Marketing Research 4.06 Acquire foundational knowledge of marketing-information management to understand its nature and scope.

MIM Vocabulary Marketing Information Information gleaned from talking with the customer Marketing-Information Management System Method for collecting and analyzing/interpreting data Marketing Research Methodology for discovering the customer’s wants and needs – links consumer, customer and public to marketer (This is why company’s conduct research)

Who uses marketing research? Marketing research may be formal or informal Depending on the size of the business it may be done in house (internal department) or outsourced (hire an expert) Government, opinion polls, associations and businesses use marketing research

Marketing Information Management (MIM) – 2 TYPES Primary is information the company collects directly from its own surveys – first time collected; expensive and time consuming; up to date; fits company’s needs and marketers interact with participants Secondary is information the company collects from other sources (libraries, online, Federal publications, etc.) – desk research – already exists; efficient and costs less; it can be out of date

MIM Why marketers should collect information: To stay ahead of the competition To better serve current customers To successfully expand into new markets To better understand the economy’s effect on its customers

Credibility and Ethics WHY the integrity of the marketing information must be protected. Personal information (that can be used to identify specific people) that is collected must be protected from unauthorized use. The integrity of the data is critical to its accurate analysis and interpretation Information collected unethically must be handled according to the law

Ethics in MIM Keeping collected information confidential A company may not use information obtained unethically Information collected by the company must be protected from inappropriate use or distribution Information collected from research surveys taken for one specific purpose (i.e. consumer credit) may not be used for marketing campaigns (i.e. direct mail) Use of “cookies” – WHAT ARE THESE????

Technology Marketing-information management (MIM) tracks and monitors customer website activities. Use of “cookies” Accurate count of hits to a website

Vocabulary Define the following terms: Self-Regulation – The company or industry enforces its own rules for interacting with its customers There aren’t any specific laws or government regulations concerning that company’s or industry’s products Privacy The concept that an individual’s personal information (contact, SSN, preferences, etc.) are to be safely kept by the company and only shared or used as agreed to by the customer. There are legal requirements for a company to safeguard certain information There are morale obligations as well

SUGGing and FRUGGing SUGGING FRUGGING Selling under the guise of a survey (research) - a product marketer falsely pretends to be a market researcher conducting a survey, when in reality they are simply trying to sell the product in question FRUGGING Fundraising under the guise of a survey - a product marketer falsely purports to be a market researcher conducting a statistical survey, when in reality the "researcher" is attempting to solicit a donation http://www.dmnews.com/sugging-and-frugging-practices-as-ugly-as-they-sound/article/94425/

Self-regulation Explain the role of self-regulation for marketing researchers For the good of the marketing research industry, high standards are set in the way information is collected and handled This protects the industry because customers will trust the people giving the survey Any researcher failing to follow the self-regulation guidelines will be punished or expelled from the association

Privacy Discuss privacy concerns associated with the collection, storage, mining, and use of data All personal data must be protected from inappropriate use Information collected for one purpose might be ineligible for use in another purpose Certain data might not be allowed to be stored (i.e. SSN) or might have to be encoded and separated from other information

Legal Issues Companies must be careful about collecting information about children under 18 years old While buying preferences and opinions are fine, personal data must be very carefully handled (think Sony Playstation fiasco) Medical Information – HIPPA laws Researchers aren’t permitted to use their collected information for anything other than the purpose it was collected