Marketing
Information Systems
A
marketing information system (MIS) is a management information system designed
to support marketing decision making. It brings together many different kinds
of data, people, equipment and procedures to help an organization make better
decisions. American academic Philip Kotler has defined it more broadly as
“people, equipment, and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and
distribute needed, timely, and accurate information to marketing decision
makers. ” Not to be confused for a management information system, marketing
information systems are designed specifically for managing the marketing
aspects of the business
Key Points
·
With the increasing use of the Internet, online questionnaires
have become a popular way to collect information.
·
Online Research Methods include: ethnography, focus groups,
interviews, web-based experiments and clinical trials.
·
The advantages of digital surveys include: questions can be
displayed in different ways, data can be received immediately, collection is
more cost-effective than traditional methods, and adapting surveys is quick and
affordable.
·
The disadvantages of digital surveys include: response rates are
limited to people who can access the web, many people dislike completing
questionnaires online, and people who respond to online questionnaire
invitations tend to be younger.
Key Terms
·
ethnography: The branch of
anthropology that scientifically describes specific human cultures and
societies.
·
Online
Research Method: A way in which researchers can collect data via the Internet.
This is also referred to as Internet research.
·
focus
group:
A group of people, sampled from a larger population, interviewed in open
session for market research or political analysis.
Other
Online Research Methods for Surveying Consumers
·
Online Ethnography
·
Online Focus Group
·
Online Interview
·
Web-based Experiments
·
Online Clinical Trials
Clinical Trial: An online clinical trial is
one type of research method used to survey customers.
Advantages
of Digital Surveys
·
The administrator has greater flexibility in displaying
questions. Questions can be displayed with check boxes, pull down menus, pop up
menus, help screens, or submenus.
·
An online forum allows responses to be received from more
subjects and from anywhere in the world.
·
This method is also cheaper to use, because there are fewer
costs incurred from buying paper, printing materials or paying postage.
·
Since data is collected into a central database, the time for
analysis is substantially reduced.
·
It is easier to correct errors on an online questionnaire, since
the administrator does not have to reprint and redistribute all the
questionnaires.
Disadvantages
of Digital Surveys
·
Not everyone has access to the Internet, so the response rate is
limited.
·
Many people are not receptive to completing questionnaires
online.
·
Studies indicate that the demographic that responds to online
questionnaire invitations are generally younger people
Many organizations are structured based on functional areas. This is often reflected in an organizational chart. Typically, functional areas include finances, human resources, marketing, etc. Many of these functional areas have their own Management Information System, or MIS.
Financial MIS
A financial
MIS provides financial information for managers to make
daily decisions on operations within the organization. Most systems provide
these functions:
- Integrate financial information from multiple
sources
- Provide easy access to financial information
in summarized form
- Enable financial analysis using easy-to-use
tools
- Compare historic and current financial
activity
A financial MIS often has a number of
subsystems, depending on the type of organization. These include systems to
analyze revenues, costs and profits, auditing systems for both internal and
external purposes and systems to manage funds. A financial MIS can also be used
to prepare reports for third parties, such as external auditors or
shareholders.
Marketing MIS
A marketing
MIS supports activities throughout the many activities
of marketing departments. Some of the typical subsystems of a marketing MIS are
marketing research, product development and delivery, promotion and
advertising, product pricing and sales analysis.
One of the most common uses of a marketing
MIS is to produce sales reports. These are typically produced on a regular
schedule, such as by week, month and quarter. Reports can be organized by sales
representative, product, customer or geographic area. Such reports allow
managers to see which aspects of sales are doing well and which ones need
attention.
Perhaps one sales representative has
suddenly experienced a drop in sales by losing one major customer and needs
some support to develop some new leads. If there are only a handful of sales reps
sharing one office, a manager might be able to pick up on this just by talking
to everyone. However, what if a manager has to oversee more than 100 sales reps
in 12 different offices around the nation? A specialized information system
that provides regular updates in a meaningful format
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