CHAPTER 4: MANAGING INFORMATION & MARKETING RESEARCH
Marketers View on Information
• Company's information may prove to be its chief competitive
advantage
• Up-to-date information is essential
• Information of the right kind is not available
• They need not more information but need better information
Importance of Information
• Guides decision makers
• Improves marketing environment
• Helps device better strategies
• Helps acquire competitive advantage
Managing Marketing Information
• Marketing Information System (MIS)
➢ consists of people, equipment, and procedures to
gather, sort, analyze, and distribute needed, timely,
and accurate information to marketing decision
makers.
➢ Functions of MIS
• Assess information needs
• Develop needed information
• Distribute information
Assessing Marketing Information Needs
1. Good marketing information system balances information -
what like to have versus what really needs and what is feasible
to offer
2. Interviews on managers
3. Benefits of having a piece of information versus the cost of
obtaining one
4. MIS must observe the marketing environment
5. Sometimes company cannot provide needed information
6. Cost of obtaining, processing, storing, and delivering
information can mount quickly
7. Additional information should not be assumed to always be
worth obtaining
DEVELOPING MARKETING INFORMATION
• The second step in developing an MIS is to develop
information. Information needed by managers can be obtained
from the internal data, marketing intelligence, and
marketing research.
Internal databases - consist of electronic collections of information
obtained from data sources within the company.
1. Internal databases can usually be accessed more quickly and
economically than other information sources. These forms of
reports are regularly used.
2. However, some problems could occur.
a. Because internal information was collected for other
purposes, it may be incomplete.
b. It may be in the wrong form.
c. Data ages quickly.
d. Because of the volume of information generated by
companies, it is often difficult to keep track of
information and accessibility is often difficult.
Marketing Intelligence
• Marketing Intelligence is the systematic collection and
analysis of publicly available information about competitors and
developments in the marketing environment.
1. Marketing intelligence can be gathered from many sources:
a. Company personnel (such as executives, engineers,
purchasing agents, or the sales force)
b. Suppliers, resellers, and key customers
c. Information on competitors (often found in annual
reports, speeches, press releases, web pages,
business publications, trade shows, and
advertisements)
d. Analyzing competitors’ products after purchase by
the company’s intelligence department
e. Looking for new patents or patent applications
f. Buying information from outside suppliers
g. Online databases (charge fees)
MARKETING RESEARCH
• Marketing research is the systematic design, collection,
analysis, and reporting of data and findings relevant to a
specific marketing situation facing an organization.
1. Every marketer needs research.
2. Marketing research can be done by an internal
department or it can be done by an outside firm.
• The marketing research process consists of four steps:
defining the problem and research objectives, developing
 the research plan, implementing the research plan, and STEP 2: DEVELOPING THE RESEARCH PLAN
interpreting and reporting the findings. • Determining the exact information needed
• Developing a plan for efficient gathering
• Presenting the written proposal to the management

PRIMARY DATA
Advantages Disadvantages
• Specific • Limited time, place,
• Relevant number of people, and
• Up-to-date others
• More trustworthy • Higher cost

