Managing

Marketing
Information
To Gain Customer
Insights

Objectives
1.
2.
3.
4.

Explain the importance of

information in gaining insights
about the marketplace and
customers.
Define the marketing
information system and discuss
its parts.
Outline the steps in the
marketing research process.
Explain how companies analyze
and use marketing information.

The Importance of
Marketing Information
and Customer Insights
Companies need information about
their:

Customers needs
Marketing environment
Competition

Marketing managers do not need

more information, they need better

information that provides true
customers insights, which are
useful for decision making.

Customer Insights
Fresh understandings
of customers and the
marketplace derived
from marketing
information that
become the basis for
creating customer
value
and relationships.

Customer Insights
Firms use customer

insights to develop
competitive
advantage.
Customer insight
teams are replacing
traditional market
Tides immersion
research departments.
research found that
have strong
Insights stem from women
emotional ties to
many sources.
their clothing.

Marketing Information
System
Consists of people and
procedures for assessing
information needs,
developing the needed
information, and helping
decision makers to use
the information to
generate and validate
actionable customer and
market insights.

The Marketing
Information System

Marketing Information
System
The MIS helps
managers to:

1. Assess
information
needs.
2. Develop needed
information.
3. Analyze and use
information.

Assessing Information
Needs
A good MIS balances the information
users would like against what they
really need and what is feasible to
offer.

Sometimes the company cannot provide

the needed information because it is not
available or due to MIS limitations.
MIS efforts are costly. Firms must decide
whether the value of the insights gained
from more information is worth the cost.

Developing Marketing
Information
Internal databases are electronic

collections of consumer and market

information obtained from data
sources within the company
network.
Includes customer profile data,
customer satisfaction data, and more.
Accessed more quickly and cheaply
than other information sources.
Ages rapidly and may be incomplete.

Competitive Marketing
Intelligence
Systematic collection and
analysis of publicly available
information about consumers,
competitors, and developments
in the marketing environment.
Annual reports from the
competition and consumer
blogs are two examples.

Marketing Research
Systematic design,
collection, analysis, and
reporting of data
relevant to a specific
marketing situation
facing an organization.
Firms may hire outside
specialists or have a research
department in-house.

The Marketing Research

Process

Defining Problem and

Objectives
Research objectives may include:
Exploratory research:
Gathering preliminary information
that will help define the problem and
suggest hypotheses.

Descriptive research:
Generating information to better
describe marketing problems,
situations, or markets.

Causal research:
Testing hypotheses about cause-andeffect relationships.

Defining Problem and

Objectives
Requires:
Determining the exact information needed.
Developing a plan for gathering it efficiently.
Presenting the written plan to management.

The research plan outlines:

Sources of existing data.

Specific research approaches.
Contact methods.
Sampling plans.
Instruments for data collection.

Developing the
Research Plan
Research objectives must be

translated into specific information

needs.
Information needs might include
detailed customer characteristics,
usage patterns, retailer reactions, sales
forecasts, or other information.

Research plan should be presented

in a written proposal.
Research plans may outline need for
secondary data and primary data.

Gathering Secondary
Data
Secondary data:
Information that already exists
somewhere which has been
collected for another purpose.
Common sources of secondary
data:
Internal databases
Commercial data services
Government sources

Secondary Data
Advantages:
Available more
quickly and at a
lower cost than
primary data.
Can lead to
information
that an
individual firm
could not
gather itself.

Disadvantages:
Desired
information may
not exist as
secondary data.
Secondary data
must be carefully
evaluated for
relevancy,
accuracy,
currency, and
impartiality.

Primary Data
Consists of
information collected
for the specific
purpose at hand.
Primary data must be
relevant, accurate,
current, and unbiased.

Primary Data Collection

Designing a primary data collection
plan involves making decisions
related to the:
Research approach:
Observation, survey, or experiment

Contact methods:
Mail, telephone, personal, or online

Sampling plan:
Sampling unit, sample size, and
sampling procedure

Research instruments.

Observational Research
The gathering of primary data by

observing relevant people, actions,

and situations.

Can obtain information that people are

unwilling or unable to provide.
Cannot be used to observe feelings,
attitudes, and motives, and long-term or
infrequent behaviors.

Ethnographic research:

Trained observers watch and interact with

consumers in their natural habitat.
Yields richer understanding of consumers.

