Managing Marketing Information (RLE Marketing)

Nigel Piercy, Martin Evans

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781138793149
• eBook ISBN: 9781317645344
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business generale
• Index: Business

A good marketing information system is an essential ingredient of all successful marketing. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to this key subject. This book not only covers market research techniques but also shows how research techniques should fit into a broader market information system which is skilfully and intelligently designed to suit the particular corporate context.

PART I

INTRODUCTION: DECISIONS, INFORMATION AND SYSTEMS

1	MARKETING DECISIONS AND MARKETING INFORMATION

Aims and an Overview of the Book

The aims of this book are a little different from those usually attempted in texts on marketing research and marketing information. A large number of textbooks have been produced, which typically emphasise research methods and data analysis. However, what these traditional works do not generally tackle are the problems of managing marketing information. The implication is that there is a considerable need to analyse information needs and sources, to plan information provision, to understand and cope with the problems inherent in implementing information services, and to evaluate and control the provision of marketing information. It is to just such a broad approach that this book is dedicated.

Experience suggests that the marketing analyst facing problems of developing the information function, rather than simply running a survey or some other piece of research, has to search long and hard for any guidance in the literature, particularly any recent, up-to-date guidance.

The same point is reflected in the teaching of marketing information in business schools and colleges. It was suggested more than a decade ago that ‘Marketing research courses should be dismembered, with the marketing information function devolving into the marketing management course and methodology into non-functional courses in research methods.’ (Wills, 1971). In fact, recent research suggests that the emphasis of marketing teachers remains primarily on research techniques (Piercy et al, 1982).

The need for this present approach is also shown by the current developments in the new information technology. As will be seen, the implications of new technology for marketing information are enormous and this potential is quickly becoming apparent.

For instance, Nelson and Cowling (1982) have demonstrated that in undertaking even simple market research — surveys of consumers and the like — there are revolutionary changes taking place in: (a) the speed of collecting and communicating information — for instance, through the hand-held micro-computer or through the laser scanning of bar coded grocery products at the supermarket checkout (for example, recently Tube Investment New World’s cookers have embarked on a series of new product launches based on the almost instantaneous feedback of consumer preferences through microcomputer systems to achieve brand leadership in a number of segments (Whelan, 1982); (b) the ability to check accuracy and validity, by moving towards the ‘paperless office’ where information is manipulated by machines rather than manually; (c) the volume of data which will be available; and (d) the ability to test and experiment — for example, in the US some small towns are linked via cable television to the retail outlet so that identified households’ purchases are monitored by checkout scanners and linked to panel information on such factors as their exposure to advertising for the products bought.

One point which has already become clear is that is will be possible to have vast amounts of information quickly and cheaply — the problems we face are essentially those of managing information in marketing.

An overview of the content of the book will make it clearer how the aims are to be pursued.

The bulk of Part I is concerned with developing the idea of the marketing information system (MkIS) — a broad view of all the sources of marketing information which may have to be co-ordinated and integrated. The essential point is that while techniques fit into convenient, easily identifiable categories, for example surveys, consumer panels, market tests and so on, problems do not. The problems faced by marketing managers tend to be uncertain, uneven and messy, and typically need information from a variety of sources. The MkIS provides a way of picturing or modelling the range of information sources available, both in theoretical terms, but also when investigating marketing information needs in companies.

Part II of the book examines the elements of the MkIS, or in other words the major sources of marketing information. This part of the work will be most familiar to those brought up on traditional marketing research textbooks. The point is that while the approach of this book is rather different, the marketing analyst does still need to understand the functioning of the market research industry — what continuous research is available, how to deal with research agencies and the like — and how to set up and manage a research programme, from defining problems to reporting findings.

Part III of the book turns to the broader problems of managing marketing information in the sense of studying and developing the MkIS in a company, organising for marketing information, as well as evaluating and controlling the marketing information function. It is this last part of the book which gives the greatest claim to distinctiveness and, it is hoped, to relevance to marketing in the 1980s. This part of the work has been written with the conviction that one of the most urgent problems facing marketing researchers and managers in the field — as well as those preparing to enter the field — is how to deal with the information flood which now exists. The underlying premiss is that managing marketing information should be based on the study of information needs, the provision of the needed data, and careful implementation that accommodates the realities of organisational life.

