3

Gathering Information and

Scanning the Environment

Marketing Management, 13th ed

 Chapter Questions
• What are the components of a modern
marketing information system?
• What are useful internal records?
• What is involved in a marketing intelligence
system?
• What are the key methods for tracking and
identifying opportunities in the macro
environment?
• What are some important macro environment
developments?
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 MIS Systems Provide Information on
Buyer Preferences and Behavior:
Dupont’s Pillow Study

Pillow Segments
• 23% - stackers
• 20% - plumpers
• 16% - rollers or folders
• 16% - cuddlers
• 10% - smashers

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 What is a
Marketing Information System (MIS)?
A marketing information system
consists of people, equipment, and
procedures to gather, sort, analyze,
evaluate, and distribute needed, timely,
and accurate information to
marketing decision makers.

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 Table 3.1 Information Needs Probes
• What decisions do you regularly make?
• What information do you need to make these
decisions?
• What information do you regularly get?
• What special studies do you periodically
request?
• What information would you want that you
are not getting now?
• What are the four most helpful improvements
that could be made in the present marketing
information system?
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 Internal Records and
Marketing Intelligence

Sales
Order-to-Payment
Information
Cycle
System

Databases, Marketing
Warehousing, Intelligence
Data Mining System

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 Steps to Improve Marketing Intelligence

Train sales force to scan for new developments

Motivate channel members to share intelligence

Network externally

Utilize a customer advisory panel

Utilize government data resources

Purchase information
Collect customer feedback online

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 Best Buy’s Use of MIS

Best Buy segments its

customers into highly
differentiated
segments known by
archetypes like “Buzz,”
“Barry,” and “Jill.”

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 Table 3.2
Secondary Commercial Data Sources

Nielsen SAMI/Burke

MRCA Simmons

Information
Arbitron
Resources, Inc.

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 Sources of Competitive Information

• Independent customer goods and service

review forums
• Distributor or sales agent feedback sites
• Combination sites offering customer reviews
and expert opinions
• Customer complaint sites
• Public blogs

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 Needs and Trends

Fad

Trend

Megatrend

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 Trends Shaping the
Business Landscape
• Profound shifts in
centers of economic
activity
• Increases in public-
sector activity
• Change in consumer
landscape
• Technological
connectivity
• Scarcity of well-trained
talent
• Increase in demand for
natural resources
• Emergence of new
global industry
structures
• Ubiquitous access to
information
• Management shifts
from art to science
• Increase in scrutiny of
big business practices

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 Environmental Forces

Demographic

Political-Legal Economic

Technological Socio-Cultural

Natural

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 Population and Demographics

• Population growth • Educational groups

• Population age mix • Household patterns
• Ethnic markets • Geographical shifts

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 Mattel
Markets in
China

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 Population Age Groups

65+
40-65

25-40
Teens
School-age
Preschool
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 Schwab’s Chinese-language Web site

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 Household Patterns

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 Economic Environment

• Income Distribution
• Savings, Debt, and
Credit

• Levi’s has responded to

changes in income
distribution by offering
an upscale line and a
mass market line

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 Social-Cultural Environment

Views of themselves

Views of others

Views of organizations

Views of society

Views of nature

Views of the universe

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 Interest in Nature: A Growing Trend

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 Table 3.3 Most Popular
American Leisure Activities
• Reading • Computer activities
• TV watching • Gardening
• Spending time with • Renting movies
family • Walking
• Going to movies • Exercise
• Fishing • Listening to music

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 Natural Environment

Shortage of
raw materials

Increased
energy costs

Anti-pollution
pressures

Governmental
protections
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 Toyota Experienced Success
with Green Cars

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 Figure 3.1 Consumer
Environmental Segments

True Blue Greens (30%)

Greenback Greens (10%)

Sprouts (26%)

Grousers (15%)

Apathetics (18%)
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 Keys to Avoiding
Green Marketing Myopia

• Consumer Value Positioning

• Calibration of Consumer Knowledge
• Credibility of Product Claims

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 Technological Environment

Pace of change

Opportunities
for innovation

Varying R&D
budgets

Increased regulation
of change

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 Political-Legal Environment

Increase in
business legislation

Growth of special
interest groups

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 Marketing Debate

 Is consumer behavior more a function

of a person’s age or generation?

Take a position:
1. Age differences are fundamentally
more important than cohort effects.
or
2. Cohort effects can dominate age
differences.
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 Marketing Discussion

 What brands do you feel

successfully speak to you?
 Effectively target your age group?
 Which ones do not?
 What could they do better?

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