Businesses can benefit significantly from marketing information by using it to better understand their clients and the marketplace. However, intelligent marketing managers and business owners understand the financial risks of needing a marketing information management strategy. The annual cost to the US economy of addressing data quality issues is projected to be $3.1 trillion. Most companies are looking for an alternative because outsourcing the tasks can cost several thousand dollars. Here’s where marketing information management comes in. With the help of marketing information management, companies may reclaim control over the collection and organization of marketing research. Find out about Ray’s marketing information management, product service, system, and example below.
What Is Marketing Information Management?
Marketing information management is the process of collecting and analyzing market data to make sure companies have the right knowledge about the market and their customers.
Competition in today’s market is fierce. Competition among large corporations is heating up. Having a distinct advantage over the competition is crucial for success. How can a business differentiate itself from the competition?
The solution is to learn what those wants are and then provide a service or product that can meet those demands. Clients aren’t always predictable, and they often have trouble articulating why they make the purchases they do.
However, in order to maximize customer happiness, it is crucial for marketers to close the gap between the value promised and the value delivered. Marketers need to collect data on consumer preferences and evaluate it for insights. They can use this information to better understand their clients and tailor their offerings to meet their needs.
What’s Included in Marketing Information?
There are three key components to marketing information management: company data, market intelligence, and market research.
Information from all three can be brought together with the help of marketing information management. You can use this to organize your data in a way that is clear to everyone. Better marketing choices are possible as a result.
Now, let’s explore these areas a bit further.
#1. Internal Data
The term “internal data” refers to information that is only available to employees within the company. Information about product sales, pricing, brand positioning, and recent marketing initiatives are all examples.
The importance of internal data in marketing cannot be overstated. Your marketing plan can’t get off the ground without it. Without it, your plan might be aimless.
And that’s why marketing information management is so important. It centralizes your company’s data so that you can easily monitor it and use the findings to guide strategic decision-making.
#2. Competitive Intelligence
Competitive intelligence refers to any data that demonstrates how your company stacks up against its rivals. It reveals where you stand in relation to the competition and how you may improve to obtain an edge.
The term “competitive intelligence” encompasses a wide range of data. Some of the things that are included are:
- Your analysis of the competition should include an assessment of your present market share and standing.
- Information on the competition is obtained through unbiased channels.
- Information on the goals of prospective buyers
- Consumer and professional product ratings and comparisons
- Business and market developments
As you can see, there is a wide range of data that can be considered part of competitive intelligence. The good news is that marketing information management makes it simple to collect, monitor, and analyze all of this data in one place.
You can monitor your competitors’ moves, analyze market trends, and assess your own company’s growth or decline over time, all with the right tools.
#3. Marketing Research
Information about the market and the people who make up your target demographic is what is known as “marketing research.” It’s a useful tool for discovering how customers feel about a company’s products and services.
Some popular approaches to market research include:
- Online surveys, whether they be through forms or social media
- Onsite focus groups
- Face-to-face interviews
- Secondary data from studies and polls conducted by third parties
In addition, you may increase sales, alter the consumer image of your brand, and refine your operations with the data gleaned by marketing research.
Role of Information Technology in Marketing Management
Information technology’s primary function in marketing management is to facilitate the collection of client information. Marketers have easy access to a plethora of data from just a few clicks away. Smartphone apps, web browsing, and geolocation data all contribute to the data pool from the customer end. Marketers now have to address the problem of information overload. The importance of effectively managing information is increasing as the concept of big data gains popularity.
However, big data refers to large amounts of data (both organized and unstructured) gathered from a variety of sources and amenable to storage, analysis, and application with the help of high-powered computer programs.
Big data is both an exciting new frontier and a formidable new problem. Marketers must sort through the noise in the data to get actionable insights. Marketers that are able to efficiently obtain superior data will unquestionably aid the success of their organizations.
What Is the Function of Marketing Information Management?
