Introduction

The marketing environment today is changing at rapid price. The

businesses are moving from local to national to international market. Socio cultural
changes bring with them changes in consumption pattern, buying habits. The
competition is moving from price to non-price. The marketer today requires quick and
correct information to adjust the marketing plans and programs. Companies with
superior information enjoy a competitive advantage. Information today has become
keen business resource. Information helps companies choose its market better develop
better understanding and execute better marketing planning. Every firm must organize
and distribute a continuous flow of information to its marketing manager. Companies
study their manager’s information needs and design marketing system to meet these
needs.

The importance of marketing information is particularly apparent as the

economy continues to emphasize services as a primary source of value. Services are
heavily information dependent. Information is rapidly becoming a service in its own
right. Even in industries that are primarily manufacturing in nature, the information
content of the final product is rapidly increasing. Mass customization, often described
as "one-to-one" marketing or the customizing of products and services for individual
customers, is heavily dependent on comprehensive and timely customer information.

To survive in highly competitive markets, companies need to be able to

develop the marketing function and scale it up on "Internet time" with best-of-class
decision support solutions for customer relationship management, sales force
automation, market research, marketing communications, logistics, and product
development.

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Marketing

In the course of developing the firm's marketing plan, data was collected and
information about the internal and external environments was analyzed. Objectives were set,
strategies determined, and evaluation metric defined. Now that all the planning has turned into
implementation how do you know which part of your effort is making a difference? Is it the
pricing? Channel selection? Or are the results you are seeing entirely due to the external
environment? The only way the answer this type of question accurately and in a timely manner is
with a marketing information system (MIS).

Information

Any person or group managing a marketing effort needs information to make

informed decisions. The first step to developing an effective marketing information system is
identifying the information that is important to your marketing efforts. Like all efforts,
information requests must be balanced against what is really needed to make decisions, what is
possible to acquire, and the cost to acquire requested data. Once these data elements have been
defined, their sources must be identified. There are two means to collecting marketing data:
Primary and Secondary. Primary data is collected by the firm directly for a specific use. This
data may come from client records, specific questionnaires or general surveys. Secondary data is
data already collected by third party sources. The data may not have been collected for your
specific purpose, but it can provide useful information. Sources for relevant secondary data
include local association directories, the local chamber of commerce, universities, state and
federal agencies.

System

The information needs for the firm have been uncovered. The data sources have
been identified. Now a system for collecting, recording, reporting and analyzing that information
must be developed. Its size and structure may vary.

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Definition of MIS

According to Philip Kotler "A marketing information system consists of people,

equipment, and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely, and
accurate information to marketing decision makers.”

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The Strategic Role of the Marketing Information Systems

Historically, the role of the marketing function has been to support "make and

sell" business strategies that emphasized increases in market share over the creation of long-term

customer value. This view started to change after World War II with the recognition that

satisfying the customer's needs and wants should be the focus of a firm's business activities. The

emphasis on the customer elevated the importance of marketing as a core business function on a

par with research and development and production. The marketing function has become the

firm's window to the world in the sense that it must monitor the marketing environment for

changes in buyer behavior, competition, technology, economic conditions, and government

policies. Marketing is a "strategic" function in that marketing activities enable organizations to

identify and adapt to changes in the market environment. The strategic function of marketing is

further emphasized as Internet-based technologies have enabled radically new approaches to

selling where information technology for the first time touches customers and provides new

means for collecting marketing information. In a knowledge-intensive economy, the ability to

collect, analyze and act upon marketing information more rapidly than the competition is the

core competency from which competitive advantage flows. Marketing information systems

provide the information technology backbone for the marketing organization's strategic

operations. In a broader sense, the MIS creates an organized and timely flow of information

required by marketing decision makers. It involves the equipment, software, databases, and also

the procedures, methodologies and people necessary for the system to meet its organizational

objectives. MIS encompasses a broad spectrum of activities from simple transaction processing

complex marketing strategy decision making.

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Characteristics of MIS

I. Management-oriented: The basic objective of MIS is to provide information support to

the management in the organization for decision making. So an effective MIS should start
its journey from appraisal of management needs, mission and goal of the business
organization. It may be individual or collective goals of an organization. The MIS is such
that it serves all the levels of management in an organization i.e. top, middle and lower
level.

II. Management directed: When MIS is management-oriented, it should be directed by the

management because it is the management who tells their needs and requirements more
effectively than anybody else.

