Page 154 - DLIS402_INFORMATION_ANALYSIS_AND_REPACKAGING

Unit 8: Marketing of Services and Marketing Intelligence

In addition to organization and automation, most marketing systems incorporate statistical analysis Notes
of marketing processes and their quantifiable results. Proven successful campaigns result in increased
budgets for the marketing department. Every VP of Marketing or marketing executive reports to
another C-level executive and the department’s performance must be measurable. The sales manager
of the prior Miami office example won his case for implementing the same system used in New
York’s in large part because of New York’s measurable increased efficiency. The bottom line is
king, numbers are the greatest single determining factor in new investment decisions.
Increasingly, marketing managers must predict response and justify new, untried technology.
Marketing information systems can mine a prospect and client database and utilize modelling
algorithms to forecast reliable results. As Internet consumer and prospect interaction grows and
matures, more sophisticated tools are developed. Since marketing focuses on two basic objectives,
acquiring new clients and retaining the current base, having a competitive edge in the form of a
marketing information system is critical to meeting goals. Particularly in larger product oriented
entities, but certainly applicable to any growth organization, processes must be logically sequenced,
automated and constantly honed. In the battle of global competition, marketing executives cannot
be successful without the requisite tools.

Boon for Marketing Staff

The primary benefits of marketing automation or marketing information systems (MA/MIS) come
from facilitated campaign management, comprehensive data segmentation and real-time visibility of
marketing effectiveness.
For a marketing staff, marketing systems are the tool to structure marketing events, streamline
activities, increase productivity, gain effectiveness visibility and rank campaigns relative to each
other and ROI. Source data, given a robust marketing system needs only to be entered one time, in
one location. Duplication of effort should be eliminated except in cases of human error.
New projects can be quickly and clearly defined. There is no ambiguity in directives given, or in
responsibilities allocated. Everyone on the team knows who is responsible for what, where they are
in a given component of a campaign or project and when different aspects of the project should or
will be completed.
Marketing systems also enhance the marketing staff productivity through superior trend analysis
and customer response research (staff need not spend days combing through customer data for
who purchased what, when and for how much.) Group segmentation information is automatically
available as data sets which can be interrogated and manipulated.
Most companies have an enormous amount of data that sits fallow and useless; either in disparate
databases or as random bits of information.

Marketing systems categorize, segment and integrate this data automatically so that it
can be learned from and acted upon.

A robust marketing system gives the staff the ability to plan, execute, revise and analyze campaigns
in real-time and relative to other active or historical campaigns. Budget analysis and payback is
much clearer, more concise and accurate. Prospect lists are simpler to generate and are more accurate
for product or prospect targeting. The details of each campaign are outlined and defined with solid,
reliable data to back them up.
Everyone on the marketing staff becomes empowered to benefit from the historical data. To put it
bluntly – their jobs are made quantifiably easier in each phase of responsibility. They are also, due
to the real-time aspect of marketing reporting capabilities, more responsive to alterations in marketing
initiatives. It is said in war that no plan last past the meeting of the enemy. The reason being is that
the enemy rarely does what you want them to.

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