Marketing information management is the framework for coordinating and assessing marketing initiatives.
Businesses use marketing information management to maintain tabs on anything from marketing activity and trends to digital assets and market research.
Businesses can use this data to track their marketing efforts and results. Because of this, marketing departments can gain a deeper insight into customer habits and adjust their strategies accordingly.
Who Can Benefit From a Marketing Information Management Strategy?
The following aspects of a business can gain from well-managed marketing information:
- Retail teams. Using marketing data, sales teams can improve the quality of their presentations.
- Service and success teams for customers. In order to better serve current customers and attract new ones, customer care agents might utilize marketing data.
- Advertising groups. Data can help a marketing team build rapport with prospects.
- Product development groups. Makers can use consumer feedback to make their products better.
Why Is Marketing Information Management Important?
The data accumulates over time. Results, predictions, and spending on marketing can be skewed without a reliable method for keeping track of information. That’s why it’s crucial to archive all of these precious datasets in one easily accessible location. Having a standard process that everyone in the company can adhere to reduces the risk of important information being lost.
What can happen to brands that don’t use marketing information management is illustrated by the following made-up scenario:
Let’s assume you’re a cosmetics company promoting a new eye shadow pallet online and on television in three languages. Despite your efforts, the product sells 30% less than you anticipated based on lipstick marketing strategies. Therein lies the importance of marketing information management
With the same target market, advertising technique, and overall reach, eye shadow was thought to perform similarly to lipstick. They would have known the following if they had done their homework:
- In their most successful beauty markets, lip cosmetics were already in vogue.
- Because of the recent launch of a famous eye cosmetics business, those markets were already flooded with palettes.
Also, they could have avoided these roadblocks and made adjustments to their strategy if they had taken the time to collect and store all of their essential market research in a single marketing information management system.
Benefits of Using Marketing Information Management
Some benefits of implementing marketing information management include the following.
#1. Security and Regulation Conformity
When it comes to marketing, compliance is abiding by the rules set forth to ensure the safety of the public. Companies may be more motivated to take data security seriously if they see the value in collecting it. Compliance efforts help guarantee that a business is acting lawfully, which can boost credibility with customers.
#2. Income
A marketing information management strategy can also help businesses become more lucrative by increasing the percentage of leads that are converted. To illustrate, a software company can leverage its marketing information management strategy to boost sales by targeting a previously untapped market segment—say, students—by developing a new advertising campaign specifically for them.
#3. Distribute Information About Marketing Across the Organization
The marketing team would benefit greatly from more open communication across the various divisions.
For instance, salespeople could profit from access to product data revealing the highest-selling items. The opinions of consumers can help your product design team make better decisions.
Therefore, not just the advertising department can benefit from this data.
Without a marketing information management system, it’s more difficult to share data like this. It must be shared manually with the appropriate teams or requested by those teams.
However, this becomes less of a problem if everything is kept in one place and is accessible to everyone. It makes everyone’s work easier and gives groups of people access to data that will improve their performance.
#4. Get To Know Your Clientele
66% of consumers say they want to do business with companies that “get” them. More than half of customers have high expectations that businesses will anticipate their needs.
The good news is that a marketing information management system can assist you in learning more about your clientele.
You can use it to compile and examine information regarding the following:
- Who you’re trying to reach
- The needs of your target market
- How people evaluate your company’s brand
- How they act when making a purchase from you
In addition, all of this information enhances the comprehension of your clients and enables you to better meet their needs.
#5. Comply With All Applicable Laws and Regulations Pertaining to Data Privacy
Following the pandemic, it has been difficult for businesses to maintain compliance. 65% of companies said they had to skimp on due diligence because of the pandemic.
But how does this relate to an MIS for marketing?
Compliance and data privacy rules can be more easily managed when all client data is maintained in a marketing information system.
You will have real-time monitoring and control, as well as the option to automate certain processes to save time otherwise spent ensuring accuracy.
