Gathering Information & Scanning the Environment

LECTURE-3

Chapter Questions

• What are the components of a modern marketing information system?

• What are useful internal records?

• What is involved in a marketing intelligence system?

• What are the key methods for tracking and identifying opportunities in the macro environment?

• What are some important macro environment developments?

What is a Marketing Information System (MIS)?

A marketing information system consists of people, equipment, and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed,

timely, and accurate information to marketing decision makers.

Information Needs Probes• What decisions do you regularly make?

• What information do you need to make these decisions?

• What information do you regularly get?

• What special studies do you periodically request?

• What information would you want that you are not getting now?

• What are the four most helpful improvements that could be made in the present marketing information system?

Internal Records and Marketing Intelligence

• Order-to-payment cycle

• Sales information system

• Databases, warehousing, data mining

• Marketing intelligence system

Steps to Improve Marketing Intelligence

• Train sales force to scan for new developments

• Motivate channel members to share intelligence

• Network externally

• Utilize a customer advisory panel

• Utilize government data sources

• Collect customer feedback online

• Purchase information

Sources of Competitive Information

• Independent customer goods and service review forums

• Distributor or sales agent feedback sites

• Combination sites offering customer reviews and expert opinions

• Customer complaint sites

• Public blogs

Major Competitive Spheres

• Industry

• Products

• Competence

• Market segment

• Vertical channels

• Geographic

Dimensions that Define a Business

• Customer groups

• Customer needs

• Technology

Characteristics of SBUs

• It is a single business or collection of related businesses

• It has its own set of competitors

• It has a leader responsible for strategic planning and profitability

Ansoff’s Product-Market Expansion Grid

• Market penetration strategy

• Market development strategy

• Product development strategy

• Diversification strategy

Ansoff’s Product-Market Expansion Grid

Porter’s Generic Strategies

• Overall cost leadership

• Differentiation

• Focus

Categories of Marketing Alliances

• Product or service alliance

• Promotional alliance

• Logistics alliances

• Pricing collaborations

Needs and Trends

• Fads• Un-predictable, short lived, and without social,

economic & political significance.

• Trends• A direction or sequence of events that has some

momentum and durability.

• Megatrends• Large social. Economic, political and technological

changes that are slow to form once in place, they influence us for some time between seven and ten years or longer.

Trends Shaping the Business Landscape

• Profound shifts in centers of economic activity

• Increases in public-sector activity

• Change in consumer landscape

• Technological connectivity

• Scarcity of well-trained talent

• Increase in demand for natural resources

• Emergence of new global industry structures

• Ubiquitous access to information

• Management shifts from art to science

• Increase in scrutiny of big business practices

Environmental Forces

• Demographic

• Economic

• Socio-cultural

• Natural

• Technological

• Political-legal

Demographic

If the world were a village of 1,000 people it would consist of:

• 520 Female

• 480 Male

• 330 Children

• 60 People over age 65

• 10 College Graduates

• 335 Illiterate Adults

Population and Demographics

• Population growth

• Population age mix

• Ethnic markets

• Educational groups

• Household patterns

• Geographical shifts

Economic Environment

• Income Distribution

• Savings, Debt, and Credit

Social-Cultural Environment

• Views of themselves

• Views of others

• Views of organizations

• Views of society

• Views of nature

• Views of the universe

Natural Environment

• Shortage of raw materials

• Increased energy costs

• Anti-pollution pressures

• Governmental protections

Technological Environment

• Pace of change

• Opportunities for innovation

• Varying R&D budgets

• Increased regulation of change

Political-Legal Environment

• Increase in business legislation

• To protect consumers from unfair business practices

• Protect the interests of society from powerful business behaviour

• Charge businesses with the social costs created by their products or production processes

• May have the un-intended effect of sapping initiative & retarding growth

Marketing Management – A South Asian Perspective by Philip Kotler, Kevin Lane Keller, Abraham Koshy & Mithileshwar Jha, 13th Edition, Published by Pearson Education, Inc.

Strategic Marketing Management – Meeting The Global Marketing Challenges by Carol H. Anderson & Julian W. Vincze Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Principles of Advertising & IMC by Tom Duncan 2nd Edition, Published by McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Principles of Marketing by Philip Kotler & Gary Armstrong Thirteenth Edition, Published by Prentice Hall

Bibliography

"Life is like a combination lock; your job is to find the right numbers, in the right order

so you can have anything you want."

The End…