MARKETING
Budapest Business School
Zsolt Molnár lecturer
molnar.zsolt@uni-bge.hu
+3670 946 9337
Content
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Marketing Information System
Marketing research
Evaluation of marketing efficiency
Marketing Information System
(MIS)
Objectives of MIS
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Develops needed information from internal
and external sources
Distributes the marketing information and
supports managers to use it for decision
making
Helps users analyse information for
marketing, business, or organizational
decisions
Marketing Information System (MIS)
A structure consisting of people, equipment,
and procedures to
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gather
sort
analyze
evaluate, and
distribute
needed, timely and accurate information to
business / organisational / marketing decision
makers.
Alvin C. Burns - Ronald F. Bush: Introduction to marketing research
Marketing Information System
WHO
Decision-makers and
information users
• Organisational
managers
WHAT
Assessing
information needs
Collecting /
developing
information
• Target audience
• Professional
managers
• Marketing elements
• Marketing
managers
• Public
• Top management
HOW
• Competitors
• Macro-environment
Distributing information
• Databases
• Marketing
intelligence
• Researches
Marketing Information System
WHO
Decision-makers and
information users
• Organisational
managers
WHAT
Assessing
information needs
Collecting /
developing
information
• Target audience
• Professional
managers
• Marketing elements
• Marketing
managers
• Public
• Top management
HOW
• Competitors
• Macro-environment
Distributing information
• Databases
• Marketing
intelligence
• Researches
Assessing information needs
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The MIS balances needs against feasibility:
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not all information can be obtained
obtaining, sorting, analyzing, evaluating and distributing
information is expensive.
Sources of information
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Internal data
Marketing intelligence
Marketing research
1. Internal data
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Sources
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Advantages
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customer databases (habits and behaviour of
customers etc.)
financial records (received orders, invoices etc.)
operations reports (sales, inventory, circulation of
commodities etc.)
quick and easy access to information
Disadvantages
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incomplete or inappropriate information
2. Marketing intelligence
Collection and evaluation of publicly available
information about competitors and trends in the
marketing environment
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Sources (informal)
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media coverage
personal discussion with customers, suppliers etc.
conferences, events, exhibitions
internet
competitors’ employees
“open eyes and ears”
Intelligence activity has significantly grown
2. Marketing intelligence (cont’d)
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Planned and initiated activity (formal)
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preparing and motivating sales personnel to identify new
developments, changes
encouraging distributors, vendors, partners to obtain and provide
needed and important information
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assigning external experts to monitor market changes
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competitive intelligence
STEEP analyses
Forecasting demand
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industry trends
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market potential
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competitors’ move
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internal sales potential etc.
3. Marketing research
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Market research focusing on
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awareness
customer needs and demands
consumer satisfaction
image and attitude
product attributes, price
media surveys
Marketing research focusing on
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market behaviour potential
measuring marketing activity
Marketing research vs market research
Marketing research
Systematic and continuous collection, analysis, and reporting
of information relevant to the marketing / business activity of
an enterprise
Market research
Specific collection and analyses of
information focusing on a concrete
marketing objective
Market research
Areas of research
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Customers
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Place
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advantages, disadvantages, awareness, image etc.
Company
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market (geographically), market share, market potential etc.
Brand, product
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habits, behaviours, motivations, needs, attitudes,
satisfaction etc.
market position, awareness, reputation etc.
Industry
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size, situation, development trends etc.
Main types of market research
Types
By source
Options
Secondary / desk research
Primary / field research
By methodology
Quantitative (objective)
Qualitative (subjective)
By objectives
Exploratory (exploring ideas, insights)
Descriptive (Describe market
characteristics, functions)
Causal (cause and effect relationships)
By the researcher
Internal
External supplier, market research
company
By location
Local, regional, nationwide,
international
Process
1. Define the problem and the research objectives
2. Design the research, decide on methodology and the sample
3. Collect the data
4. Analyse and interpret the findings
5. Present the results, survey summary
6. Decision making
1. Problem and objectives definition
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A clear description of the marketing problem being
researched
Question to be asked before starting a research
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is there a real need for market research?
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research takes time and costs money…
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… market research is not always needed.
Setting the right objectives is of crucial importance
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if the problem is incorrectly defined, everything else is wasted
effort
set the business objectives first → define the research objectives
Form a hypothesis (the researcher’s untested
assumption about the probable solution to the defined
problem)
2. Research design
1)
Sources of information
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2)
Methodology
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quantitative (survey ) / qualitative (in-depth interview, focus
group discussion etc.)
Research sampling
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4)
primary (field research) vs secondary (desk research)
sampling unit / size of sample / sampling methods
Survey types
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mail / phone / personal / online etc.
Sources of information
Secondary data
Published information collected for some purpose other than the problem at hand
Other market research results, statistical data, reports, university researches,
PhD researches etc.
Primary data
Data collected for the first time
Initiated by the researcher for the specific purpose, to answer specific questions
Advantages
• Up-to-date
• Reliable
• Known, verified information
Disadvantages
• Time consuming
• Expensive
• Not all information available
Quantitative vs qualitative research
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Quantitative research = deals in numbers, logic and the objective.
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large sample
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formal, standardized
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numerated
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objective
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generalising
Qualitative research = deals in words, images and the subjective.
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small sample
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informal, less structured
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subjective
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getting understanding of consumers’ thoughts and feelings toward
brands, products etc.
Ways of primary research
Primary research
Observation
E.g. consumer behaviour
during shopping
Experiments
Survey
Deep
interview
Focus group
discussion
Standardised questionnaire
Product testing,
influencing consumers etc.
Questionnaire types
Open-ended questions: interviewee answers with own
words
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Advantage: no influence
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Disadvantage: difficult to summarise and evaluate
Closed questions: must choose among response
alternatives
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Dichotomous
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Multiple-choice answers
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Scaling
Measuring marketing activity’s
effectiveness
Measurement and evaluation
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Objective
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clear and numerical feedback about the efficiency of marketing
activity
accountability of marketing
Methods, techniques
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Marketing indexes: e.g. brand awareness, number of webpage
visitors, number of customer complaints etc. over a certain time
span
Marketingmix modelling: analyses of how the different marketing
tools and elements influenced marketing results
Questions, remarks