Of course, the specifics will vary depending on the application in question. Management of data can be simplified with the help of a platform that provides automation, such as monday.com.
Example: the General Data Protection Regulation. Companies are required by law to keep customer information for no longer than is necessary.
You can set up an automated mechanism to purge inactive contacts from your database after a specified period of time has elapsed. This eliminates the need for you to monitor your contact list and remove inactive users manually.
Marketing Information Management System
Information technology has unquestionably made it easier to get information. But the real challenge is to glean useful insights from all that data.
Many businesses now devote substantial resources to marketing information management because of its critical role. There are even insights teams at some of the best organizations whose sole purpose is to help decision-makers put their insights into action.
To ensure that marketing decision-makers always have access to the most up-to-date and relevant information, businesses must develop a marketing information management system with this knowledge in mind. It’s crucial because it will aid in value generation, consumer engagement, and the development of a devoted client.
What is Marketing Information Management System?
The term “marketing information management system” is used to describe the comprehensive approach taken to the regular and ongoing gathering, processing, analyzing, interpreting, storing, and distribution of market data from both internal and external sources for use by marketers.
In order for marketers to make informed decisions on crucial aspects of the marketing process including pricing, packaging, new product development, distribution, media, promotion, etc., the marketing information system provides them with the data they need.
Since the success of any given marketing endeavor depends on a thorough understanding of the internal and external environments in which it operates, it’s important to have access to a variety of data on those environments.
What Are the Five Main Functions of Information Management?
Information management entails four main functions: acquisition, archiving, dissemination, and deletion. Each of these elements is essential to the efficient management of information throughout its lifecycle, which in turn guarantees that data is collected, kept, and disseminated in a way that bolsters an organization’s functions. Here is a rundown of what each of these does.
#1. Acquisition
At this point, we need to take a look at how the company gathers data, whether it is produced in-house or outside, digitally or on paper, orally, in writing, or by audio or video.
For information management to be useful, it is now essential to capture only the data that is actually needed, thereby minimizing storage costs, avoiding the analysis of data that isn’t relevant to corporate governance, and ensuring that the data obtained is of high quality.
It is essential in the modern world to be able to extract information from digital documents. Using reliable OCR software is a powerful tool for this purpose. Finding information is now a lot quicker and easier because of this program’s ability to automatically retrieve data from electronic documents.
However, information extraction from digital documents can have a significant effect, in my opinion, if done properly. It can be a huge help in terms of time savings, output, and error prevention compared to traditional methods of data entry.
#2. Storage
The next step is to figure out where all of the data from the previous step will be kept. Physical cabinets with fire-resistance measures should be used to store and organize paper documents. The latter, on the other hand, may be stored digitally in a variety of places, including databases, document management systems, information systems, cloud storage, and so on.
Additionally, we need to locate and set up settings for user authorization, version and change control, data backups, and audit trails.
#3. Distribution
This step comprises selecting the best method(s), audience(s), frequency(es), and medium(s) for disseminating the various sorts of information.
Knowledge is only useful if it is shared with the right person at the right time to prompt the desired response. Because of its importance to the program as a whole, this stage should not be skipped.
#4. Archiving
When you no longer need to access information frequently but want to keep it around for future reference, you can archive it for safekeeping. This applies to both digital and paper records. Organizations still need to keep this kind of data around for reference or for regulatory compliance purposes.
You must specify where and for how long the data will be stored.
#5. Destruction
Regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) require that data be destroyed once its usefulness has passed.
This is a crucial step since it removes the possibility of incurring financial penalties for breaking a variety of rules and regulations and reduces the amount of space needed to store them.
What Are the Five Features of a Marketing Information Management System?
Continuous process, accuracy, reliability and completeness, consistency and accessibility, interrelated components, timing, etc. are among the most significant features of a marketing information management system. Here is a rundown of these features.
#1. Continuous Process
One of the primary roles of a marketing information management system is to gather relevant data for the purposes of making informed decisions and exercising effective control. This event occurs frequently. Thus, the marketing information system is an ongoing procedure.
