategic asset and marketing tool. It can be chief competitive advantage. Products and processes can be duplicated but not information wealth and intellectual capital. Technology used to the hilt. There is data smog, data glut but marketers complain of lack of enough information. Right kind, Right form, Right quantity, and Right time. This where Marketing Information Systems (MIS) steps in. MIS consists of people, equipment and procedures to gather, sort, analyse, evaluate and distribute needed, timely and accurate information to marketing decision makers. MIS begins and ends with information users. It interacts with information users to assess information needs. Next it develops needed information from internal company data bases, marketing intelligence activities, and marketing research. Then it helps users to analyse the information to put it in the right form to make right marketing decisions and managing customer relationships. Finally MIS distributes the marketing information and helps managers use it effectively in their decision making. EXHIBIT PP143 Assessing marketing information needs: Serves not only internal managers, but external partners also. (Inventory patterns, stocking levels, price movements, Courier tracking etc.,) A good MIS balances between what users would like to have against what they really need and what is feasible to offer. (too little, too much unwanted information, some times ignore needed information, is it possible to find out how competitors spending budgets change next year, the costs involved) Developing marketing information: Marketing information can be collected from internal data, marketing intelligence and marketing research. Internal data: Electronic collections of information obtained from data sources within the company. Accessing internal data is quicker and cheaper, but can be

incomplete or wrong or in wrong form. The information must be well integrated, readily accessible and user friendly. Marketing intelligence: It is a systematic collection and analysis of publicly available information about competitors and developments in the marketing environment. (snooping on competition, internet, lurking in trade shows, planting insiders, suppliers, resellers, key customers, buy and analyse products, annual reports, business publications, press releases, advertisements, web pages) Legality? Marketing research: The systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data relevant to a specific marketing situation in an organization. (assess market potential, market share, customer satisfaction levels, purchase behaviour, effectiveness of pricing, product, distribution, and promotion activities) Marketing Research process has four steps: 1. Defining the problem and research objectives, 2. Developing the research plan for collecting information, 3. Implementing the research plan, collecting and analysing the data, and 4. Interpreting and reporting the findings EXHIBIT PP 148 Defining the problem and research objectives: Manager best understands the problem for which information is needed and researcher best understands how to obtain the information. The manager and researcher should sit together and define the issue. A specific marketing research project/assignment one of the three types of objectives: A. Exploratory Research: To gather preliminary information that will help define problems and suggest hypotheses. Observational research B. Descriptive Research: To better describe marketing problems, situations, or markets, (market potential for a product or the demographics and attitudes of consumers). C. Casual Research: to test hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships. Experimental research Developing the research plan: Once the research problems and objectives have been defined the researchers must determine the exact information needed, develop a plan for gathering it efficiently, and present the plan to the management. The research plan outlines sources of existing data and spells out the specific research approaches, contact methods, sampling plans, and instruments that the researchers will use to gather the new data. The plan should be in writing (especially when an outside firm carries it), and include the costs. The research plan can gather Secondary and Primary data. Secondary data: The information already exists somewhere, having been collected for some other purpose. Second Primary data: The information is collected fro the specified purpose at hand. First

Gathering Secondary data: Researchers usually start by gathering secondary data. Companys internal database, external information sources like commercial data services, government sources, commercial online databases, websites, annual reports, business publications, industry associations etc., Secondary data is collected quicker and cheaper. However, it is difficult to obtain all the data. Some times the data might not be very usable. The researcher must evaluate the secondary data to ensure it is relevant (fits the research project needs), accurate (reliably collected and reported), current (up to date enough for the current project), and impartial (objectively collected and reported) Gathering Primary data: Gathering data by observing relevant people, actions, and situations, surveys and experiments. This is Observational research: super markets, banks observing customer traffic, location of competing branches. Intensive observation along with customer interviews, to gain deep insights into how customers buy, use and live with the products or services Ethnographic survey. Research Approaches Observation Survey Experiment Contact Sampling Research methods plan instruments Mail Sampling unit Questionnaire Telephone Sample size Mechanical instmnts Personal sampling procedure Online

Survey Research: Most widely used, to gather descriptive information- peoples knowledge, attitudes, preferences, buying behaviour found out by direct asking. Single Source Data Approach: Starts with surveys of carefully selected groups of consumers who agree to participate in the ongoing research. Electronic monitoring systems, check out scanners. Experimental Research: Whereas observation is best suited to exploratory research, experimental research is best suited to gather Casual information. The gathering of primary data by selecting matched groups of subjects, giving them different treatments, controlling related factors, and checking for differences in group responses. CONTACT METHODS:

