Marketing research involves knowing the Chapter 4 Environment Competition Customer o Customer insights fresh understandings of customers and the marketplace derived from marketing information that becomes the basis for creating customer value and relationships Why is it so hard for marketing managers to get customer insights Too much of the wrong type of information not enough of the right kind Information is too dispersed in firm Information control personal power Vital information arrives too late No way to check for accuracy or confirm Marketing information system MIS People equipment and procedures to gather sort analyze and distribute needed timely and accurate information to marketing decision makers to help generate and validate actionable customer and market insights o These plans are expensive and time consuming to create so they need to have a purpose o A good MIS balances the information users would like to have against what they really need and what is feasible to offer Reasons for MIS timely decisions o Directs the right information to the right place in order to make o Balances desired information with cost feasibility to obtain o Centralizes responsibility for marketing information gathering o Converts raw data to useful information Sources of information o Internal company data o Competitive marketing intelligence Publicly available sources such as External acquired databases o US census o Government agencies o DMV o Data mining meta analysis of transactions to profile tract consumer behavior o Market research the systematic design collection analysis and reporting of data relevant to a specific market situation facing an organization It functions as an aid to decision making but does not make the decision Market research model Purpose Defining the problem and research objectives Involves both manager and researcher Plan Developing the research plan for collecting o Exploratory research o Descriptive research o Causal research information o Secondary data o Primary data Research approaches Observational Experimental Survey Contact methods Mail telephone personal interviewing focus groups Online marketing research Sample a segment of the population selected for marketing research to represent the entire population Research instruments Questionnaires Mechanical instruments Performance Implementing the research plan collecting and analyzing the data Processing Interpreting and reporting the findings Analyzing and using marketing information Customer relationship management CRM managing detailed information about individual customers and carefully managing customer touch points to maximize customer loyalty Distributing and using marketing information o Intranets o Extranets Chapter 6 Market segmentation Process of dividing the market into smaller segments of buyers with common needs wants or problems that respond similarly to marketing actions or tailored offerings Segmenting consumer markets o Geographic nations states regions counties cities neighborhoods o Demographic age life cycle stage gender income occupation education religion ethnicity generation o Psychographic social class lifestyle personality o Behavioral occasions benefits user status nonusers ex users potential users first time users regular users usage rate loyalty status Segmenting business markets o Geographic o Demographic o Behavioral o Operating characteristics o Purchasing approaches o Situational factors o Personal characteristics Segmenting international markets o Geographic location o Economic factors o Political and legal factors o Cultural factors Requirements for effective segmentation MASDA o Measurable can be measured o Accessible can be effectively reached and served o Substantial segments are large or profitable enough to serve o Differentiable segments are conceptually distinguishable and respond differently to different marketing mix elements and programs o Actionable effective programs can be designed for attracting and serving the segments Market targeting The process of evaluating each market segment s attractiveness and selecting one or more segments to enter Target market a set of buyers sharing common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve o Selecting target market segments Targetin g broadly Undifferentiated mass marketing when a firm ignores market segment differences and goes after the whole market with one offer Differentiated segmented marketing firm decides to target several market segments and designs separate offers for each Concentrated niche marketing firm goes after a large share of one or a few segments or niches Micromarketing tailoring products and marketing programs to the needs and wants of specific individuals and local customer segments It includes local marketing and individual marketing Local marketing tailoring brands and promotions to the needs and wants of local customer segments cities neighborhoods and even specific stores Individual marketing tailoring products and marketing programs to the needs and preferences of individual customers Targetin g narrowl o Choosing a targeting strategy With limited resources concentrated marketing is best Undifferentiated is more suited for uniform products Differentiated or concentrated works best for products that vary in design Market variability if most buyers have the same tastes buy the same amounts and react similarly to marketing efforts then undifferentiated marketing is appropriate Competitors marketing strategies are also important If competition uses concentrated marketing using undifferentiated marketing would be bad o Socially responsible target marketing don t target vulnerable or disadvantaged customers with controversial or potentially harmful products Differentiation Differentiating the market offering to create superior customer value Value proposition how a company creates differentiated values for targeted segments and what positions it wants to occupy in those segments Positioning Arranging for a market offering to occupy a clear distinctive and desirable place relative to competing products in the minds of target consumers Product position the way a product is defined by customers on important attributes It is the place the product occupies in the customer s mind relative to competing products Perceptual positioning maps Choosing a differentiation and positioning strategy o Identifying possible value differences and competitive advantages Competitive advantage an advantage