#2. Accuracy, Reliability, and Completeness
The marketing AIS provides precise, comprehensive, and up-to-date data for making sound, prompt decisions. In a cutthroat market, it’s essential to have access to this data.
#3. Consistency and Accessibility
When it comes to marketing data, all bases are eventually leveled. As a result, data is standardized and never changes. In a similar vein, data is accessible. Consistency and uniformity in the flow of information have become conceivable and accessible as a result of the phenomenal development of information technology.
#4. Interrelated Components
The different parts of a marketing information management system are as follows: market research, marketing intelligence, internal records, and information analysis. The parts play a crucial part in ensuring that data is comprehensive, accurate, and up to date.
#5. Timing
Decisions need to be rapid and logical. Lack of decisiveness renders the whole thing useless. This indicates that a decision that needs to be made today will be meaningless and useless if it is made tomorrow. The marketing information management system helps businesses make informed decisions quickly and easily.
Importance of Marketing Information Systems
Expanding markets, creating successful marketing plans, scanning and monitoring environments, satisfying consumer demand, implementing and evaluating marketing programs, and keeping tabs on them are all made easier with the help of a marketing information management system.
#1. Expanding Markets
In addition to supporting operational needs, a marketing information system can help expand existing markets. The data it contains is crucial for expanding the market on all scales, from the neighborhood to the country to the world. Lacking a proper marketing database, expanding your business’s customer base is next to impossible. If, for instance, a shipment is destined for the American or European market, research on the wants, needs, and priorities of consumers in those regions, as well as the market trend, pricing, quality, competition, etc., is essential. Only a marketing information management system would have such details at its disposal.
#2. Creating Successful Marketing Plans
Plans are crucial to an organization’s success in today’s cutthroat business environment. In order to make sound decisions, business owners require access to relevant data regarding customers’ wants, needs, shifting trends, the advantages and disadvantages of their competitors, customers’ brand loyalty, purchasing behavior, and motivations, etc. An efficient marketing strategy relies on data, which a marketing information management system can provide.
#3. Scanning and Monitoring Environments
The marketing information system’s vital organs are environmental scanning and monitoring. Businesses need to keep an eye on the economy, politics, law, society, competition, and technology. Opportunities and dangers arise from shifts in such environmental factors. Therefore, it is important to assess the surrounding environment for both possibilities and risks.
#4. Satisfying Consumer Demand
A company’s chances of succeeding in a highly competitive market hinge on its ability to anticipate and serve the needs of its target demographic. If you want to know what your customers want and how to give it to them, you need to do some market research and analysis. A marketing information management system is essential for this. When it comes to the psychological side of marketing, it’s important to get to know the target market thoroughly before catering to their needs.
#5. Implementing and Evaluating Marketing Programs
Organizational success is tied to well-thought-out and executed marketing strategies. Information regarding customers’ wants and needs, as well as product pricing, discount, commission, selling condition, potential demand, etc., is gathered and disseminated by a marketing information system, which is essential for developing and executing marketing strategies. That’s why an indispensable tool for developing and carrying out marketing strategies is a marketing information system.
#6. Keeping Tabs
An integral part of the marketing management process is the routine assessment and regulation of the marketing program. Only with the aid of a marketing information management system can questions like “What kinds of programs become successful,” “What kinds of programs can help to achieve the organization’s goal,” and “What kinds of changes or improvements are needed in the programs,” etc. be studied, evaluated, and controlled.
Marketing Information Management Example
A customer relationship management (CRM) system is one example of a marketing information system. Information about customers, such as their contact details, purchase history, and personal tastes, can be stored and accessed easily with a customer relationship management system. Additionally, businesses can use this information to categorize clients and monitor their activity over time. Using a customer relationship management system (CRM) allows businesses to better understand their customers, which in turn allows them to better tailor their marketing efforts, content, and interactions with them.