Manager should guide the MIS professionals not only at the stage of planning but also on
development, review and implementation stages so that effective system should be the
end product of the whole exercise in making an effective MIS.

III. Integrated: It means a comprehensive or complete view of all the sub systems in the
organization of a company. Development of information must be integrated so that all the
operational and functional information sub systems should be worked together as a single
entity. This integration is necessary because it leads to retrieval of more meaningful and
useful information.

IV. Common data flows: The integration of different sub systems will lead to a common
data flow which will further help in avoiding duplicity and redundancy in data collection,
storage and processing. For example, the customer orders are the basis for many activities
in an organization viz. billing, sales for cashing, etc. Data is collected by a system analyst
from its original source only one time. Then he utilizes the data with minimum number of
processing procedures and uses the information for production output documents and
reports in small numbers and eliminates the undesirable data. This will lead to
elimination of duplication that simplify the operations and produce an efficient
information system.

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 V. Common database: This is the basic feature of MIS to achieve the objective of using
MIS in business organizations. It avoids duplication of files and storage which leads to
reduction in costs. Common database means a “Super file or Master file” which
consolidates and integrates data records formerly stored in many separate data files. The
organization of the database allows it to be accessed by each subsystem and thus,
eliminates the necessity of duplication in data storage, updating, deletion and protection.

VI. Computerized: MIS can be used without a computer. But the use of computers increases
the effectiveness and the efficiency of the system. The queries can be handled more
quickly and efficiently with the computerized MIS. The other benefits are accuracy,
storage capacity and timely information.

VII. User friendly/Flexibility: An MIS should be flexible i.e. there should be room for
further modification because the MIS takes much time in preparation and our
environment is dynamic in nature.MIS should be such that it should be used
independently by the end user so that they do not depend on the experts.

VIII. Information as a resource: Information is the major ingredient of any MIS. So, an MIS
should be treated as a resource and managed properly

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Benefits of the Marketing Information System

The MIS increases the number of options available to decision-makers and

supports every element of marketing strategy. MIS affects marketing's interfaces with customers,
suppliers and other partners. The primary benefits of the MIS impact in the areas of functional
integration, market monitoring, strategy development, and strategy implementation.

1. Market Monitoring.

Through the use of market research and marketing intelligence activities the MIS
can enable the identification of emerging market segments, and the monitoring of the market
environment for changes in consumer behavior, competitor activities, new technologies,
economic conditions and governmental policies. Market research is situational in nature and
focuses on specific strategic or tactical marketing initiatives. Marketing intelligence is
continuous in nature and involves monitoring and analyzing a broad range of market-based
activities and information sources. There are three major sources of market information. The first
is syndicated data published by market research companies and industry associations. Company-
sponsored primary research is another option. It is much more focused since you ask specific
questions of respondents within your markets. But, it is considerably more expensive and time
consuming. Perhaps the best data available are your own customer's behavior captured from web
site viewing, point of sale (POS) transactions, and systematic feedback from the sales force.

2. Strategy development

The MIS provides information necessary to develop marketing strategy. It supports

strategy development for new products, product positioning, marketing communications
(advertising, public relations, and sales promotion), pricing, personal selling, distribution,
customer service and partnerships and alliances. The MIS provides the foundation for the
development information system-dependent e-commerce strategies.
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3. Strategy Implementation.

The MIS provides support for product launches, enables the coordination of
marketing strategies, and is an integral part of sales force automation (SFA), customer
relationship management (CRM), and customer service systems implementations. The MIS
enables decision- makers to more effectively manage the sales force as well as customer
relationships. Some customer management software companies are extending their CRM
applications to include partner relationship management (PRM) capabilities. This has become
increasingly important as many marketers are choosing to outsource important marketing
functions and form strategic alliances to address new markets.

4. Functional integration.

The MIS enables the coordination of activities within the marketing department
and between marketing and other organizational functions such as engineering, production,
product management, finance, manufacturing, logistics, and customer service.

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Components of MIS

A MIS is developed from internal records, marketing intelligence activities,

marketing decision support system and marketing research

1. Internal records system

2. Marketing intelligence system

3. Marketing decision support system

4. Marketing research

Internal Records system

All enterprises which have been in operation for any period of time nave a wealth
of information. However, this information often remains under-utilized because it is
compartmentalized, either in the form of an individual entrepreneur or in the functional
departments of larger businesses. That is, information is usually categorized according to its
nature so that there are, for example, financial, production, manpower, marketing, stockholding
and logistical data. Often the entrepreneur, or various personnel working in the functional
departments holding these pieces of data, does not see how it could help decision makers in other
functional areas. Similarly, decision makers can fail to appreciate how information from other
functional areas might help them and therefore do not request it.

