1 8. Marketing Research & Information Systems

2 The Marketing Information System Part of management information system Involves people, equipment & procedures Gathers, sorts, analyzes, evaluates & distributes marketing-related information Helps managers to: –Assess information needs –Generate needed information –Disseminate information

3 The Marketing Research Process Six steps: –Define problem & research objectives –Conduct exploratory research –Formulate a hypothesis –Design the research plan –Collect the data –Interpret & report findings

4 The Marketing Research Process (Cont.) Define the problem & research objectives –Marketing manager & researcher work together to define problem & goals –Three general types of research objectives Exploratory (will be addressed in next step) Descriptive Causal –Problem & research objectives should be recorded in written form

5 The Marketing Research Process (Cont.) Conduct exploratory research –Generate information about cause of a problem –Information sources Interview employees, channel members Access internal secondary data –Internal databases (i.e., data warehouses) »Computerized collections of information from within the firm »Include sales records, financial statements, marketing cost analyses »Conduct data mining Formulate a hypothesis (this step is sometimes omitted)

6 The Marketing Research Process (Cont.) Design the research plan –To test hypothesis (if appropriate) & address research goals –Plan the gathering of external secondary information Publicly available information about marketing environment Available from government & corporate sources –Plan primary data collection Research approaches: Observation, survey & experiment Contact methods: Mail questionnaires, telephone/personal interviews, Internet/online methods Sampling plans: Probability vs. non-probability samples Research instruments: Questionnaire, mechanical instruments –Present the research plan: Written proposal

7 The Marketing Research Process (Cont.) Collect the data –Performed by research firm or company’s own research staff –Data collection phase Most expensive Most subject to error

8 The Marketing Research Process (Cont.) Interpret & report findings –Data from questionnaires must be checked & coded for computer analysis –Results tabulated & statistical measures computed E.g., Mean, median, mode, standard deviation, variance, etc. –Managers and researchers collaborate in interpreting findings –In reporting to management: Present useful information Avoid statistics overload

9 Market & Sales Forecasting Forecasting  Estimating size of a market Two basic approaches to forecasting: –Top-down (subdivide aggregate forecast into component parts) E.g., Buying Power Index calculates estimated % of total retail sales of a particular store or industry group for a given region –Buildup (sum sales forecasts of each component to arrive at aggregate forecast) Used with identifiable components like product lines & market segments

10 Market & Sales Forecasting (Cont.) Specific sales forecast techniques –Judgments of decision maker (qualitative forecast) Direct forecast Lost horse forecast –Surveys of knowledgeable groups (qualitative forecast) Survey of buyer’s intentions forecast Sales force survey forecast (Sales force composite) Jury of executive opinion forecast Survey of experts forecast (Delphi technique) –Statistical methods (quantitative forecast) Linear trend extrapolation (trend analysis)