For instance, Tropical Houses is a business that designs, manufactures, and sells a unique wood-based technique for rapidly erecting prefabricated home models. Executives at the company want to provide new models and features on a regular basis, but they lack the market data necessary to build effective strategies.
A new division was established to oversee the gathering and analyzing of market data once they understood the importance of a marketing information management system. With this new feature, the business could methodically examine relevant data in order to develop strategies. The company’s ability to successfully introduce new items to the market and update its strategy and plans on a regular basis may be attributed to its commitment to continuous market research.
Product Service Management
The SaaS tool is in a special position because it is both a product and a service. Users do both while working with software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings.
Managing a product’s growth and development is an important task, and most SaaS businesses recognize this. (This is the “product”) section. However, in order to create successful SaaS products, companies must first accurately predict their customers’ wants and actions. (This is the helpful bit.)
What is Product Service Management?
As its name suggests, product service management is a marketing function that focuses on the management of a company’s products and services. Maintaining a positive reputation for a product or service entails many different tasks, such as advertising to the target demographic, increasing the product’s reach, making changes in response to customer feedback, and so on.
It’s a convoluted procedure that requires thought not only about the product but also about the market it’s meant to reach. It’s challenging work that necessitates a strong will, keen insight, and familiarity with market fluctuations. All of this also applies to services, with the main difference between the two being the emphasis placed on various elements.
In addition, the iPhone is an excellent example of effective product service management. Every year, minor improvements are made to the product’s user interface, software, hardware, and design to make it more in line with consumers’ tastes at the time of its release. Not only did it usher in a new era of mobile technology, but it also revolutionized the way we keep and listen to music. One of Apple’s portable music players, the iPod, may have been killed off by the iPhone.
Why is Product Service Management So Important?
As a business, you need to make sure your product or service is adaptable in case the market suddenly changes. Losing sales quickly and having to play catch-up in terms of product evolution are both outcomes that might result from a product that fails to evolve in tandem with market demands. Aside from hurting your business in the long run, this could also drive customers to go elsewhere.
To succeed in the sales industry, it is essential to maintain a loyal customer base, and product service management is a key component in doing so.
As opposed to the traditional method of simply creating a product and hoping that customers will find it useful, more and more businesses are taking a strategic approach to product and service development. Every second matters in today’s hypercompetitive marketplaces, which is why product service management is no longer a nice-to-have but rather a need.
Who is a Product Service Manager?
A product services manager is someone who oversees a company’s product and service development while assuring quality and client satisfaction.
Typically, their responsibilities include overseeing the product development process from start to finish, which includes managing product roadmaps, doing market research and analysis to find commercial possibilities, gathering and analyzing consumer feedback, and overseeing various divisions. A manager also has the responsibility of motivating employees to do tasks in accordance with established processes and rules.
Responsibilities of a Product Service Manager
From the time a customer first hears about your product until they no longer use it, product service managers are completely consumed with their thoughts. Due to the breadth of their responsibilities, they must coordinate with the sales and marketing, as well as the product, departments to ensure that product advancement is in step with client demands.
Each and every day, a PSM will:
- Discover what the clients need
- Examine your rivals carefully.
- Prepare for market shifts
- Transform observations into steps
Benefits of Good Product Service Management
Product service management has a wide variety of positive effects on businesses, and we will highlight some of the more important ones below.
#1. Boosting One’s Net Income Percentage
Product service management is used to guide product and marketing decisions in response to shifting consumer tastes and market dynamics. This prevents companies from wasting time and money developing things that aren’t desired by customers. It also aids marketing in focusing its messages on the qualities and benefits that clients have specifically requested.
#2. Developing a More Agile Body
Consistently satisfying your consumers necessitates sticking to your original product plan, but what if their pain points shift while you work on the product? A product team may adapt more effectively to changing goals with the support of a product service manager who stays abreast of customer trends and market developments.
