Marketing 12/15

Sales forecasts

Sales forecasts are predictions of future sales over specific periods of time. Such forecasts are helpful to a marketer in setting up the marketing budget, planning products, and determining the product mix.

three sources of internal data

Sales records Customer/client records Financial statements

Data gathering

The basic function of a marketing-information management system is to gather data important to the business. These data should be gathered from both internal and external sources.

Cost-effective

The benefits of using the marketing information should be greater than the costs of gathering the data that are used to generate this information.

Market opportunities

The system can gather and analyze data and information about market trends, target markets, changes in the environment, changing events, and the effects of these factors on different markets.

Marketing research

The systematic gathering, recording, and analyzing of data about a specific issue, situation, or concern

Business decisions

To decide upon the size of a business, its products, or its prices, marketers may need information about specific markets or the current economic situation of the entire country.

Thorough

To help a business with its decision-making, marketing researchers must gather sufficient data.

Why is marketing information considered to be vital for business success?

To make educated decisions, solve problems efficiently, and plan for the future

To determine how to reach the target market

To predict future sales and trends, businesses need to know what customers are buying.

What types of data can businesses get from customers?

Who they are, where they are, how your company interacts with them, etc.

To develop a profile of the typical customer

a business may use marketing research to determine its typical customer's age, income, education, and spending patterns.

Risk reduction

assist in controlling or reducing risk. As you may already know, a high percentage of new products fail. Thankfully, marketers can reduce the risk of new-product failure by using the mkIS to obtain as much advance information as possible.

Competition

can gather and analyze data such as improvements planned for competitors' products, new products that are being introduced, or the competition's market share.

Situation analysis

determination of a firm's current business situation and the direction in which the business is headed. By conducting a situation analysis, a company might learn who purchases most of its products, which products have the weakest sales, and the direction of consumer trends.

Profitability

determines the profitability of a business and its products. The system can compare financial data from one time period with the data from another time period to provide a picture of the business's profits. Information about the progress of new products, inventory levels, sales, and production costs can help a business to control costs, to retain profitable products, and to eliminate unprofitable items.

Sufficient

enough data must be gathered to truly help marketers. Too little data can give a distorted picture of the real situation and be misleading.

Observation

gathering data by watching customers

Experiment

research method that tests cause and effect relationships.

Relevant

the information must be closely related to the situation at hand to be of the most use to marketers.

Accurate

the information should be error-free and reliable. Both positive and negative data should be included.

Timely

the marketing data and information must be up-to-date.

Accessible

the marketing data and information should be readily available so that they can be gathered and used without major effort or excessive cost

To describe the target market

to better understand its target market, a business could conduct marketing research to answer questions like: Who is the target market? How many people are in the target market Where is the target market? What does the target market like to do? What is the target market buying?

sales volume analysis

Allows a company to measure its actual sales against a number of different criteria

market share analysis

Allows a company to measure its sales performance against those of its competitors.

Data Processing

Analyzing the data collected and putting them into formats useful to a business

Why is it important that information used to prepare sales forecasts be as accurate as possible?

Because all your future sales will be based on this information, and it must be as accurate as possible to allow them to predict future sales.

What impact does marketing research have on business decision-making?

Businesses can base their decisions on concrete facts rather than opinions, gut reactions, or past ex-periences.

To analyze the business's sales and market share

Businesses often use marketing research to evaluate their performance, compare their sales with industry sales, and determine their market share.

To explore the current situation

Businesses use exploratory research when they can't clearly define their reasons for research. Exploratory research is often qualitative, involving the collection of re-spondents' opinions and personal interpretations rather than facts and figures.

To predict future situations

Businesses use predictive research to help them forecast future business developments, such as estimating future sales, predicting the growth or decline of a market, or projecting consumer tastes.

To test the situation

Causal research, sometimes-called conclusive research, focuses on cause and effect relationships and tests "what if" theories. It determines the impact that one item or entity has on another.

Four common ways that marketing-information management systems can benefit marketers.

Collecting and presenting marketing info to marketers in an organized fashion Giving marketers a broader perspective of the market providing marketers with information that may help to prevent a business crisis helping marketers to improve their planning

secondary data

Comes from research that is already available—internal financial records, sales invoices, and public investment information

What is the difference between data and information?

Data is numerical values while information qualitative/observations

five basic requirements of an marketing-information management system

Decide quickly what data and info are needed Collect, process, and store data and info effectively Handle what ever amount of data and info a particular business needs Protects the data and information Operate continuously

To define the current situation

Descriptive research is used to gather specific data related to the identified research problem

Valid

Effective marketing research is valid research: it actually measures what the researcher intends to measure.

3 types of internal data

Enterprise resource planning Sale reports Data Inventory

3 types of external data

Enterprise resource planning Finance Human resource

Objective

Researchers must keep their own opinions out of the way while they are gathering data.

What is a hypothesis?

Hypothesis based on the research objective(s). A hypothesis is a statement of the expected outcomes of the research.

Why is it important for businesses to start the marketing-research process by identifying the reason for the research?

Identifying the reason for the research includes determining what information the business needs to solve the problem or issue. Researchers need to determine what kind of data to collect, how much data to gather, and why the data are needed

Promotional strategies

If the strategies used have not been satisfactory, gathering and analyzing marketing data may indicate what changes need to be made.

How does determining the research design help keep a project on track?

Involves creating a master plan for how the research will be carried out.

How does data help people and businesses with decision making?

It helps them understand who their customers are by looking at demographic data and insights into buying habits. Even customer complaints can be helpful.

How does marketing research at large businesses differ from marketing research at small businesses?

Large businesses usually have their own marketing-research departments. But, if these businesses need a special type of research or need more research than their departments can handle, they may also hire outside research consultants.

What is marketing information?

Marketing data available from inside and outside of business that has been progressed in a useful way

Systematic

Marketing research is a step-by-step process similar to the scientific method. No matter how much data are being gathered, the research process always involves gathering, recording, and analyzing information

How does marketing research help businesses implement the marketing concept?

Marketing research is used to solve specific marketing problems as well as to identify problems that may or may not be readily apparent.

Reliable

Marketing research must be reliable, which means that if the same research was repeated or conduct-ed by other researchers, the results would be the same.

primary data

Organization carries it out on its own/for one purpose

Compare the advantages and disadvantages of primary and secondary data.

Primary data are more up-to-date and relevant. Secondary data can be accessed quickly, are relatively inexpensive, and sometimes meet researchers' needs, eliminating the need for additional research. Secondary data are facts and figures collected for purposes other than the project at hand. Secondary research may not directly apply to the problem at hand

Distinguish between primary information and secondary information

Primary is developed from data that are collected for use in one particular situation Secondary is data that have already been collected for other purposes.

three sources of external data

Publications by government agencies Trade associations Commercial marketing-research firms

Information Reporting

information management system is handling the flow of informa- tion within a business. The system should distribute the necessary information to those who need it.

Organized

marketing information should consist of precise data, facts, and figures presented in an orderly fashion.

Survey

most popular data-collection method. To conduct a survey, researchers develop a set of written questions designed to gather specific data, called a questionnaire

What types of data about competitors are useful for businesses?

•Sales volume data •Market share data •Insights into the company's strengths and weaknesses •Insights into the company's future plans (new products, new marketing cam-paigns, etc.) •Financial records (for public corporations