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Marketing Information System: A set of procedures
and methods that regularly generates, stores,
analyzes, and distributes information for use in
making marketing and other business decisions.
Database Marketing: A process of designing,
creating, and managing customer lists that contain
information about an individual’s characteristics
and transactions with a business; also known as
customer relationship management (CMR)
Database: A collection of related information about
a specific topic.
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Marketing research
involves the
process and
methods used to
gather information,
analyze it, and
report findings
related to
marketing goods
and services.
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Marketing research is most
often used by companies
to:
◦ Determine customers’
attitudes and preferences
◦ Test product features
◦ Determine market size and
growth potential
◦ Learn about competitive
products.
◦ Determine buying cycles
◦ Understand how the
company is perceived by the
public.
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The information obtained from research helps
businesses increase sales and profits.
Research answers questions about what
products, who will buy the products, and how
the products will be promoted.
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Small business usually do not have separate research
specialists or departments. There, marketing research is done
informally by the owners, managers, or employees, or they
hire outside service providers who specialize in market
research.
Larger companies often have in-house research departments
and marketing personnel to plan and conduct marketing
research.
But even larger companies sometimes contract with outside
research companies because of their specialized expertise.
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Attitude and opinion research: Marketers conduct this type of
research to discover how people feel about their products, services,
or ideas. Satisfaction surveys, such as those sent after a visit to the
hospital, and opinion polls, such as those used by political
campaigns.
Market Intelligence: Research is used to gather information about an
existing or potential market for market intelligence. It defines the
size, location, and makeup of the market. This type of research is
often done before a new product launch. It is used to guide the
marketing efforts for the new product.
Media Research: This type of research is used to determine the
effectiveness of the various media to advertise a good or service. It
can be conducted before or after a media campaign.
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Quantitative research answers questions that start
with “how many” or “how much.”
◦ This type of research usually gathers information from large numbers of people.
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Qualitative research focuses on smaller numbers of
people (usually fewer than 100) and tries to answer
questions about “why” or “how”.
◦ This type of research relies heavily on in-depth interviews, rather than surveys that
have been constructed ahead of time. Most marketing research combines quantitative
and qualitative methods.
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The trend toward global marketplace means
increased international competition for U.S.
companies, which must improve or change
products frequently to hold on their customers.
Another important trend is the use of both internal
and external information in managing a business.
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Defining the problem: The problem or research issue is
identified and goals are set to solve the problem.
Obtaining Data: Researchers obtain data from primary and
secondary sources.
Analyzing DATA: Researchers compile, analyze, and interpret
the data.
Recommending Solutions: Researchers come up with potential
solutions to the problem and present them in a report.
Applying The Results: The research results are put into
action.
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Primary research data can be obtained through company research
projects or specialized research organizations. Large companies
frequently have their own marketing research staff to conduct
primary research for the company.
However, both large and small companies make use of research
organizations.
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A questionnaire has validity when the questions asked measure what
was intended to be measure. A research designs a questionnaire to
measure a retail sore’s customer service. Questionnaires that are
poorly written or that do not address customer service will not have
validity.
Research questionnaires should also have reliability. Reliability
exists when a research technique produces nearly identical results in
repeated trials. Reliability requires that the questions ask for the
same type of information from all the respondents.
Questions should be clear and easily understood so that all
participants understand the questions the question in the same way.
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Survey questions can be either open-ended or forced-choice. Open-ended questions ask respondents to
construct their own response to a question. “What changes or additions to this coat would you
recommend?” is an example of an open-ended question.
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Forced-choice questions ask respondents to choose answers from possibilities given on a questionnaire.
Forced-choice questions are the simplest questions to write and the easiest to tabulate.
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Two-choice questions give the respondent only two options, usually yes or
no. Yes/no questions should be used only when asking for a response on
one issue.
Yes/no questions are most often used as filter questions. Filter questions
help to guide respondents to answer only those questions that apply.
In cases in which there is a range of choices and yes/no questions are not
appropriate, you would use multiple-choice questions, rating-scale
questions, or level-of-agreement questions for your survey.
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Multiple-choice questions give the respondent several choices. When
constructing multiple-choice questions, it is important to make the options
mutually exclusive and comprehensive enough to include every possible
response.
In order to be sure that all options are covered, many surveys have a space
for the option “other.”
For example- A rental company might ask its customers the following
question:
◦ When you have a choice of all the car rental companies listed below, which do you
prefer? (check one)
◦
Alamo
Hertz
◦
Avis
National
◦
Budget
Thrifty
◦
Dollar
Other
◦
Enterprise
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Other forced-choice questions may ask respondents to rate a
product or service based upon a scale.
A variety of scales may be used, such as a rating scale from
very satisfied to very dissatisfied, or from excellent to poor.
For example
◦ How would you rate your reception by the front desk staff?
◦ Helpfulness

Excellent Good Fair Below Average
◦ Check In Speed
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Excellent Good Fair Below Average
◦ Offering Info About Resort

Excellent Good Fair Below Average
◦ Use of Your Name
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Excellent Good Fair Below Average