Making Customer Information the
Lifeblood of the Organization
Group 7 - Members
Veron
Yoseph
M987Z210 M987Z213
Bee
Ken
Duy
Moon
M987Z220 M9870114 M987Z218 M987Z241
Agenda
1. Background information.
2. Anheuser Strategies.
a) The Marketing intelligence system.
b) Needs and Trends (Macro environment)
(trend / mega trends).
3. What Were Anheuser-Busch’s Keys to
success in the market?
4. How Companies Gather Information?
Agenda
5. Why is data so important?
6. How The intelligence can be collected?
7. Competitors reveal intelligence information
through.
8. Recommendation.
9. Result
10.Question.
The Anheuser-Busch Family
Budweiser
Michelob
Busch
Background Information of Budnet
• BudNet is widely considered
to be the most advanced,
thorough consumer gather
system in the marketing
industry.
• A system that uses aspects
from technology, accounting,
and inventory in order to
create the most accurate
MIS possible.
• A marketing system that
accurately pinpoints who is
buying their products, and
from where. Then, the
marketing becomes
persuasive; thus increasing
sales.
• The MIS network that has
increased sales and allowing
Anheuser-Bush to be the
market-leader in their
industry.
Background Information of Budnet
• Budnet, Anheuser-Busch's top-secret data
network, gives the brewer a leg up on the
competition by tracking beer-lovers' buying
methods, as well as their rivals' productdisplay strategy.
Anheuser Strategies
a) The Marketing intelligence system
– Tailor marketing campaigns. (Dynamics Strategy)
– Know what you are, know what to act'.
– Know the competitor.
– Be customer.
b) Needs and Trends (Macro environment) (trend /
mega trends)
– Healthy trend
Anheuser Strategies
• Anheuser uses the data to constantly change
marketing strategies, to design promotions to
suit the ethnic makeup of its markets, and as
early warning radar that detects where rivals
might have an edge.
Anheuser Strategies
• BudNet, used by the company's U.S. distributors,
representatives and drivers, is a brick-size
handheld PC that tracks accounts receivable, past
sales, package placements, and other data
pertaining to Anheuser-Busch's products, as well
as product-display information about
competitors.
• The data allows the beer giant to track what beer
lovers are buying, as well as when, where, and
why. The company uses the information for
marketing strategies, for promotions targeted to
certain markets, and to determine where
competitors may have an edge
What Were Anheuser-Busch’s Keys to
success in the market?
*Information*
• Lean Supply Chain
• Good and abundant raw
data
• Sell thing that market
need
How Companies Gather Information…
• Research & Development. • Reading industry specific
newspapers, magazines,
• Surveys (inside and outside
books.
public).
• Searching on the Internet. • Talk to experts in their
specific fields
• Industry Journals
• Job Posting
• What kinds of expertise are they
looking for?
Information
• Information is coming from data.
• Update your data is essential.
• Analyze your information.
Why is data so important
•
•
•
•
To know your customer
Easier to communicate to your supplier.
To understand your industry.
To predict the future of business.
How The intelligence can be
collected?
A. From company
inside:
•Executives
•Engineers
•Scientists
•Purchasing Agents
•Sales force
B. From company
outside:
• Suppliers
• Resellers
• Key customers
From Competitors
• Observing competitors
• Monitoring their public informations
• Buying and analyzing competitors' products
• Monitoring their sales
• Checking new patents
• Examining various types of physical evidence
• Ex1: One company regular checks out competitors' parking
lots – full lots might indicate plenty of work and prosperity;
half full lots might suggest hard times.
• Ex2: Some companies have even rifled their competitor's
garbage, which is legally considered abandoned property once
it leaves the premises( Oracle, P & G)
Competitors reveal intelligence
information through.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Their reports
Business publications
Trade show exhibits
Press releases
Advertisements
Web pages
Internet
What can we get?
• Strategies
• Markets
• New products
• Facilities…
Ex: Bill Gates found out that Google might be building
something to compete with Microsoft when Google
was looking for engineers with backgrounds that had
nothing to do with Google's Web-search business but
everything to do with Microsoft’s core software
business => You can find many intelligence from
Internet.
There are thousands of online
databases in internet.
Free
Ex: U.S. Security and Exchange Commission’s database provides a
huge stockpile of financial information on public competitors
Ex: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office databases reveals patents
competitors have filed.
For a fee:
Ex1: Dialog, Hoover’s, DataStar, LexisNexis, Dow Jones News
Retrieval, ProQuest, Dun & Bradstreet’s Online Access.
Recommendation
1. Not only try to get the intelligence
information of competitors but also need to
protect their own information.
Ex: Unilever made a training for employees. They warned
employees that anyone can be spy even the drivers of mini
cab company they used.
2. Company should take advantage of publicly
available information. However they no need
to break the laws.
Result
• Anheuser-Busch, Inc. was being the market leader for
U.S. beer market when the company’s volume share
reached $75 billion in 2004.
• Prestigious Awards of Anheuser-Busch, Inc. in 2008:
Fortune America’s Most Admired Companies
 Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies
• Recently, the merging between Anheuser-Busch and
InBev created the world’s largest brewer which would
have yearly sales of more than $36.4 billion beating the
current No. 1 brewer, London-based SABMiller.
Result
• Many companies who provide marketing intelligence
information have been born from the need for accurate and
valuable consumer data.
• i.e. : LexisNexis, ProQuest, Dun & Bradstreet’s Online Access,
DataStar, Dow Jones News Retrieval, Hoover’s, etc
• Significant ethical issues have been raised, such as;
– Dumpster Diving has become more common by companies
nowadays
– Some action for gathering information were done illegally
– Customers’ privacy is decreasing
• Benchmarking other company’s marketing strategy is
increasingly occurring
– Google was looking to compete with Microsoft’s core
software businesses
Question
A. Why do you believe a system like budnet is so
important to a company like Anheuser-Busch?
Answer – BudNet is important because it allows for
real-time responses to the market; without such
state of the art technology, company would not be
able to react to changing trends, tastes, and
demographics of their customers.
Question
B. How could the budnet system used as a
distributor motivator?
Answer – Our answers may vary, but it could create closer ties
between the customer and the supplier, and allow for better
collaboration. Moreover, the distributor should be able to
sell more product as it will have accurate numbers for the
customers and will be able to get enough inventory to cover
any immediate increases in demand. It will motivate
distributes because it will allow for eventual increased sales
and profits.
Question
C. What ethical implication, if any do you see in
a company having this much knowledge
about customers?
Answer – Again, Our answers will vary---some will
think it’s another case of “Big Brother” watching us
at all times, while others will feel that if it’s not
through BudNet, it’s some other way that companies
are keeping tabs on who is buying their products
and therefore it’s not a big issue.