Page 92 - Marketing Management

COLLECTING INFORMATION AND FORECASTING DEMAND | CHAPTER 3 69

A well-researched and well-executed
marketing campaign for the state of
Michigan increased tourism and
state tax revenue.

Companies with superior information can choose their markets better, develop better offerings,
and execute better marketing planning. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation
(MEDC) studied the demographic information of its visitors and those of competing Midwestern
cities to create a new marketing message and tourism campaign. The information helped MEDC
attract 3.8 million new trips to Michigan, $805 million in new visitor spending, and $56 million in
incremental state tax revenue over the period 2004–2008. 3
Every firm must organize and distribute a continuous flow of information to its marketing man-
agers. A marketing information system (MIS) consists of people, equipment, and procedures to
gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely, and accurate information to marketing
decision makers. It relies on internal company records, marketing intelligence activities, and market-
ing research. We’ll discuss the first two components here, and the third one in the next chapter.
The company’s marketing information system should be a mixture of what managers think they
need, what they really need, and what is economically feasible. An internal MIS committee can in-
terview a cross-section of marketing managers to discover their information needs. Table 3.2
displays some useful questions to ask them.

TABLE 3.2 Information Needs Probes

1. What decisions do you regularly make?
2. What information do you need to make these decisions?
3. What information do you regularly get?
4. What special studies do you periodically request?
5. What information would you want that you are not getting now?
6. What information would you want daily? Weekly? Monthly? Yearly?
7. What online or offline newsletters, briefings, blogs, reports, or magazines would you like to see
on a regular basis?
8. What topics would you like to be kept informed of?
9. What data analysis and reporting programs would you want?
10. What are the four most helpful improvements that could be made in the present marketing
information system?