CHAPTER 4: MANAGING MARKETING INFORMATION TO GAIN CUSTOMER

INSIGHTS

I. MARKETING INFORMATION & CUSTOMER INSIGHT

A. MARKETING INFORMATION
1. Definition
_ Marketing Information is related to what we understand about the marketplace and
customers in order to identify target market.
_ The quantities of information is no matter – most marketing managers nowadays
are overloaded with tons of data.
_ Marketers frequently complain that they lack enough information of the right kind
_ Marketers don’t need more information, they need better information and need to
make better use of available information.
 Q4.1 “Marketing information itself has little value”
Emphasize the importance of valuable information. “Marketer do not need large
anount of information, they need value of gathered information. The value is in
the customers insights gained from the information and how marketers use theese
insights to make better decisions.

2. Bottom-Up Marketing Information

Traditional marketing aprroach “top-down” – operation directors is person who
creates marketing plan and strategies and marketing staffs will implement these tasks.
“Bottom-up approach: marketing staffs will develop marketing strategy because they
are interacting with customers and understand customer’s want and need.

Q4.2. How can marketers and managers dig marketing information?

They have to use the right instruments to assess the information needs, develop
needed information and help decision makers to use the information to generate and
validate actionable customer and market insights. Marketing Information System is a
great tool.

B. MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM

1. MIS:
Assess information needs
Develop needed information
Analize and use this information to develop customer insights
CHAPTER 4: MANAGING MARKETING INFORMATION TO GAIN CUSTOMER
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Process:
(1): Interact with these information users to assess information needs.
(2): Interact with the marketing environment to develop needed information through
internal company database, marketing intelligence activities and marketing research.
(3): MIS helps users to analyze and use the information to develop customer insights,
make marketing decisions and manage customer relationships.
* Marketing Intelligence: is the external data collected by a company about a specific
market which it wishes to enter, to make decisions.

2. Accessing The Marketing Information

_ First assessing the information needs then assessing the meets and the needs. (A
good MIS balances the information users would like to have against what they really
need and what is feasible to offer.)
_ MIS serves both internal company and external partners (supplier, resellers, etc)
_ The problem is not finding the information, “managers do not need more
informatiob, they need better information”.  real challenge is to find the right
information from inside and outsides sources and turn into customer insight.

3. Developing The Marketing Information

_ Needed information:
+ Internal data: market information obtained from sources within company network
(accounting department, customer services, etc)
+ Competitive marketing intelligence: collection of publicity available information
about consumers, competitors and development in the marketing environment
+ Marketing research: analysis, reporting of data relevant to specific marketing
situation facing an org.

C. Customer Insights
_ Def: the understanding and interpretation of customer data, behaviors and
feedback into conclusions that can be used to improve product development and
customer support.
_ Company uses customer insights to develop competitive advantages
_ Customer insights come from good marketing information.

Q4.3: “Use insights to create more value for their customer”

_ Consumer insight can provide a business with the opportunity to better personalize and
tailor products to the needs, wants, and demands of their customers. 
_ Customer insights provide valuable insight into who your target market is and what
they’re looking for.

II. MARKETING RESEARCH

 CHAPTER 4: MANAGING MARKETING INFORMATION TO GAIN CUSTOMER
INSIGHTS

4 main steps:

A. Defining the problem and research objectives

_ Most dificult – most important: guide the entire process
_ Marketing research might have one of 3 types of objectives:
Exploratory research Descriptive research Casual
research=Experimental
Preliminary information Describe things Test hypothesis
Regression analysis:y=ax+b
Initial research conducted to Describes characteristics of a Conducted to identify cause
explore the nature of a population or phenomenon and effect relationships
problem
observation Understand which variables Investigating the cause-and-
and statistics are relevant to effect.
their company and which
variables and statistics need to
be investigated

B. Developing the Research plan

_ Must determine the exact information need, develop a plan for gathering
information it efficiently.
_ Research plan outline sources: specific research approach, contact methods,
sampling plans and instruments.
_ Research objectives must be translated into specific information needs.
 Secondary data: information that already exists somewhere.
 Primary data: information collected in hand
Q4.4: When do we need, Where can we collect the 2nd data?
 We need to collect 2nd data when the company research to open new fields 
gather data from legit sources (the government, verified information, etc)
Q4.5: What are the adv/disadv of 2nd data?
Advantages Disadvantages
_ Saving money and time when data is _Do not focus on data that researcher are seeking
available ( might not relevant, accurate and unbiased)
_ Authentic _ Do not detail and serves the right problems
_Easy to access _ cannot know the gathering information
processcannot observe the survey  data is not
exact
CHAPTER 4: MANAGING MARKETING INFORMATION TO GAIN CUSTOMER
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1. Gathering Secondary Data

_ Researchers usually start by gathering secondary data
_ 2nd data includes coomercial data services and government sources
_ 2nd data can usually be obtained more quickly and at a lower cost

2. Gathering primary data collection

Designing a plan for primary data collection calls for a number of decisions on
research approaches, contact methods, the sampling plan and research
instruments.

