Assignment

On

Marketing
Information
System
By

Jomon Jacob

1021904
 A Marketing Information System can be defined as 'a system in which marketing information is formally
gathered, stored, analyzed and distributed to managers in accordance with their informational needs on a regular
basis'. The system is created through an understanding of the information needs of marketing management. It is
available to supply information when, where and how the manager requires it. Data is taken from the marketing
environment and transferred into the information that marketing managers can use in their decision-making
processes.

A Marketing Information System can also be defined as 'People, equipment and procedures to gather, sort,
analyze, evaluate and distribute needed, timely and accurate information to marketing decision makers'. A marketing
information system (MIS) consists of people, equipment and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate and
distribute needed, timely and accurate information to marketing decision makers. The MIS begins and ends with
marketing managers. First, it interacts with these managers to assess their information needs. Next, it develops the
needed information from internal company records, marketing intelligence activities and the marketing research
process. Information analysis processes the information to make it more useful. Finally, the MIS distributes
information to managers in the right form at the right time to help them in marketing planning, implementation and
control.

Managerial Roles

Managerial activities fall into 3 categories: interpersonal, information processing and decision making.
An important interpersonal role is that of figurehead for the organization. Second, a manager acts as a leader,
attempting to motivate subordinates. Lastly, managers act as a liaison between various levels of the organization
and, within each level, among levels of the management team. A second set of managerial roles, termed as
informational roles, can be identified. Managers act as the nerve centre for the organization, receiving the latest,
most concrete, most up-to-date information and redistributing it to those who need to know.

Decision making

Decision making is often seen as the centre of what managers do, something that engages most of a
managers time. It is one of the areas that information systems have sought most of all to affect. Decision making can
be divided into 3 types: strategic, management control and operations control.

Strategic decision making: This level of decision making is concerned with deciding on the objectives, resources
and policies of the organization. A major problem at this level of decision making is predicting the future of the
organization and its environment.

Management control decisions: Such decisions are concerned with how efficiently and effectively resources are
utilized and how well operational units are performing.

Operational control decisions: The focus here is on how the enterprises should respond to day-to-day changes in
the business environment.

There are four stages in decision making: intelligence, design, choice and implementation. That is,
problems have to be perceived and understood; once perceived solutions must be designed; once solutions are
designed, choices have to be made about a particular solution; finally, the solution has to be implemented.

Intelligence involves identifying the problems in the organization: why and where they occur with what effects.
This broad set of information gathering activities is required to inform managers how well the organization is
performing and where problems exist. Management information systems that deliver a wide variety of detailed
information can be useful, especially if they are designed to report exceptions.
Designing many possible solutions to the problems is the second phase of decision making. This phase may require
more intelligence to decide if a particular solution is appropriate. Here, more carefully specified and directed
information activities and capabilities focused on specific designs are required.

Choosing among alternative solutions is the third step in the decision making process. Here a manager needs an
information system which can estimate the costs, opportunities and consequences of each alternative problem
solution. The information system required at this stage is likely to be fairly complex, possibly also fairly large,
because of the detailed analytic models required to calculate the outcomes of the various alternatives.

Implementing is the final stage in the decision making process. Here, managers can install a reporting system that
delivers routine reports on the progress of a specific solution, some of the difficulties that arise, resource constraints,
and possible remedial actions.

Components of marketing information system

A marketing information system (MIS) is intended to bring together disparate items of data into a coherent
body of information. An MIS is, as will shortly be seen, more than raw data or information suitable for the purposes
of decision making. An MIS also provides methods for interpreting the information the MIS provides. Moreover, as
Kotler's1 definition says, an MIS is more than a system of data collection or a set of information technologies: "A
marketing information system is a continuing and interacting structure of people, equipment and procedures to
gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute pertinent, timely and accurate information for use by marketing
decision makers to improve their marketing planning, implementation, and control".

Internal reporting systems: All enterprises which have been in operation for any period of time nave a wealth of
information. However, this information often remains under-utilized because it is compartmentalized.
Marketing research system: Marketing research is a proactive search for information. That is, the enterprise which
commissions these studies does so to solve a perceived marketing problem. In many cases, data is collected in a
purposeful way to address a well-defined problem
Marketing intelligence systems: A marketing intelligence system is a set of procedures and data sources used by
marketing managers to sift information from the environment that they can use in their decision making.

Marketing models: Within the MIS there has to be the means of interpreting information in order to give direction
to decision. These models may be computerized or may not. Typical tools are:

 Time series sales modes

These and similar mathematical, statistical, econometric and financial models are the analytical subsystem of the
MIS. A relatively modest investment in a desktop computer is enough to allow an enterprise to automate the analysis
of its data. Some of the models used are stochastic, i.e. those containing a probabilistic element whereas others are
deterministic models where chance plays no part. Brand switching models are stochastic since these express brand
choices in probabilities whereas linear programming is deterministic in that the relationships between variables are
expressed in exact mathematical terms.