Mail Questionnaire: collect large amount of information at low cost, respondents may give more honest answers at least on personal questions, comfortable since the interviewer is not one unknown over phone, interviewer cannot influence answers, response rates are low, researcher has little or no control on the sample, not sure who at the mailing address filled in. Telephone interview: best to gather information quickly, difficult questions can be explained, depending on answers some questions can be skipped, new can be added, cost per respondent is higher, possibility of misbehaviour, interviewer bias, interviewer cheating. Personal interview: Trained interviewers - Individual interview at homes, offices, street corners, shopping malls, Group interview and Focus Group interview : There will be a moderator, small groups invited to talk about a product and service and are normally rewarded. Video conferencing. Costs, time, Online interview: Computer assisted interview respondents sit at computers, read questions on the screen and type their answers. The computers can be located at malls, trade centers, major hotels and restaurants, retail locations etc., Online research is - internet surveys, experiments, and online focus groups. Low costs, convenience, fast, no traveling, no schedules, no problems. STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF CONTACT METHODS MAIL PHONE PERSONAL Flexibility 4 2 1 Quantity of data that can be collected 2 3 1 Control of interviewer effects 1 3 4 Control of sample 3 1 3 Speed of data collection 4 1 2 Response rate 3 2 2 Cost 2 3 4 ONLINE 2 2 3 4 1 2 1

SAMPLING PLAN: SAMPLE is a representative segment of the population selected to represent the population as a whole. Designing the sample requires: Who, Sampling unit (television wife, husband, children, dealer, company or all, Chocolate-CarComputer) How many, Sampling size (too big or too small, if well chosen 1% is enough, election sampling why it fails) How, Sampling procedure should the sample be chosen. Probability samples: Non probability samples: (sampling measures can be corrected, cannot be corrected) Which method is best depends on the research project. TYPES OF SAMPLES

Simple Random Sample equal Chance of selection Stratified Random Sample The population is divided into mutually exclusive groups (such as age groups), and random samples are drawn for each group. Cluster (area) Sample The population is divided into mutually exclusive groups (such as blocks), and a sample of the groups is drawn in to the interview NON PROBABILITY SAMPLE Convenience Sample The researcher selects the easiest population members From which to obtain information. The researcher uses His judgment to select the population members who are Good prospects for accurate information. Judgement Sample The researcher finds and interviews a prescribed number Of people in each of several categories. RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS There are two main research instruments: Questionnaire and mechanical devices Questionnaire by far the most common instrument, whether administered in person, by phone, post or online. Close ended questions, Open ended questions Mechanical instruments: for consumer behaviour, super market scanners, CCTVs, emotion mouse (IBM) Implementing the research plan: After all of the above are zeroed on, the research plan is in action. This involves collecting, processing, and analyzing the information. This process is prone to errors and must be implemented correctly. The information must be well processed and analysed to isolate important information and findings. The data must be checked for accuracy and completeness and coded for analysis. Then the results must be tabulated and averages and other statistical measures must be computed. Interpreting and reporting the findings: Interpret findings, draw conclusions. Researcher should not try to overwhelm users with numbers and statistical jugglery. Highlight important findings that are useful in making major decisions. Interpretation should not be solely left to researchers. Experts in research design and statistics, marketing managers and researchers must work together closely when interpreting research results, and both must share the responsibility for the research process and resulting decisions.

PROBABILITY SAMPLE Every member of the population has a known and

Analysing marketing information: Managers need help in applying information to their problems and take decisions. Learn more about the relationships within a set of data and their statistical reliability. Such analysis enables managers to go beyond means and standard deviations in the data and to answer questions about markets, marketing activities, and outcomes. What if, and which is the best. Customer Relationship Management information: Most companies are awash with information about their customers. But this information is usually scattered deep in separate data bases, plans, and records of many functions and departments. The overcome this many companies are resorting to CRM. CRM consists of sophisticated software and analytical tools that integrate customer information from all sources, analyse in depth, and apply the results to build stronger customer relationships. CRM integrates everything that a companys sales, service, and marketing teams know about individual customers to provide a 360 degree view of the customer relationship. CRM is costly, risky to protect, difficult to sustain. But when it works, the benefits outweigh the costs and risks. Distributing and using marketing information: Marketing information is of no value unless and until it is used for better decision making. Routine and not routine benefits. Marketing research for SBUs and non profit orgainsations, International marketing research, Ethics in marketing, Non intrusion into consumer privacy, avoid misuse of research findings