Survey Research
Survey research:
Gathers primary data by asking
people questions about their
knowledge, attitudes,
preferences, and buying
behavior.
Most widely used method for
primary data collection.
Best suited for gathering
descriptive information.

Experimental Research
Gathering primary data by
selecting matched groups of
subjects, giving them different
treatments, controlling related
factors and checking for
differences in group responses.
Best suited for explaining causeand-effect (causal) relationships.

Contact Methods
Mail surveys
Telephone
surveys
Personal
interviews:

Individual
interviewing
Focus group
interviewing

Schick
sponsored Slow
Sip focus group
sessions in local
cafes.

Contact Methods
Mail survey pros:

Can collect large amounts of information

at a relatively low cost per respondent.
Generates more truthful responses than
phone interviews.
Improved validity (no interviewer bias).

Mail survey cons:

Not flexible; study takes longer to finish.

Low response rate.
Little control over sample.

Contact Methods
Telephone surveying pros:

Gathers information fast.

Greater flexibility than mail surveys.
Interviewers can explain or skip
questions.
Strong sample control.

Telephone surveying cons:

Higher costs than mail.

Interviewer may bias results.
Limited quantity of data can be collected.
Poor response rates.

Contact Methods
Individual & group interviewing pros:
Highly flexible method that can gather a
great deal of data from a respondent.
Good control of sample, speed of data
collection, and response rate.

Individual & group interviewing

cons:

High cost per respondent.

Highly subject to interviewer bias and
related interviewer effects.

Contact Methods
Online pros:
Fastest form of data collection can
gather a good amount of data.
Lowest cost per respondent of all
contact methods; offers excellent
sample control.
Good flexibility and response rate.

Online cons:
Somewhat subject to interviewer bias
and related interviewer effects.

Contact Methods
Online marketing research:
Internet
surveys and
online panels
Experiments
Online focus
groups

Sample

Segment of the population

selected to represent the
population as a whole.

Sampling Plan
Sampling requires three decisions:
Who is to be surveyed?

Selecting the sampling unit.

How many people should be

surveyed?

Referred to as sample size.

How should the people in the

sample be chosen?
Describes the sampling
procedure.

Sampling Plan
Probability samples offer each

population member a known chance of

being selected.
Simple random sample
Stratified random sample
Cluster (area) sample

Nonprobability samples are selected in

a non random manner, which means
sampling error cannot be computed.
Convenience sample
Judgment sample
Quota sample

Research Instruments

Questionnaire decisions:
What questions to ask?
Form of each question?
Closed-ended
Open-ended

Wording?
Ordering?

Mechanical devices:

People meters, checkout scanners,

eye tracking devices, neuromarketing.

Implementing the
Research Plan
Collecting the data:

Most expensive phase.

Subject to error.

Processing the data:

Check for accuracy.
Code for analysis.

Analyzing the data:

Tabulate results.
Compute statistical
measures.

Interpreting and
Reporting Findings
Interpret the

findings.
Draw
conclusions.
Report to
management:
Present findings
and conclusions
that will be most
helpful to
decision making.

Customer Relationship
Management
Managing detailed
information about individual
customers & carefully
managing customer touch
points in order to maximize
customer loyalty.

Analyzing and Using

Marketing Information
Many companies utilize
customer relationship
management (CRM):

Captures customer information

from all sources.
Analyzes it in-depth.
Applies the results to build
stronger relationships.

Analyzing and Using

Marketing Information
Companies look for customer

touch points.
CRM analysts develop data
warehouses and use data
mining techniques to find out
information about customers.
Findings may lead to new
marketing opportunities.

Customer Relationship
Management (CRM)
Benefits of CRM:
Ability to offer better customer
service and develop deeper
customer relationships.
Pinpoint and target high-value
customers more effectively.
Enhances the firms ability to
cross-sell products and develop
offers tailored to customers.

Distributing and Using

Marketing Information
Marketing information systems

(MIS) must make information readily

available for decision-making:
Routine information for decision
making.
Nonroutine information for special
situations.

Intranets and extranets facilitate

the information sharing process.

Other Marketing
Information
Considerations

Small businesses

and nonprofit
organizations can
also benefit from
marketing
research insights.
International
marketing
research is
growing, but
presents unique
challenges.

The Nielsen
Company has
offices in more than
100 countries,

Other Marketing
Information
Considerations

Misuse of

marketing
research can
harm
consumers.
Public policy
and ethics in
marketing
research is
concerned with:

Intrusions on consumer privacy

Misuse of research findings