3. Observation research
_ Gahtering primary data by observing relevant people, action and situations.
_ Observe consumer bahvior to glean insights but can’t obtain by simply asking
_ not only observe what consumer do but also observe what they are saying.
_ Ethnographic research: sending observers to watch and interact with customer
in natural environment.

4. Experimental research = casual research

_ Selecting matched groups of subjects, giving them different treatments,
controlling related factors and checking for differences in group responses.
 Observation is suited for exploratory research while survey for descriptive
5. Survey research
_ best suited for descriptvie research
_ flexibility
_ conducted by email, in person or web.
_ Cons: respondent may answer survey question even when they do not know the
answer.
6. Contact method
_ Individual interviewing: talk directly with people. Interviewer can guide the
interview.
_ Group interiewing: focus on specific group, inviting 6-10 ppl to meet.
Researcher watch the focus group discussion behind.
_Online marketing research: internet survey, online focus group, web-based
experiments.
_ suited for quantitative research

7. Sampling Plan
 Definition
Polulation: The set of all objects or individuals of interest or the measurements
obtained from all objects or individuals of interest
Sample: A subset of the population – a segment of the population selected for
marketing research to prepresent the population as a whole.
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 Designing the sample requirements:

+ Who is to be studied (what sampling unit?)
+ How many people should be included (Sample size)
+ How should the people in the sample be chosen (sampling procedure – use what
sampling methods?)

Q.4.7: Why marketers have to choose sample to do market research?

Because sample provides the framework for gathering information required, getting opinions
from specific target group. Sample also helps marketers to identify the characteristics or
preferences of their potential audience.
 Kind of Samples
There are 2 kinds of samples: probability and nonprobability samples
a. Probability sample: random selection, allowing to make strong statistical inferences about
the whole group
_ All individual who have enough condition can have a chance of selecting from the
whole space.

Pros Cons
More time-consuming because the objects
of the sample are very large
Guarantee the sample that should be the
representative of the population
Expensive than the non-probability
sampling method (more complex)

3 common types: random, cluster and straitified

+ Random: choose some form them without any sequence. Every possible samle of a
given size has an equal chance of being selected

+ Cluster (mẫu chùm): Deivde population into several “cluster”, each representative of
the population.
CHAPTER 4: MANAGING MARKETING INFORMATION TO GAIN CUSTOMER
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Example: respondent’s characteristics: age range: <23, 23-33, income: 5mVND-

<10mVND, 10mVND<15mVND

+ Stratified (chọn mẫu phân tầng): Divide population into subgroups to some common
characteristics  Select a simple random sample from each subgroup  Combine
samples from subgroups into one.

b. Non-probability samples – convenience sampling method.

Collected in the most convenience manner for researcher.
Example: A university wishes to gather data from students to determine their interest in
changing from a quarter system to a semester system. The sample is selected by
stopping some students who enter the library
 The most common sampling method
Some common forms of convenience sampling: mall-intercept, volunteer, river, expert
and snowball sample.
+ Mall intercept: recruit shoppers or other passerby at shopping malls to take part in a
study (ex: customer buying behavior)
+ Volunteer sample: the volunteer sign up for study (ex: vaccine test)
+ Expert: use a “panel of experts”, who have professional experience of research (draw
your sample form experts in the field you’re studying). For example, expert sampling
could be used with special education teachers to learn about the issues involved in
teaching children
+ Snowball: start interviewing 1 person and ask
him/her recommend others who meet the criteria.
Q4.8: What should you do to eliminate the errors and
limitations of non-probability sampling method?
+ Increase the sample size – a larger sample size
results in more accurate result because the study gets
closer to the actual population size.
+ divide the population into groups – test groups according to their size in the population
instead of a random sample
+ Know your population
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 Research instruments
_ Questionaires – Quantitative research intrument
+ close-end questions: Flexible, many way to assk.
+ End-close questions: single answer, MC questions, Scale questions
_ Interview guide – qualitative research
_ open -end question: useful in exploratory research, find out what ppl think.
Q4.9: Give example of Close – end questions
A question with only a “yes” or “no” response. (researcher provides participants with options
from which to choose)
_ Machanical Instrument: measuring brain activity to learn how consumers feel and respond.
_ Neutromarketing: measure consumer involvement and emotional responses second by second
_ Usually used in combination with other research approaches.
 Implementing the research plan
_ involve collecting, processing, and analyzing the information,
_ Problem: quality of participants’responses.
_ Process and analyze the collected data to isolate important information and insight.

 Interpreting the report and findings.

_ Inerpret the findings, draw conclusion and report to management.
_present the major important things and insight
_ Managers and researchers should work together when interpreting the results

 Touchpoint/Customer relationship management

_ Touchpoint: every contact between a customer and a company (customer purchase, services,
support ,etc)
_ Company should optimize cusomer touchpoint to smooth customer journey
_ Customer relationship management (CRM): manage detailed information about individual
customer.