Chapter 6A Moving from Knowledge to Action A 35 000 Foot View of Marketing Information The Power of Actionable Knowledge o Knowledge is an operant resource Knowledge may the most differentiating resource that any modern Firm could ever possess Knowledge is the key foundation for achieving sustainable competitive advantage and marketing growth through innovation because innovation is the key to achieving lasting differentiation and marketing power o Knowledge is more often caught than taught o What should matter most to marketing researchers is not any general body of marketing consumer or environmental knowledge but rather the leading some say bleeding edge of knowledge o Marketing is a highly competitive endeavor Marketing is likewise an activity that rewards patience as well as action o Good strategy is about getting more out of a situation than the beginning balance of power between competing Firms would suggest is likely or perhaps even possible Propositional Knowledge o The more diverse and broader one s base of knowledge becomes the more interesting and valuable are the connections that one can make o Those connections or intersections in turn are exactly where the most useful solutions to even the most vexing problems will reside o All one has to do metaphorically is reach in and pick out the best possible solution Prescriptive Knowledge o More narrowly focused referred to as techniques and know how o Highly subject specific bodies of leading edge knowledge must be understood and enacted by marketing researchers if they are to perform adequately and effectively o Having the right prescriptive knowledge is an absolute must have in any marketing research and marketing planner manager career Other Ways to Describe Marketing Research Two general stages where marketing research process unfolds o The first stage involves describing diagnosing the problem or opportunity that is facing the Firm more accurately o The second stage involves developing prescriptive inferences regarding how best to strategically address the problem or opportunity through better informed more effective management of the Firm s marketing mix Marketing researchers likewise understand that customers are often so illogical that they believe price determines the value of something rather than the other way around Descriptive and Prescriptive Value Realistically information only becomes a source of power or managerial effectiveness after it has been converted into usable or actionable knowledge Politics always has been and always will be marketing Politics fundamentally involves two activities o Artistic development and effective selling of possible versions of the future o The act of developing and marketing those new political products known as people and their ideas as harbingers of these projected futures The Right Sort of Information Generates Value Too many marketers either lack the right sort of information or have too much of the wrong sort of marketing research information to plan and perform at optimal levels of efficiency and effectiveness Too many marketing planners managers lack the right sort of information to make the sort of quick and critical decisions that so frequently prove so necessary in today s highly competitive ultra dynamic increasingly globalized marketplace The marketing information and insights generated by the Firm and its marketing research should describe changing trends that represent either threats or opportunities to the Firm Two equations o Better information better decisions better performance o Know Yourself Know Your Enemy and Know Your Terrain Sun Tzu s Art of War gave information regarding o Competitors marketing strategies o Relevant Marketplace and Environmental Trends o Customers likes or dislikes The Value of Knowledge Revealed Through Statistics Marketing research efforts are grounded in statistical and probability assessments efforts to explain what has happened and why efforts to predict what is most likely to happen and why Statistical analyses allow often massive amounts to be compressed into a few meaningful numbers The probability assessments that follow from statistical analyses enable managers to make reasonably accurate decisions in settings that feature imperfect information and substantial uncertainty in any marketplace or environment where research is conducted by measuring the level of uncertainty embedded in a given decision When Should Firms Conduct Marketing Research Marketing issues that would normally be addressed through marketing research o Brand equity and brand name issues o Cool hunting for purposes of making observations and predictions regarding changes in new or existing social or cultural trends o Customer satisfaction o Concept testing o Price elasticity o Test marketing o Positioning research Knowledge Generated Through Marketing Research Creates The right marketing research based knowledge creates superior opportunities for Firms to link successfully with customers or prospects through information Leading edge marketing research knowledge is generally used to identify and define marketing opportunities Marketing research specifies the information necessary to resolve customer or Firm problems or exploit any opportunities facing the Firm Sustainable Competitive Advantage Achieving customer intimacy advantages Achieving technological advantage Achieving cost based advantages