Tunis Business School

2022 - 2023

Fundamentals of Marketing
BCOR 210

Chapter 3

Managing Marketing Information

1
 Learning Goals

•Explain the importance of information in gaining insights

about the marketplace and customers.
•Define the marketing information system and discuss its
parts.
•Outline the steps in the marketing research process.
•Explain how companies analyze and use marketing
information.
•Discuss the special issues some marketing researchers
face, including public policy and ethics issues.
2
Marketing Information and Customer Insights

•Marketing information is a key prerequisite to

successful decision making
•Marketing information itself has a little value.
•The real value of marketing information lies in
how it is used—in the customer insights that it
provides.

3
Marketing Information and Customer Insights
Customer Insights
Fresh understandings of customers and the marketplace derived from
marketing information that become the basis for creating customer
value and relationships.

▪ Difficult to obtain ( not obvious and customer’s unsure of their

behaviour)
▪ Not derived from more information but better information and more
effective use of existing information.

4
 Marketing Information and Customer Insights
Marketing Information System (MIS)

People and procedures dedicated to

assessing information needs,

developing the needed information, and
helping decision makers to use the information to generate and
validate actionable customer and market insights.

5
The Marketing Information System

6
 Marketing Information System

Step 1: Assessing Information Needs

The MIS balances the information users would like to

have against what they really need and what is really
feasible to offer

What they really need because too much can be as

harmful as too little.

What is feasible to offer : the company must decide

whether the value of insights gained from additional
information is worth the costs of providing it
7
 Marketing Information System

Step 2: Developing Marketing Information

Marketers can obtain the needed information

from :
internal data
marketing intelligence
marketing research.

8
1. Internal Data
• Collections of consumer and market information obtained from data
sources within the company network.
• Many companies build extensive internal databases, collections of
consumer and market information obtained from data sources within
the company’s network.
• Information in an internal database can come from many sources.
The marketing department furnishes information on customer
characteristics, in-store and online sales transactions, and web and
social media site visits.
• Internal databases usually can be accessed more quickly and cheaply
than other information sources, but they also present some problems
( not accurate and inconvenient).
9
 2. Competitive Marketing Intelligence
• The systematic monitoring, collection, and analysis of publicly available
information about consumers, competitors, and developments in the
marketing environment.
• Marketing intelligence techniques range from :
Observing consumers,
Benchmarking competitors’ product; For example, Companies also
need to actively monitor competitors’ activities. They can monitor
competitors’ web and social media sites. Amazon’s Competitive
Intelligence arm routinely purchases merchandise from competing
sites to analyze and compare their assortment, speed, and service
quality.
Researching the internet ( ex: online data base).

10
3. Marketing Research
Marketing research is the systematic design,
collection, analysis, and reporting of data relevant to a
specific marketing situation facing an organization.
Companies use marketing research in a wide variety of
situations.
For example, marketing research gives marketers
insights into customer motivations, purchase behavior,
and satisfaction. It can help them to assess market
potential and market share or measure the
effectiveness of pricing, product, distribution, and
promotion activities.
11
The Marketing Research Process ( MRP)

12
Marketing Research Process
Step 1. defining the Problem and Research Objectives

•This first step is probably the most difficult but also the most
important one. It guides the entire research process. It’s
frustrating to reach the end of an expensive research project
only to learn that you’ve addressed the wrong problem !
•Marketing managers and researchers must work together
closely to define the problem and agree on research objectives.
•Defining the problem and research objectives is often the
hardest step in the research process. The manager may know
that something is wrong without knowing the specific causes.

13
 Marketing Research Process
Step 1. defining the Problem and Research Objectives

After the problem has been defined carefully, the manager and the
researcher must set the research objectives. A marketing research project
might have one of three types of objectives :
• Exploratory Research
Marketing research to gather preliminary information that will help define
problems and suggest hypotheses.
• Descriptive Research
Marketing research to better describe marketing problems, situations, or
markets, such as the market potential for a product or the demographics
and attitudes of consumers.
• Causal Research
Marketing research to test hypotheses about cause-and-effect
relationships.
14
Marketing Research Process
Step 2. Develop the Research Plan

Determining the Specific Information Needs

Secondary Information Primary Information

Information that has Information collected

been previously collected for the specific purpose
.for another purpose .at hand

:Both Must Be

Relevant
Accurate
Current
Impartial
5-15
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

5-16
 Primary Data Collection

Secondary data provide a good starting point

for research and often help to define
research problems and objectives. In most
cases, however, the company must also
collect primary data.

17
Primary Data Collection Process
Step A. Research Approaches

Observational Research
Gathering data by observing relevant
people, actions, and situations
(Exploratory Information)

Survey Research
Asking individuals about
attitudes, preferences or
buying behaviors
(Descriptive Information)

Experimental Research
Using groups of people to
determine cause-and-effect
relationships
5-18 (Causal Information)
Primary Data Collection Process
Step B. Contact Methods for Gathering data

5-19
Primary Data Collection Process
Step C. Developing a Sampling Plan A Sample : A segment of the population selected for
marketing research to represent the population as a whole.
Designing the sample requires three decisions :

Probability or Who is to be
Non-probability ?surveyed
?sampling (Sampling Unit)

- Sample
representative
segment of the
population
How should the How many
sample be people should be
?chosen ?surveyed
Sampling) (Sample Size)
(Procedure

5-20
Types of samples ( what sampling procedure?)

21
Primary Data Collection Process
Step D. Research Instruments

Research Instruments

Questionnaire Mechanical Devices

?What questions to ask • People Meters •

?Form of each question • Grocery Scanners •
?Wording of each question • Galvanometer •
?Ordering of each question • Tachistoscope •

tachistoscope: subliminal
messages ...

5-22
5-23
Planning Primary Data Collection

24
 Marketing Research Process
Step 3. Implementing the Research Plan

The researcher next puts the marketing research plan

into action.
This involves collecting, processing, and analyzing the
information.
Data collection can be carried out by the company’s
marketing research staff or outside firms. Researchers
should watch closely to make sure that the plan is
implemented correctly.
Researchers need to check data for accuracy and
completeness and code them for analysis. The
researchers then tabulate the results and compute
statistical measures. 25
 Marketing Research Process
Step 4. Interpreting and Reporting the finding

The market researcher must now interpret the

findings, draw conclusions, and report them to
management.
The researcher should not try to overwhelm managers
with numbers and fancy statistical techniques. Rather,
the researcher should present important findings and
insights that are useful in the major decisions faced by
management.
Thus, managers and researchers must work together
closely when interpreting research results, and both
must share responsibility for the research process and
resulting decisions. 26
Marketing Information System

Step 3: Interpreting and Reporting the Findings

Interpret the Findings

Draw Conclusions

Report to Management

5-27
Public Policy and Ethics in Marketing Research
Through marketing research, companies gain insights
into consumers’ needs, resulting in more satisfying
products and services and stronger customer
relationships. However, the misuse of marketing
research can also harm or annoy consumers.
Two major public policy and ethics issues in marketing
research are :
intrusions on consumer privacy (respect personal
information)
misuse of research findings (develop codes of research
ethics and standards of conduct). 28