Copyright © 2008 Pearson Education CanadaPrinciples of Marketing, Seventh Canadian Edition Chapter 5 Managing Marketing Information

Copyright © 2008 Pearson Education Canada Principles of Marketing, Seventh Canadian Edition

Chapter 5

Managing Marketing

Information

5-2Copyright © 2008 Pearson Education Canada Principles of Marketing, Seventh Canadian Edition

Learning Goals

1. Explain the importance of information to the company and its understanding of the marketplace

2. Define the marketing information system3. Outline the steps in the market research

process4. Explain how companies analyze and

distribute marketing information5. Discuss the special issues some

marketing researchers face, including public policy and ethical issues


Learning Goals







Case Study - Dove

• Born in 1957 as a beauty soap. It is sold in more than 80 countries with more than $5 billion in sales revenues.

• Dove is a powerful brand name. Consumers trust it and see it as honest but also as boring.

• Unilever needed to reposition the brand to make Dove a beauty brand.

• Need solid research and insight before the repositioning task could be undertaken.


Case Study - Dove

• Key question: “how women’s self-esteem is affected by body image”

• Global survey and ethnographic research to understand the meaning of beauty and what women consider beautiful.– 1% consider themselves beautiful– 63% strongly agree women are expected to be more

attractive than previous generation– 9 year-old girls are dissatisfied with their body image– All women want to be beautiful in their own unique way– 36% describe themselves as natural, few as “sexy”,

“stunning”, or “gorgeous”.– Women explain beauty in a much broader sense


Case Study - Dove

• Time to change the definition of beauty• Unilever launched the “Campaign for Real

Beauty”– Women look at themselves and open a

dialogue on what they consider as beauty– Campaign featuring everyday women (“Fab?

Or Fat?.”, “Bald? Or Beautiful?”).– Beyond Compare Photo Tour

• The resulting Marketing campaign won Unilever Canada multiple awards.


Learning Goals







Marketing Information System

• Marketing Information System (MIS)– Consists of people, equipment, and

procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely, and accurate information to marketing decision makers.


Marketing Information System

• Interacts with information users to assess information

• Develops needed information from internal and external sources

• Helps users analyze information for marketing decisions

• Distributes the marketing information and helps managers use it for decision making


• The MIS serves company managers as well as external partners

• The MIS must balance needs against feasibility:– Not all information can be obtained– Obtaining, processing, sorting, and

delivering information is costly

Assessing MarketingInformation Needs


Developing Marketing Information

• Information collected from different sources within the company, and stored within the organization’s information system– Accounting system– Operations/production– Sales reporting system– Past research studies

• Internal data is cheap, quick, and easy• May not be in a usable form for the decision to be

made• May be incomplete or inappropriate to a

particular situation



• Marketing intelligence is the systematic collection and analysis of publicly available information about competitors and trends in the marketing environment.

• Proactive approach to keeping track of what is going on within the organization’s marketing environment

• Many sources of competitive information exist:– Employees, customers, trade shows, websites,

marketing communications, suppliers, resellers, professional information services, and “dumpster diving”



• Marketing research is the systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data relevant to a specific marketing situation facing an organization.– A multi-step, purpose-driven process– Measure effectiveness of marketing actions,

sales potential, try to understand consumer behaviour

– Can be done by company personnel or contracted out to outside companies


Learning Goals







• Helps to know what you are looking for!

• The manager and the researcher must work together.

• These objectives guide the entire process.

• Exploratory, descriptive, and causal research each fulfill different objectives.

Step 1: Defining the problem and research objectives


Step 2: Developing the Research Plan

• Translating the research objectives into specific information needs

• Research plan is a written document which outlines the type of problem, objectives, data needed, and the usefulness of the results. Includes:– Secondary data: Information collected

for another purpose which already exists– Primary data: Information collected for

the specific purpose at hand


Gathering Secondary Data

• Secondary data sources:– Government information– Internal data, commercial, and academic sources– Publications– Online databases

• Advantages:– Obtained quickly– Less expensive than primary data

• Disadvantages:– Information may not exist or may not be usable


Primary Data

• Primary research decisions:– Research approaches– Contact methods– Sampling plan– Research instruments


Primary Data

• Research Approaches• Contact Methods• Sampling Plan• Research Instrument

• Observation research using people or machines– Discovers behavior but

not motivations

• Survey research– Effective for descriptive

information

• Experimental research – investigates cause and

effect relationships


Primary Data

• Research Approaches

• Contact Methods• Sampling Plan• Research

Instrument

• Key Contact Methods include:– Mail surveys– Telephone surveys– Personal

interviewing:– Individual or focus

group– Online research


Primary Data


• Sample: subgroup of population from whom information will be collected

• Sampling Plan Decisions:– Sampling unit– Sample size– Sampling procedure: – Probability samples– Non-probability

samples


Primary Data


• Questionnaires – Include open-ended

and closed-ended questions

– Phrasing and question order are key

• Mechanical instruments– Nielsen’s people meters– Checkout scanners– Eye cameras


Discussion Question

A digital camera manufacturer wants to determine what is most important to older (50+) camera buyers

Suggest a research approach, contact methods, sampling plan, research instruments

????


Step 3: Implementing the Research Plan

• Data is collected by the company or an outside firm

• The data is then processed and checked for accuracy and completeness and coded for analysis

• Finally the data is analyzed by a variety of statistical methods


• The research interprets the finding, draws conclusions and reports to management

• Managers and researchers must work together to interpret results for useful decision making

Step 4: Interpreting and Reporting the Findings


Learning Goals







• Statistical analysis and analytical models are often used to help marketers make better decisions.

• Companies are turning to Customer relationship management (CRM) to manage detailed information about individual customers and “touchpoints” to maximize customer loyalty

• CRM consists of sophisticated software and analytical tools to provide a 360-degree view of the customer relationship.

Analyzing Marketing Information


Analyzing Marketing Information

• CRM analysts develop data warehouses and use sophisticated data mining techniques to understand customer data

• CRM data systems offer many benefits and can help a firm gain a competitive advantage when used as part of a total CRM strategy


• Routine reporting makes information available in a timely manner.

• User-friendly databases allow for special queries.

• Intranets and extranets help distribute information to company employees and value-network members.

Distributing and UsingMarketing Information


Learning Goals







Other Considerations

• Marketing research in small businesses and not-for-profit organizations

• International marketing research• Public policy and ethics

– Consumer privacy issues– Misuse of research findings


Learning Goals






Documents

Copyright © 2008 Pearson Education CanadaPrinciples of Marketing, Seventh Canadian Edition Chapter 5 Managing Marketing Information