The marketing information system is a means of acquiring, recording, processing, and providing information necessary for marketing from inside and outside sources. The data that results is easy to obtain, accurate data that marketers and other experts use to make the right decisions in the bid to grow their business.
In this article, we will look at the benefits of marketing information systems, analyze the constituents of such systems, and provide some examples.
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What is the Importance of a Marketing Information System?
A Marketing Information System cannot be over-emphasized. A marketing tool is very important to businesses because it helps them see the kind of markets they are looking at and the type of market this customer needs, and it makes very informed marketing decisions. The MIS aims to give the company the capability to identify opportunities, devise and adopt strategies, and monitor performance. Let me tell you some of the reasons for its importance-
1. So that every department communicates properly
While an ideal imperfective MIS would make sure that all the departments were in sync with the right information, viz., from sales to marketing to finance, the ability to share and access information throughout departments so they can make better decisions is possible with it.
2. For a better understanding of what customers buy and want
By analyzing customer data from surveys, focus groups, or other efforts, companies can learn a great deal about their target markets. This could give them better insights into what a customer wants in order to refine their marketing strategies better.
3. For measuring the success of promotional activities
Additionally, the MIS helps you measure the outcome of promotional activities, e.g., advertising campaigns or special offers. Companies track response rates and other metrics and can use them to know what works and what doesn’t, and they can adjust their strategy accordingly.
4. For marketing planning
The use of MIS to develop more effective marketing plans further helps gain insights into customer trends and needs and improves communication between departments. All of which can help organizations determine what areas of effort to focus on for the best results.
Marketing Information System Components
The set of these components constitutes a holistic marketing information system. Therefore, to take advantage of it, you want to combine them properly.
Internal records
Information of this type is the easiest to obtain when inside your organization. For this, you will have to see your cash flow, employee salaries, product inventory, sales, and marketing reports—current and past. All your performance reports’ financial, transactional, and marketing data are internal records.
Marketing research
This is part of an essential marketing information system that allows you to represent a particular problem with your current business goal and investigate all information required to develop a solution. So, if you are embarking on creating a new product, do some marketing research and come up with a solution based on what you found. Marketers can then focus all their efforts on collecting a specific type of data from the most relevant sources and able to state a problem.
Marketing intelligence
The concept of this data type lets you get a better picture of your existing business situation, brand changes, trends, competitors’ strategies, and consumer preferences, as well as recent innovations. There are external resources — journals, magazines, competitors’ sites, marketplace overviews, press, partners, suppliers, etc.- from which you can get it.
Marketing decision support system (MDSS)
Through special analytics software and services, marketers retrieve this data and store and analyze that data to make better decisions. For instance, you can leverage existing third-party platforms to get a market segmentation or know how much your competitors are spending on average on PPC advertising.
To do this, you must unite these four marketing information system components that will enable you to know the current situation, the market, and your company and adjust your strategies accordingly.
Steps Involved in a Marketing Information System Process
The marketing information system method contains steps used to examine data and communicate findings, eventually affecting decision-making. These steps include
- Identify marketing metrics to use.
- Collect data from inside and outside sources.
- Create graphs to show trends.
- Share trend details with relevant departments.
- Analyze the data to make informed decisions on the right course of action.
Conclusion
A Marketing Information System is a very effective tool for marketing managers to increase the accuracy and effectiveness of marketing efforts. So, it is an additional support system to the marketing data, which helps to give the companies important data and info whereby they can use them to make intelligent decisions, create the most profitable marketing strategies, and increase sales.