Week 2 Weekly Podcast Transcript
Capturing Marketing Insights
Successful marketing managers make an effort to remain well informed and to
understand the big picture of their industry. With a rapidly changing global
economy, marketing professionals must monitor events outside their
respective companies for impacts on their business and possess a broad
overview of their own company's activities and dealings. This type of
information can be obtained through the implementation and analysis of a
marketing information system (MIS).
This week, you will explore how external factors such as political,
environmental, and cultural factors impact the ways in which business is
conducted, and may therefore influence a company's approach to marketing.
You will also investigate the type of information that marketing professionals
need to access in order to fully understand the needs of their own company
and how a MIS system can facilitate this practice. Finally, you will be
introduced to the stages and processes of performing marketing research, the
foundation on which many marketing decisions are made.
By the end of this week, you will be able to:
•
Discuss the role of a marketing information system (MIS) in a modern
organization and how the MIS assists in understanding the current
business environment
•
Summarize the constituent elements of marketing research
•
Compare and contrast how marketing research approaches may be
used in developing competitive advantage
During Week 2, you will use a variety of resources including selections from
the course text, journal articles, and audio versions of key readings. Audio
versions of the key readings include those resources used for completing both
Discussion Questions and Applications.
This week, you begin with Chapters 3 and 4 of your course text, Marketing
Management, identified in your Syllabus and in Resources under Week 2. An
important part of any marketing plan is having accurate information about the
marketplace. Chapter 3 focuses on developing a marketing information
system, which includes internal records data, marketing intelligence, and
marketing research. Focus on the six external forces that marketers must
continually monitor to gather critical information for decision-making. Chapter
4 examines the steps involved in marketing research. It also introduces the
use of metrics to measure marketing productivity and develop sales forecasts.
The journal article for this week, “An Approach to Mastering the Marketing
Mix,” outlines the dilemma faced by many marketers as they seek to justify
their expenditures without any clear methods of calculating the return. The
authors recommend three different methods–structural equation modeling,
historical analyses, and in-market experiments–that may be used to calculate
return on investment, and then go on to discuss the advantages and
limitations of each approach.
You will now hear an audio summary of the following reading that will help in
completing your assignments for the week.
Chapter 4, “Conducting Marketing Research and Forecasting Demand,” in
Marketing Management.
In order to understand and meet the changing needs of consumers, it is
essential that companies continually research the market. Chapter 4
examines the steps involved in conducting effective marketing research. An
important first step is to accurately define the problem to be addressed, which
should be focused, but not too narrowly. Once the area of research is clearly
identified, the research plan is developed, information is gathered and
analyzed, and a final report, including recommendations, is prepared. Based
on the findings, data-driven decisions can be made to address the problem.
The chapter also focuses on the use of marketing research to measure the
effectiveness of current marketing practices. Marketing metrics and marketing
dashboards are just two of methods useful for this analysis. Additionally, you
will be introduced to the use of marketing research to identify future market
segments and then forecast future demands, so that production needs can be
established.
You will now hear a summary of the following reading that will help in
completing your assignments for the week.
Article, “An Approach to Mastering the Marketing Mix,” from Business
Strategy Series.
This article addresses the topic of understanding the marketplace in order to
forecast future needs. The authors contend that one of the challenges
marketers face is in convincing company officers that the expenditures for
marketing produce direct results. By examining three case studies, they were
able to develop an analytical framework using a return on investment (ROI)
model to scientifically determine appropriate levels of future marketing
investment.
This analytical framework combined three different metrics: structural
equation modeling, historical analyses, and in-market experiments. Structural
equation modeling involves performing in depth research with key consumers
to determine the way in which their perceptions influenced their buying
behavior. Historical analyses measures the effectiveness of various elements
of past marketing efforts. Finally, in-market experiments measure the current
success in marketing. The authors argue that the combination of the three
measures provides a clear picture of the marketing return and can be used to
justify future expenditures.