#3. Having a Well-Managed Product Backlog
Maintaining a well-managed and well-maintained product line is essential for reducing waste and keeping stock moving. A product service manager prevents your company from having an excess of products that are no longer in production or demand.
#4. Keeping One’s Company Flexible
You should always strive to keep your company flexible. It can be difficult for inexperienced business owners to adjust their company to meet the needs of their customers and the expectations of the market, but a product service manager can be a huge asset in this regard.
The 3 Phases of Product Service Management
While the specifics of product/service management will vary from firm to company, all managers should be familiar with the following three stages. They include creating brand-new items, keeping an eye on current offerings, and product creation. Here is an overview of these phases.
#1. Creating Brand-New Items
Businesses invest heavily in research and development to create innovative items for sale. Products that are considered novel may include:
Have never before been made available to consumers
have undergone some sort of alteration
will be delivered or advertised in a different way
Some of these items are brand new to the market, but as you can see, even previously released items can be repackaged and sold as “new” once again. There could be a “new, improved” version of a popular soft drink. A lipstick that has been on the market for a while may get a brand-new case or label.
In addition, there are a variety of routes that businesses can take to stock up on fresh goods. They can acquire them by outright purchase, licensing (in which they pay a third party for the right to market a product without really owning it), merger/acquisition, or in-house creation.
#2. Keeping an Eye on Current Offerings
Existing products are those that can already be purchased. Managers of products and services should keep a close eye on metrics including sales, earnings, market share, and how well those metrics compare to goals set by the organization.
Managers of products and services may reach the conclusion that no further development is needed for a current offering. They might also decide to upgrade existing functionality or change the look/feel/packaging. The process of making enhancements to an existing product is quite similar to that of creating a whole new product. In order to reposition a product, managers may decide to alter the marketing strategy. Another option is to just discontinue production of the product. Also, read HOW TO MARKET A PRODUCT: Best Ways to Market Online in 2023
#3. The Elimination of Subpar Items
The term “product discontinuation” describes this situation. Weak products are those whose sales and profits have decreased. Discontinuing a product without proper preparation can be disastrous for a company’s image. Some products can be pulled from shelves immediately, while others must be phased out gradually.
Some companies phase out a dud product over time, allowing customers to shop around for something better, while others provide support for a product long after it’s been phased out. However, ineffective goods incur expenses for the business, thus product/service managers must eliminate them. Keep in mind that the goal of product/service management is to maximize profits through strategic product-mix decisions.
How Did Ray Conduct Marketing Information Management
The home theater system’s popularity has skyrocketed in recent years. There are a lot of homes with their own theaters. As a result, many of these homes are seeking home theater seating.
Ray conducted marketing information management by first collecting information about possible clients. He compiled all of this information into a database and used it to inform his future advertising campaigns. He then used this data to develop and implement a strategy for marketing. Ray’s hard work paid off and his company expanded as a result of the boost in sales.
Coupons for food stamp programs are sent to low-income families using funds from this division. In addition, many of these homes have home theaters, making theater seating an essential piece of furniture. Ray Wilson hired a consultancy to find out how many people in the US own a home theater system. Also, he then set up a network of distributors and shops to sell his wares.
Conclusion
Whether you’re beginning from scratch or already feeling overwhelmed, implementing a marketing information management system can seem like a huge task. The benefits of such a management system for you and your company far surpass any concerns you may have about using it at first.
With the right planning and the greatest resources at hand, you may achieve marketing success that far exceeds your wildest dreams.
Marketing Information Management FAQs
What Are the 4 Components of Marketing Information?
The 4 components of marketing information are:
- The internal reporting system
- The marketing research system
- The marketing intelligence system
- Marketing models.
What Is the Main Focus of a Marketing Information System?
To better inform marketing decisions, businesses often employ MISs, or marketing information systems, which collect, store, analyze, and disseminate relevant marketing data. However, the input of a marketing information system focuses on gathering useful information from both internal and external sources.
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