Marketing Research

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Marketing Research

• Information Systems and Knowledge Management
• Dr. Zafer Erdogan

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Data, Information and Knowledge

• Datathe raw factsrecord measures of certain
  phenomena which are necessary to provide
• Informationfacts in a form suitable for managers
  to base decisions on.
• Knowledge is a blend of information,
  experience, and insights that provide a framework
  that can be applied when assessing new
  information or evaluating relevant situations.

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Characteristics of Valuable Information

• Relevance
• Quality
• Timeliness
• Completeness

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Knowledge Management

• Organizations make effort to capture, organize,
  and share what the organizations and its
  employees know.
• They create knowledge that is broader, deeper and
  richer than data or information.
• Knowledge Management is the process of creating
  an inclusive, comprehensive, easily accessible
  organizational memory often called the
  organizations intellectual capital.

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Decision Support System

• A computer-based system that helps decision
  makers confront problems through direct
  interaction with databases and analytical
  software programs.
• Its purpose
• to store data and transform them into organized
  information that is easily accessible to
  marketing managers.

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A Decision Support System Has Two Components

• Database
• A database is a collection of raw data arranged
  logically and organized in a form that can be
  stored and processed by a computer. e.g. mail
  list, population records
• Software
• Various types of programs that tell computers,
  printers, and other hardware what to do
• Software consists of business intelligence
  systems, statistical software, spreadsheet
  software and analytical models.

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Business Intelligence Software

• A decision support systems business intelligence
  software allows managers to combine and
  restructure databases,
• diagnose relationships,
• discover patterns,
• estimate variables,
• otherwise analyze the various databases.
• Much software helps user interaction.

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Decision Support Systems-cont

• Systematic accumulation of pertinent, timely, and
  accurate data is essential to the success of a
  decision support system.
• The managers of the decision support system,
  systems analysts, and computer programmers are
  responsible for the system as a whole.
• However, the task of providing input data is
  shared by many functions within the organization.

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Four Major Sources Of Input For A Decision
Support System

• Input
• All numerical, text, voice, and image data
  entered into the decision system.
• Internal records
• Proprietary Marketing research
• Marketing intelligence
• Outside vendors and external distributors

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Internal Records

• Internal records that may become useful
  information for marketing managers.
• Accounting reports of sales and inventory
  figures, provide considerable data.
• Data about costs, orders, shipments, inventory,
  sales, and other aspects of regular operations
  are routinely collected and entered into the
  computer.
• Customer profiles

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Proprietary Marketing Research

• Emphasizes the companys gathering of new data.
• Not conducted regularly or continuously.
• Projects conducted to study specific company
  problems
• Survey findings
• Test market results

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Marketing Intelligence

• A network of sources and regular procedures by
  which marketing executives obtain everyday
  information about nonrecurring developments in
  the external marketing environment.
• For example
• e-mail logs of comments and complaints,
• discovery of competition price changes,
• news of industry technology

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Outside Vendors and External Distributors

• Distributors of market information as their
  products.
• Many organizations specialize in the collection
  and publication of high-quality information.
• E.G. A. C. Nielsen company, provides television
  program ratings, audience counts.

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Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

• Bring together lots of pieces of information
• customer profiles
• sales
• marketing effectiveness/responsiveness
• market trends
• Provides the enterprise with a complete,
  dependable, and integrated view of its customer
  base.

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Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

• The goal of the CRM system is to describe
  customer relationships in sufficient detail
• So that
• Management, salespeople, customer service, and
  perhaps the customer can directly
• access information e.g. other products a customer
  has purchased
• match customer needs with satisfying product
  offerings
• remind customers of service requirements

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Network Electronic Data Interchange

• Networking is the linking of two or more
  computers to share data and software programs.
• Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the term
  used when one companys computer systems is
  integrated directly with another companys
  computer system.
• For example
• Wall-Mart exchanges data with its suppliers
  every evening via EDI

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CASE 2.1 HARVARD COOPERATIVE SOCIETY

• 1. What advantages does a decision support system
  have for a small business like the Harvard
  Cooperative Society?
• 2. How would a small business like the Harvard
  Cooperative Societys decision support system
  differ from that of a major corporation?
• 3. Briefly explain or outline your opinion of the
  components of the Harvard Cooperative Societys
  decision support system.

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Internet

• A worldwide network of computers that allows
  users access to information and documents from
  distant sources.
• A combination of a worldwide communication system
  and the worlds largest library.

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URL WWW

• Uniform resource locator
• Web site address
• Graphic interface
• 1000s of interconnected pages or documents

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Search Engine

• A computerized directory to search the WWW
• YAHOO -www.yahoo.com
• HOTBOT - www.hotbot.com
• GOOGLE - www.google.com

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Pull Push Technology

• Pull - data is delivered when requested
• Push - data is delivered w/out request
• Smart agents
• Learns an individual users preferences
• Automatically searches out information
• Delivers information to the desktop
• Cookies
• Small computer files
• Provides saves onto the computer of someone who
  visits
• Tracks websites and files visited

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Intranet Internet2

• Private data network
• Uses internet standards and technology
• Firewalls for security
• A collaborative effort involving over 100
  universities, industrial organizations, and
  government offices in the US
• Objective is to create research network much
  faster than the current Internet.
  www.internet2.edu