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Gathering Information and
Scanning the Environment
Marketing Management, 13th ed
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.
MIS relies on internal company records,
marketing intelligence activities and
marketing research.
Internal Records
• Marketing managers rely on internal
reports of orders, sales, prices, costs,
inventory levels, receivables, payables
and so on. By analyzing this
information, they can spot important
opportunities and prolems.
• Order-to-payment cycle
The heart of the internal records system
is the order-to-payment cycle. Sales
representatives, dealers, and
customers send orders to the firm. The
sales department prepares invoices,
transmits copies to various
departments, and back orders out of
stock items.
• Sales information system
Marketing managers need timely and
accurate reports on current sales. WalMart operates a sales and inventory
data warehouse that captures data on
every item, for every customer, for
every store, every day and refreshes it
every time.
Databases, warehousing, data mining
1. Today companies organizes information into
databases– customer database, product databases,
salesperson databases- and then combines data
from the different databases. For example, the
customer database will contain every customer’s
name, address, past transactions, and sometimes
activities, interests, and opinions.
2. A collection of current data, captured, organized,
and stored in a company’s contact center is called
Data warehouse.
3. The extracting of useful information about
individuals, trends, and segments from the mass of
data is called data mining.
Marketing intelligence system
• Marketing intelligence system is a set of procedures
and sources managers use to obtain everyday
information about developments in the marketing
environment.
• Marketing managers collect marketing intelligence
by reading books, newspapers, and trade
publications; talking to customers, suppliers, and
distributors; monitoring social media on the internet
via online discussion groups; emailing and meeting
with other company managers.
Steps to Improve Marketing
Intelligence
• Train sales force to scan for new developments
• Motivate channel members ( distributors, retailers, and other
intermediaries) to share intelligence
• Network externally ( watching the work of competitors)
• Utilize a customer advisory panel( Gathering sophisticated
customers)
• Utilize government data sources ( Government provide data about
population trends, demographics characteristics, agricultural
production and other data.
• Collect customer feedback online ( Online customer review
boards, discussion forums, chat rooms, and blogs can distribute
one customer evaluation of a product or a supplier to a large
number of potential buyers.
• Purchase information ( information can be purchased from other
agencies. Gallup Pakistan, and AC Nielsen ORG Media
Research.
Analyzing the Macro Environment
Needs and Trends
• Trends: a direction or sequence of events that has
some momentum and durability. In the age of 30
people value physical fitness is a trend.
• Megatrends: large social, economic, political, and
technological changes that are slow to form, and
once in place, have an influence for seven to ten
years or longer. Young people in the region are
playing an increasingly important role in the
consumption of products and services.
Identifying the Major Sources
Environmental Forces
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Companies and their suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customers,
competitors, and publics all operate in a macro environment of forces and
trends, increasingly global that shape opportunities and threats. These
forces represent “non controllable,” which the company must monitor
and to which it must respond. The beginning of the new century brought
a series of new challenges: the steep (falling or rising at a sharp angle)
decline of stock market, which affected savings, investment, and
retirement funds; increasing unemployment;
Within the rapidly changing global picture, the firm must monitor six
major forces: we will describe these forces separately, but marketers
must pay attention to their interactions, because these will lead to new
opportunities and threats. For example, explosive population growth
(demographic) leads to more resource depletion (reduction) and pollution
(natural), which leads consumers to call for more laws (political-legal),
which stimulate new technological solutions and products
(technological), which, if they are affordable (economic), may change
actually change attitudes and behavior (social-cultural).
Six Major Environmental Forces
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Demographic
Economic
Socio-cultural
Natural
Technological
Political-legal
1. Demographic
• The main demographic force that marketers
monitor is population, because people make
up markets. Marketers are keenly interested
in the size and growth rate of population in
cities, regions and nations; age distribution
and ; educational level; household patterns;
and regional characteristics.
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Population and Demographics
• Population growth
• Population age mix
• Educational groups
• Household patterns
• Geographical shifts
2. Economic Environment
• The available purchasing power in an economy
depends on current income, prices, savings,
debt, and credit availability. Marketers must pay
careful attention to trends affecting purchasing
power, because they can have a strong impact
on business.
Economic Environment
• Income Distribution
• Savings, Debt, and Credit
3. Social-Cultural Environment
• Society shapes the beliefs, values, and
norms that largely define consumer tastes
and preferences.
• Regional differences in language,
customs(something that people usually do),
social systems(relating to society in which
people live together), values, habits,
religions, and caste systems make the social
environment of the world.
4. Natural Environment
• The deterioration of the natural
environment is a major global problem.
Companies should manufacture those
goods which are environment friendly.
Environmentalists have been actively
campaigning against pollution-causing
industries.
• Converting public transportation vehicles into CNG fuel.
Emission from vehicles(gas, light, and heat sent out)
when is a major problem in vehicles.
5. Technological Environment
• Marketers should monitor the technological
changes and trends. Because technology
shaping lives dramatically.
• Through the years, technology has released
such wonders as penicillin( a type of medicine
which kills bacteria), open-heart surgery, and the
birth control pill, and such horrors as the atomic
bomb, hydrogen bomb. It has also released such
mixed blessings as cell phones and video
games.
6. Political-Legal Environment
• Marketers should closely monitor political-legal
environment. The political and legal environment
consists of laws, government agencies and
pressure groups that influence and limit various
organizations and individuals. Sometimes these
laws also create new opportunities for business.
For example recycling laws have given the
recycling industry a major boost and the creation
of dozens of new companies making new
products from recycled materials.
Most Popular
Leisure Activities
• Reading
• TV Watching
• Spending time with
family
• Going to movies
• Fishing
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Computer activities
Gardening
Renting movies
Walking
Exercise
Listening to music
Natural Environment
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Shortage of raw materials
Increased energy costs
Anti-pollution pressures
Governmental protections
Keys to Avoiding
Green Marketing Myopia
• Consumer Value Positioning
• Calibration of Consumer Knowledge
• Credibility of Product Claims
Reading Material from Book.
Technological Environment
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Pace of change
Opportunities for innovation
Varying R&D budgets
Increased regulation of change