This coverage of the marketing information function is intended to further a number of specific aims which may now be summarised. First, it is intended to give a broader view of the sources of marketing information than has commonly been advanced by market researchers, to reflect such forces as new information technology but also the value of low-cost information and qualitative intelligence data. Secondly, this treatment will provide the tools — conceptual and analytical — to undertake marketing research and to deal with research agencies. Thirdly, marketing information will be placed very firmly in the context of management information needs, the organisation in which information is provided and used, and the commercial necessity of regarding information as a resource to be subjected to cost/benefit analysis just like any other resource.

However, to begin, the remainder of this chapter is devoted to scene-setting. We consider the marketing decisions which provide the focus for study, the nature of marketing information and, to emphasise what is intended to be a pragmatic approach to the theory of marketing information, we conclude by pointing to the source of the controversies surrounding the value of marketing information and examine what is known about the current status of marketing information and the MkIS.

Marketing Decisions

The normal tendency is to assume that marketing information is for the marketing department in a firm. Actually this is not necessarily the case, for two reasons.

First, there may be no marketing department. Many small/medium firms exist without marketing departments, as do many large retailers like Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury — which does not, however, mean that they have no use for marketing information. Pursuing the same example, Sainsbury, the UK grocery and supermarket chain, has maintained a marketing research unit since the 1940s, with wide in-house and agency research interests.

Secondly, where there is a marketing department, its authority may be far more restricted than is commonly recognised in marketing textbooks. Research in the UK suggests that the authority of the marketing manager has often been exaggerated (Hayhurst and Wills, 1972). The point is that marketing information may be used by non-marketing parts of the organisation — for example, the board of directors deciding on whether or not to invest in extending production capacity, the corporate planner developing forecasts of sales, the general manager who has become involved increasingly in advertising decisions, or managers concerned with evaluating the performance of the marketing department, who want to know market shares, sales growth rates, the impact of marketing on profitability and so on.

Table 1.1: The Management Process

Stage	Activities	Example
ANALYSIS	Studying opportunities and competitors. Making forecasts.	There is a large demand in China for our product, which competitors are not meeting. The market is worth £x and growing at y% per year.
PLANNING	Setting objectives and budgets. Defining tasks and responsibilities.	We want 10% of that market. We will spend £z on promotion.
IMPLEMENTATION	Putting plans into action: getting resources, taking actions.	Sales visits, product trials, services are provided.
CONTROL	Evaluating what has been achieved compared to plans and objectives. Explaining variances.	We got 2% of the market.
		Was the analysis too optimistic? Was the planning at fault? Did the implementation fail? Are our control measurements valid? Was the variance due to uncontrollable factors — which?

Indeed, it may be that in the longer term the marketing information function should be seen as a corporate activity which is part of corporate planning and development. However, more will be said about this when we consider organisation for marketing information, in Chapter 8.

If the question of the organisational location of marketing responsibilities and the structural position of marketing information is put aside for the moment, then it is possible to examine what are the marketing management decisions that marketing information may serve.

One way of starting is to consider what is meant by management, and a simple model is shown in Table 1.1. This approach distinguishes between the stages of the management process and the type of activities and information need at each stage. This model may then be applied to marketing variables.

There are many models of marketing variables, and one attempt at summary is shown in Table 1.2. The point of this model is to introduce a distinction between strategy and operations, which suggests different information needs, both in information type and the level of decision making. Broadly, this difference lies in the need to monitor the broad environments of the firm for strategic choices to be made, compared to collecting information about the firm’s customers, distributors, competition and marketing results for shorter-term management decision making.

Table 1.2: Marketing Decisions

MARKETING STRATEGY DECISIONS

Defining ‘what business’ the firm is in — the mission.

Choosing product markets.

Choosing methods of growth.

Design a configuration of mark...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• Dedication
• Preface
• Part I: Introduction: Decisions, Information and Systems
• Part II: Elements of the Marketing Information System
• Part III: Managing Marketing Information
• Index