SECONDARY DATA
Advantages Disadvantages
• Lower cost • It may be non-existent
STEP 1: DEFINING THE PROBLEM AND RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
• Can be obtained • It may be unusable
• The marketing manager and the researcher must work closely quickly • Must be filtered
together to carefully define the problem and agree on the • Came from different thoroughly
research objectives. sources
• Marketing managers must know enough about marketing
research to help in the planning and to interpret research OBSERVATIONAL RESEARCH
results. • Gathering data by observing people, actions and situations
• Defining the problem and research objectives is often the • Exploratory
hardest step in the process.
• After the problem has been defined carefully, the manager and
researcher must set the research objectives. The three general SURVEY RESEARCH
types of objectives are: • Asking individuals about attitudes, preferences and buying
a. Exploratory research where the objective is to gather behavior
preliminary information that will he define the problem • Descriptive
and suggest hypotheses
b. Descriptive research where the intent is to describe EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
things such as the market potential for a product or • Using groups to determine cause-and-effect relationship
the demographics and attitudes of customers who • Causal
buy the product
c. Causal research which would test the hypotheses FORMS OF PERSONAL INTERVIEW
about cause-and-effect relationships • COMPUTER – ASSISTED INTERVIEW
• The statement of the problem and research objectives will • Consumers read questions from a computer screen
guide the entire research process. and respond.
• It is always best to put the problem and research objective • ONLINE (INTERNET) MARKETING RESEARCH
statements in writing so agreement can be reached and • Researchers collect data via internet.
everyone knows the direction of the research effort. • Examples are customer feedback terms, internet
surveys, experiments or online focus group
SAMPLE - A segment of the population selected to represent the whole. to an advertisement. It measures the perspiration that
• Requires Three Decisions: accompanies the subject interest or arousal.
• Sampling Unit • Eye cameras - study respondent eye movements to see
➢ Who is to be surveyed? where their eye land first and how longer they linger on a
• Sample Size given item.
➢ How many people should be surveyed?
• Sampling Procedure STEP 3: IMPLEMENTING THE RESEARCH PLAN
➢ How should the sampling unit be chosen? • Putting the research plan into action
Sampling Procedures can be classified into two categories: • Involves collecting, processing and analyzing the information
• Probability Sampling: • Data collection is the most expensive part of the research
• Sample has a known probability of being selected process.
1. Simple Random Sampling • Researcher must now process and analyze the collected data
2. Stratified Sampling and isolate important information and findings.
3. Cluster Sampling
4. Systematic Sampling
5. Multistage Sampling
• Non-probability Sampling:
• Sample does not have known probability of being
selected as in convenience or voluntary response
surveys
1. Volunteer samples
2. Haphazard (convenience) samples

SIMPLIFIED FORMULA FOR SAMPLE SIZE:

𝑁
𝑛=
(1 + 𝑁)𝑒 2
n = sample size STEP 4: INTERPRETING AND REPORTING THE FINDINGS
N = population size • market researches must interpret the findings
e = margin of error • draw conclusion
• report to the management
Research instrument • Researchers should present important findings that are useful
to major decision
• Questionnaire • Interpretation must not be left only to the researchers
➢ most common instrument • Interpretation is the most important phase of the process.
➢ consist of a set of questions presented to a
➢ respondent for his or her answer.
• Needs to decide in preparing a questionnaire:
a) What questions to as
b) The form of the questions
1. Close-end questions - questions that include
all possible answer and allow subject to make
choices among them.
2. Open-end question - questions that allow
respondent to answer in their own words.
c) Wording of question
d) Ordering of question

• Mechanical Analyzing Marketing information

➢ Also used to collect information
➢ Two common forms:
• people meter - or tv meter is a device which is used to
find out who is watching what and when on television.
• supermarket scanners - or bar code scanner is an
electronic device than can read and output printed
BARCODES to a computer.
• Also used to collect information
• Galvanometer - a scientific instrument used in marketing
research to measure the reaction of a subject in the study
Customer Relationship management (CRM) Two major problems are:
➢ Special software & analysis technique • Intrusions on consumer privacy, which has been causing
➢ Facilitates integrating and applying mountains of individual consumer resentment.
customer data contained in their databases. • Misuse of research findings.
➢ Integration of customer information can come from many
sources. The aim is to build stronger customer relationships.
➢ Companies look for touch points which include customer
purchases, salesforce contact, service and support calls, Web
site visits, satisfaction surveys, credit and payment interactions,
market research studies, etc.
➢ Since information can become scattered, CRM integrates the
information.
➢ CRM analysts develop data warehouses and use
sophisticated data mining techniques to unearth the riches
hidden in customer data.
o A data warehouse is a companywide electronic
storehouse of customer information – a centralized
database of finely detailed customer data that needs
to be sifted through for gems.
➢ Many experts believe that a good customer data, by itself, can
give companies a substantial competitive advantage.
➢ Although there are risks and costs, the benefits usually prevail.
➢ Marketing information has no value until it is used to make
better marketing decisions.
o Many firms use an intranet to facilitate the
information distribution process.
o Likewise, companies are increasingly allowing key
customers and value network members to access
account and product information and other data on
demand on extranets.
o Most executives and managers can now access data
anywhere, anytime. Internet

PUBLIC POLICY AND ETHICS IN MARKETING RESEARCH

• Public policy and ethics
➢ Important considerations
• For the benefit of the company and the
customers.
• If did not consider, customers may feel
abused and annoyed.