MARKETING – INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
MIM = organized attempt by a business to gather information to make better decisions about
marketing issues, strategies, & problems.
Marketing Research = involves the marketing function that links the consumer, customer, & public
to the marketer through information.
Importance of MR
 Can make or break a business
 Helps businesses plan how to increase sales & profits
 Answers q’s as to:
o What should be produced
o Where should product be sold
o How to best promote product
o What price to sell product at
 Helps solve problems
 Helps anticipate future market potential
 Keeps track of current markets
Who uses MR?
 Formal vs. informal
 Size of business
o Vs. out sourcing
o Vs. internal MR dept
 Government, opinion polls, associations, & businesses
MIS = Marketing Information Systems
 Internal data
o Sales reports
o Company records
o Customer profiles
 Outside sources
o Government gathered stat’s
o Trade reports
o Other MR studies
Marketing Database
 Database = collection of related info about a specific topic
Difficulties of MIS
 Cost $ - small businesses cannot afford own dept
 Significant investment of time & money
 Therefore have to prioritize most important info to track/keep
Types of Marketing Research
 Attitude Research = opinion research – feelings

Market Research = info related to marketing a good/service
o Sales Forecasting = project future sales
o Economic Forecasting = predict economy future (city, county, state, nation, etc)

Media Research = media selection & frequency, measures effectiveness of advertising
(media mix)
o Researching print advertisements
o Researching broadcast media
o Researching online advertising

Product Research = evaluates product design, packaging, usage, consumer acceptance
o New product acceptance
o Existing product research
Trends in MR
 Technology advancement
 Global marketplace
Limitations of MR
 Time & $ limit how much info can be gathered
 Info limited as it is not a guarantee
 MR can still be valuable as an indicator, when weighed properly
Introduction to Marketing Research
Market research and marketing research are often confused. 'Market' research is simply
research into a specific market. It is a very narrow concept. 'Marketing' research is much broader. It
not only includes 'market' research, but also areas such as research into new products, or modes of
distribution such as via the Internet. Here are a couple of definitions:
"Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer
through information - information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems;
generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve
understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the information required to
address these issues, designs the methods for collecting information, manages and implements the
data collection process, analyzes, and communicates the findings and their implications."
"Marketing research is about researching the whole of a company's marketing process." Palmer
(2000). This explanation is far more straightforward i.e. marketing research into the elements of the
marketing mix, competitors, markets, and everything to do with the customers.
Sources of Data - Primary and Secondary
There are two main sources of data - primary and secondary. primary research is conducted from
scratch. It is original and collected to solve the problem in hand. secondary research, also known as
desk research, already exists since it has been collected for other purposes.
Primary marketing research is collected for the first time. It is original and collected for a specific
purpose, or to solve a specific problem. It is expensive, and time consuming, but is more focused
than secondary research. There are many ways to conduct primary research. We consider some of
them:
1. Interviews
2. Mystery shopping
3. Focus groups
4. Projective techniques
5. Product tests
6. Diaries
7. Omnibus Studies
Secondary marketing research, or desk research, already exist in one form or another. It is
relatively cheap, and can be conducted quite quickly .However, it tends to have been collected for
reasons other than for the problem or objective at hand. So it may be untargeted, and difficult to use
to make comparisons (e.g. financial data gather on Australian pensions will be different to data on
Italian pensions).
There are a number of such sources available to the marketer, and the following list is by no means
conclusive:
 Trade associations
 National and local press Industry magazines
 National/international governments
 Websites
 Informal contacts
 Trade directories
 Published company accounts
 Business libraries
 Professional institutes and organisations
 Omnibus surveys
 Previously gathered marketing research
 Census data
 Public records
** The better you know your target market,
the easier the decisions for the 4 P’s **