Page 153 - DLIS402_INFORMATION_ANALYSIS_AND_REPACKAGING

Information Analysis and Repackaging

Notes Example

Office World offers shoppers a free membership card when they make their first purchase at their
store. The card entitles shoppers to discounts on selected items, but also provides valuable information
to the chain. Since Office World encourages customers to use their card with each purchase, it can
track what customers buy, where and when. Using this information, it can track the effectiveness of
promotions, trace customers who have defected to other stores and keep in touch with them if they
relocate.
Information from internal records is usually quicker and cheaper to get than information from
other sources, but it also presents some problems. Because internal information was for other
purposes, it may be incomplete or in the wrong form for making marketing decisions. For example,
accounting department sales and cost data used for preparing financial statements need adapting
for use in evaluating product, sales force or channel performance.

8.2 Marketing Intelligence

Everyday information about developments in changing marketing environment that helps managers
prepares marketing plans. The marketing intelligence system determines the intelligence needed,
collects it by searching the environment and delivers it to marketing managers who need it. Marketing
intelligence comes from many sources. Much intelligence is from the company’s personnel - executives,
engineers and scientists, purchasing agents and the sales force. But company people are often busy
and fail to pass on important information.
The company must ‘sell’ its people on their importance as intelligence gatherers, train them to spot
new developments and urge them to report intelligence back to the company. The company must
also persuade suppliers, resellers and customers to pass along important intelligence. Some
information on competitor’s conies from what they say about themselves in annual reports, speeches,
press releases and advertisements.
The company can also learn about competitors from what others say about them in business
publications and at trade shows. Or the company can watch what competitors do - buying and
analyzing competitors’ products, monitoring their sales and checking for new patents. Companies
also buy intelligence information from outside suppliers.
Some companies set up an office to collect and circulate marketing intelligence. The staff scans
relevant publications, summarize important news and send news bulletins to marketing managers.
They develop a file of intelligence information and help managers evaluate new information. These
services greatly improve the quality of information available to marketing managers. The methods
used to gather competitive information range from the ridiculous to the illegal. Managers routinely
shred documents because wastepaper baskets can be an information source.

Benefits for Managers
The majority of benefits for the marketing team revolve around job satisfaction, increased productivity,
improved marketing results and freedom for creative expression. However, the critical advantages
realized by managerial executives’ from an automated marketing information system center on the
ability to achieve specific market objectives, some tangible, others intangible. Examples of the former
include a sales quota for existing clients or budgeted new customer acquisition goal. Examples of the
latter are concepts such as branding and perceived value. Take a poll of car buyers nationally and
which company is dominant in perceived value, Ford, Honda, Toyota, Chrysler? According to the
Consumer Guide, Toyota wins hands down.
Most marketing managers make investment decisions without the benefit of quantifiable historical
data. In fact, when it comes time to request next years marketing budget, most requests are not
based on demonstratable success and solid ROI, but instead based on the prior year figure plus
some nominal increase.

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