Marketing Information Management

One of the top priorities of a business is to create value for its customers, which is possible when companies have consumer insights gained through marketing information. This is where marketing information management comes into play. Managing information means assessing data about consumer preferences and creating value in return. Let’s delve deeper into the topic and understand how marketing information can be managed effectively.

Marketing Information Management Definition

The marketplace has enormous competition these days. Big companies are vying for more market share. To beat the competition, it is imperative to have a competitive advantage over the competitors. The big question is: how can a company achieve a competitive advantage?

The answer is to understand customer needs and offer them a product or service that would satisfy those needs. It might sound simple, but very difficult to pull off as consumer behavior is not consistent, and sometimes, they cannot even articulate their buying choices.

For marketers, it is essential to reduce the gap between the value expected and the value offered to ensure maximum consumer satisfaction. Marketers must gather information on customer preferences and assess them to gain valuable insights. These insights eventually help them to create value for customers and build strong customer relationships.

Role of Information Technology in Marketing Management

The main role of information technology in marketing management is to help gather data about customers. For marketers, the information is just a click away, and they can access data through many sources. Even consumers are generating the data through smartphone apps, online browsing, and geolocation data. It has reached a point where marketers must deal with the issue of information clutter. The concept of big data is gaining widespread recognition, and the job of managing data effectively is the need of the hour.

Big data presents a great opportunity and a tough challenge simultaneously. Marketers need to break the information clutter and gain valuable insights from the enormous data sets. Marketers, who can effectively extract better information, can undoubtedly help their companies to gain a competitive advantage.

Marketing Information Management System

It is a fact that the availability of information has become much easier because of information technology. However, the actual task is to extract substantive information and use it effectively.

Many companies have recognized the importance of managing marketing information, so they have started allocating vast budgets. Some top companies even have insights teams whose job is to assist decision-makers in carrying out the necessary actions based on their insights.

Companies must design marketing information systems to use these insights to their benefit to ensure that marketing decision-makers have the correct information at the right time. It is an essential process because it would help them in value creation, engagement, and building a loyal customer base.

Marketing Information Management Examples

Two great examples of using marketing information management are Amazon and Netflix.

Amazon employs big data to collect information on its users. It tracks the buying pattern and choices of its users to segment and targets them based on their buying choices and browsing history through predictive analytics.

Fig. 1 - Amazon Alexa

Netflix uses analytics on the customer database to gain valuable insights. It helps them to give recommendations to the subscribers based on their searches on the platform. Netflix strives to provide each subscriber with a tailored experience.

Fig. 2 - Netflix Example

The Process of Marketing Information Management

The process starts with information need assessment and ends with effective information utilization.

• Marketing information system interacts with the users – marketing managers to assess information needs.

• In the next step, it interacts with the marketing environment to develop the information through internal databases, marketing intelligence, and marketing research.

• Once the information is developed, users can use it to analyze the data and create valuable customer insights.

• The final stage is about making marketing decisions to increase customer engagement and build strong relationships with them.

Marketing Information Management: Assessing information need

In the technological age and with concepts such as big data, getting the information is not a tough ask for marketers. The key is to assess the need for information, i.e., finding what kind of information they must look for. Too little and too much information can both be destructive. For MIS users, it is essential to find the perfect balance where they have the necessary information.

Marketing Information Management: Obtaining the information

After the information needs assessment, the process starts, and internal databases can be used to obtain information. Companies collect information about the consumer and the market through their internal network. The data sources are social media, in-store sales, and online transactions. It is also a cheaper and more accessible way to collect information.

Competitive marketing intelligence is another way to obtain information. This is a way of collecting and analyzing publicly available data. It covers and interprets information about the consumers, competitors, and the marketplace, which helps to improve marketing decision-making. Consumer observation and online research are some of the techniques used in marketing intelligence.

From consumer buying behavior to consumer motivation, market research can help ascertain many factors regarding consumer preferences. It could give a comprehensive view of the situation in the market to help marketers with decision-making. Primary and secondary data are used in marketing research. Surveys, focus group interviews, and sampling is some popular research methods.

Marketing Information Management: Information Analysis and Utilization

After information need assessment and development comes information analysis and utilization. Marketers must apply analytics and analytical models to gain customer and market insights. This step would give them clarity and assistance in making important decisions.

One of the ways to break the information clutter and analyze the information is customer relationship management (CRM). Detailed information about customers and the touchpoints can be managed through it.

Marketing analytics is another analytical tool through which marketers extract important patterns in big data to gain customer and marketplace insights. After analyzing the information, marketers need to use the information to build strong customer relationships and improve marketing performance. It is imperative that after using analytical tools, marketers have actionable insights at the right time.