Marketing strategies consist of a mixture of ingredients that has been named the marketing mix product, promotion, place & price. Collectively they are known as the four Ps. Product is what the customer buys to satisfy a perceived want or need. Promotion is concerned what all the means of the encouraging the sale of the product, including advertising & personal selling. Place deals with the means of physically distributing the product to the customer through a channel of distribution. Price consists of all the elements relating to what the customer pays for the product.
Input of Marketing Information Systems
Information used for marketing, decisions arrived at from different data sources, the most important of which are:-
• Transaction processing data: This data show the sales that result from specific mixes of the four Ps. Thus they provide feedback on the effectiveness of past marketing strategies.
• Marketing research data. Marketing is the it is responsible for gathering consumer- related data that can be used to support making decisions; example, personal interviews, phone interviews, 7 mails survives. Often tests determined if the research findings are statistically significant or if they should be attributed, instead, to chance.
• Marketing intelligence data: marketing intelligence refers to information about the strategies of competitors. The term “intelligence” is a carryover from the military, which uses the term to describe data gathered about enemy activities. Most making intelligence information is collected in an unstructured or semi structure manner: through word of mouth interaction or through observing statistics available in the media & commercial data –base services.
• External environment data: in market, success is largely attributable to what will happen in the function external environment. For example: – when a new car is introduced, the firm never knows exactly how consumers will react to it. 198 out of 235 people are tested the prototype loved it & said they would buy it.
• Strategic plan:-the strategic plan is really the starting point of all marketing decisions. It contains the type of product that the firm plans to supply to the consumer marketplace. These broad guidelines define the direction of the marketing effort. The tactical marketing plan addresses what, how, when & where questions that is appropriate to the implementation of the strategic plan. Outputs of marketing information systems
• Product planning:-It is often complicated, unstructured decision. A number of factors contribute to a products success or failure. Complicating these product planning decisions are the facts that the choice of consumers constantly change & that competitors always develop new products. Most products follow a product a life cycle.
• Place planning:-It refers to the channels of distribution that a firm uses to get its products to the consumer. The resources flowing through a channel includes a supplier, manufacturer, wholesaler, retailer, &consumer. The material flow originates with the supplier & ends with the consumer. Information that flow in the direction opposite to the material flow is called feedback information, & the flow of information toward the consumer is called feed forward information.
• Promotion: – It is composed of two principal areas: personal selling & advertising. Technology is vital to the selling effort in several ways:
(a) typing in customers 7 suppliers;
(b) increasing selling time;
(c) increasing effectiveness of the client site;
(d) identifying selling opportunities;
(e) making salespeople more efficient.
• Price:-Depending on the firm’s pricing policies, the price area can run close to promotion in terms of decision support difficulty. Some firms engage in cost-based pricing by determining their costs & then adding a desired mark-up. A less cautions pricing policy is demand-based pricing, which establishes a price compatible with the value that the consumer places on the product.
• Budget allocation:-Two other imp decision making areas, in addition to four Ps, are the allocation of the marketing budget & sales forecasting. Marketing does not have an unlimited source of funds. Thus, a budget must limit the overall size of expenditures.
• Sales forecast:-The sales forecast reflects estimates by the marketing personal on future product sales. Since it is the main source of firm’s revenue, sales forecast is an important part of the financial plan. Many technology tools are also used in sales forecasting.
Advantages of Marketing Information Systems
A good marketing system provides employees with information that helps firms capture niche markets in highly competitive industries. Marketing system has a deep & directed influence on the quality of customer’s service. Hence, it is seen that competitive intelligence is of interest to the firm as a whole. Although the name of the functional information implies that is only for managers in that area, the information output can be of value to other management & executives as well. Hence, marketing information system play a vital & critical role in helping an organization achieve its goals.
