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Before Marketers can even attempt to find a solution, they must recognize that a problem exists. This is not always easy. Often symptoms are mistaken for problems. For example, a Marketer who is concerned with declining sales may describe the decline as a problem & may assume that the product is nearing the end of its product life cycle, whereas the decline may be a symptom of problems like poor servicing, overpricing etc.

The performance of the marketing function can be viewed as being concerned essentially with problem solving & decision making throughout the three stages of planning, implementing & controlling the marketing function.

The most significant change in recent times in the business environment is the recognition that information gathering is crucial. Since the primary function of marketing is to assess want- satisfying opportunities & match resources to them, the knowledge that flows from information is important for marketing.

Today, the need for efficient information management is greater than ever. Thus information is the foundation, major source for the problem solving and decision making that marketing executives confront daily. To grasp the nature of information fully, we need to understand the manners in which systematic data gathering pulls together the information needed for decision - making.

Data and information are not the same. Information is data that have been converted to a useful form for decision-making. It is relevant, timely, accurate, cost - effective and reduces risk in decision-making.

Marketing managers face an immense volume of raw data coming from many kinds of internal and external sources such as accounting records, reports from sales force, government statistics and so on. If these data are to be useful, the data flow must be managed.

Data can be classified as external or internal. External data are generated outside the firm. Examples are competitor’s sales, customer buying habits, media rates, and middlemen in the marketing channels. Internal data are generated from with the firms. Examples are call reports by the company sales force, credit records, sales data.

Data can also be classified as recurrent and non-recurrent. Sales persons collect recurrent data routinely in every day operations as sales data. Non-recurrent data are collected to deal with the special problem.

Managers must consider the cost of collecting and converting the data into information when specifying their informational needs. Rarely will all information they want be available. The cost of additional information must be weighed against its value for planning, implementation and controlling market information.

In general, information should be sought if the firm has no better use for the funds and if the expected value of the information exceeds expected costs, but determining the value of information is difficult.