MKTG 6111020
Marketing Management
Odd Semester 2024/2025
Chapter 4:
Managing Marketing Information to Gain Customer Insights
Session Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this session, students are expected to be able to:
1. Describe marketing mix and marketing strategy in different business
situations.
2. Use appropriate terminologies in marketing activities and business
environment.
3. Apply marketing concepts into marketing strategies in both local and
international contexts.
Marketing Information and
Customer Insights
Customer insights are fresh marketing information-
based understandings of customers and the
marketplace that become the basis for creating
customer value, engagement, and relationships.
Marketing Information and Customer Insights
Customer insights
• Fresh and deep insights into customer needs and wants
• Important but difficult to obtain
Needs and buying motives not obvious
Customers usually can’t tell you what and why
• Better information and more effective use of existing information
Marketing Information and Customer Insights
Managing Marketing Information
• Companies are forming customer insights teams
Include all company functional areas
Collect information from a wide variety of sources
Use insights to create more value for their customers
Marketing Information and Customer Insights
Managing Marketing Information
Marketing information system (MIS) refers to the people and procedures
dedicated to assessing information needs, developing the needed
information, and helping decision makers to use the information to generate
and validate actionable customer and market insights.
Marketing Information and Customer Insights
Assessing Marketing Information Needs
A marketing information system (MIS) provides information to the company’s
marketing and other managers and external partners such as suppliers,
resellers, and marketing service agencies.
Assessing Marketing Information Needs
Characteristics of a Good MIS
Balancing the information users would like to have against what they need and
what is feasible to offer
User’s
Needs
MIS
Offerings
Developing Marketing Information
Marketers obtain information from:
Internal data
Marketing intelligence
Marketing research
Developing Marketing Information
Internal Data
Internal databases are collections of consumer and market
information obtained from data sources within the company
network.
• information on customer characteristics
• sales transactions
• website visits
• customer satisfaction and service records
• records of sales, costs, and cash flows
• reports on production, shipments, and inventories
• reports on reseller reactions and competitor activities
• point-of-sale transaction data
Developing Marketing Information
Competitive Marketing Intelligence
Competitive marketing intelligence is the systematic collection and analysis of
publicly available information about consumers, competitors, and developments in
the marketing environment.
Examples of marketing intelligence techniques:
• Observing consumers firsthand
• Benchmarking competitors’ products
• Researching the Internet
• Monitoring Internet buzz
Marketing Research
Marketing research is the systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of
data relevant to a specific marketing situation facing an organization.
Marketing Research
Marketing Research
Defining the Problem and Research Objectives
Gather preliminary
information that will help
Exploratory research define the problem and
suggest hypotheses
Describes marketing
problems, situations,
or markets
Descriptive research
Tests hypothesis about
Causal research cause-and-effect
relationships
Marketing Research
Developing the Research Plan
• Outlines sources of existing data
• Spells out the specific research
approaches, contact methods, sampling
plans, and instruments to gather data
Marketing Research
Developing the Research Plan
Management problem
Research objectives
Information needed
How the results will help
management decisions
Budget
Marketing Research
Developing the Research Plan
Secondary data is information that already exists somewhere, having been
collected for another purpose.
Primary data is information collected for the specific purpose at hand.
Marketing Research
Gathering Secondary Data
Disadvantages
Advantages
- data may not be
Lower cost Relevant
Obtained quickly Accurate
Cannot collect Current
otherwise
Impartial
Marketing Research
Primary Data Collection
Research Approaches
Contact Methods
Sampling Plan
Research Instruments
Marketing Research
Marketing Research
Primary Data Collection
Research Approaches
• Observational research involves gathering primary data by observing relevant
people, actions, and situations.
• Ethnographic research involves sending trained observers to watch and interact
with consumers in their “natural environments.”
Marketing Research
Primary Data Collection
Research Approaches
• Survey research involves gathering primary data by asking people questions
about their knowledge, attitudes, preferences, and buying behavior.
• Experimental research involves gathering primary data by selecting matched
groups of subjects, giving them different treatments, controlling related factors,
and checking for differences in group responses.
Marketing Research
Focus Group—Personal Contact Method
• Six to 10 people
• Trained moderator
• Challenges
Expensive
Difficult to generalize from small group
Consumers not always open and honest
Marketing Research
Online Contact Methods
Advantages
• Low cost
• Speed
• Higher response rates
• Good for hard to reach groups
Marketing Research
Primary Data Collection
Sampling Plan
A sample is a segment of the population selected for marketing research to
represent the population as a whole.
• Who is to be studied?
• How many people should be studied?
• How should the people be chosen?
Marketing Research
Marketing Research
Primary Data Collection
Research Instruments--Questionnaires
• Most common
• In person, by phone, or online
• Flexible
• Researchers must be careful with wording and ordering of questions
Closed-ended
Open-ended
• Useful in exploratory research
Marketing Research
Primary Data Collection
Mechanical Research Instruments
Checkout
scanners
People Neuro-
meters marketing
Mechanical
devices
Marketing Research
Implementing the Research Plan
• Collecting the information
• Processing the information
• Analyzing the information
Interpreting and Reporting Findings
• Interpret findings
• Draw conclusions
• Report to management
Analyzing and Using Marketing Information
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
CRM involves managing detailed information about individual customers and carefully
managing customer touch points to maximize customer loyalty.
Analyzing and Using Marketing Information
Customer Relationship Management
CRM Touchpoints
Web and
Customer Sales force Service and
social media
purchases contacts support calls
sites
Credit and Marketing
Satisfaction
payment research
surveys
interactions studies
Analyzing and Using Marketing Information
Distributing and Using Marketing Information
Information distribution involves making information available in a timely, user-
friendly way.
• Intranet
• Extranet
Other Marketing Information Considerations
Marketing Research in Small Businesses and
Nonprofit Organizations
International Market Research
Public Policy and Ethics
• Customer privacy
• Misuse of research findings
References
• Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2018). Principles of Marketing (17th ed.). Upper
Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN: 9781292220178