The internal records that are of immediate value to marketing decisions are: orders received,
stockholdings and sales invoices. These are but a few of the internal records that can be used by
marketing managers, but even this small set of records is capable of generating a great deal of
information. Below, is a list of some of the information that can be derived from sales invoices.

• Product type, size and pack type by territory

• Product type, size and pack type by type of account

• Product type, size and pack type by industry

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 • Product type, size and pack type by customer

• Average value and/or volume of sale by territory

• Average value and/or volume of sale by type of account

• Average value and/or volume of sale by industry

• Average value and/or volume of sale by sales person

By comparing orders received with invoices an enterprise can establish the extent to which it is
providing an acceptable level of customer service. In the same way, comparing stockholding
records with orders received helps an enterprise ascertain whether its stocks are in line with
current demand patterns.

i. The order to payment cycle:

Order to payment cycle refers to the elapsed time between placing of an order and
receipt of payment. This gives information about the company’s supply and logistic
system. This information help company to cut down time required for serving customer
and manage inventory

ii. Sales information System:

The data about current sales provide information about customer tastes and
preferences and products. Sales data can be used by company in replenishment of stores.

iii. Databases, data warehouses and data mining:

Companies that have been in business for awhile realize they have accumulated
huge amounts of data in various operational databases. Those databases work just fine for
their intended purposes, but the companies want to "mine" that data for other purposes,
particularly for sales, marketing and strategic planning.

So, Data Mining is the process of extracting information from the company's various
databases and re-organizing it for purposes other than what the databases were originally

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intended for. What data is to be mined and for what use varies radically from one
company to another, as does the nature and organization of the data, so there can be no
such thing as a generic "data mining tool".

A Data Warehouse is a place where data can be stored for more convenient mining. This
generally will be a fast computer system with very large data storage capacity. Data from
all the company's systems is copied to the Data Warehouse, where it will be scrubbed and
reconciled to remove redundancy and conflicts. Complex queries can then be make
against the Warehouse information storage. Of course the data must be continuously
refreshed, so the scrubbing and reconciliation process must be a permanent feature of the
Warehouse, and will have to be modified every time the databases are modified or new
databases become available.

Creating and maintaining a Data Warehouse is a huge job even for the largest companies.
It can take a long time and cost a lot of money. In fact, it is such a major project
companies are turning to Data Mart solutions instead.

A Data Mart is an index and extraction system. Rather than bring all the company's data
into a single warehouse, the data mart knows what data each database contains and how
to extract information from multiple databases when asked.

Creating a Data Mart can be considered the "quick and dirty" solution, because the data
from different databases is not scrubbed and reconciled, but it may be the difference
between having information available and not having it available.

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Marketing Intelligence System

Marketing research is focused, market intelligence is not. A marketing intelligence

system is a set of procedures and data sources used by marketing managers to sift information
from the environment that they can use in their decision making. This scanning of the economic
and business environment can be undertaken in a variety of ways, including

Unfocused The manager, by virtue of what he/she reads, hears and watches exposes
scanning him/herself to information that may prove useful. Whilst the behavior is unfocused
and the manager has no specific purpose in mind, it is not unintentional

Semi-focused Again, the manager is not in search of particular pieces of information that he/she is
scanning actively searching but does narrow the range of media that is scanned. For instance,
the manager may focus more on economic and business publications, broadcasts
etc. and pay less attention to political, scientific or technological media.

Informal This describes the situation where a fairly limited and unstructured attempt is made
search to obtain information for a specific purpose. For example, the marketing manager
of a firm considering entering the business of importing frozen fish from a
neighboring country may make informal inquiries as to prices and demand levels of
frozen and fresh fish. There would be little structure to this search with the manager
making inquiries with traders he/she happens to encounter as well as with other ad
hoc contacts in ministries, international aid agencies, with trade associations,
importers/exporters etc.

Formal This is a purposeful search after information in some systematic way. The
search information will be required to address a specific issue. Whilst this sort of activity
may seem to share the characteristics of marketing research it is carried out by the
manager him/herself rather than a professional researcher. Moreover, the scope of
the search is likely to be narrow in scope and far less intensive than marketing

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 research

Marketing intelligence is the province of entrepreneurs and senior managers within an

agribusiness. It involves them in scanning newspaper trade magazines, business journals and
reports, economic forecasts and other media. In addition it involves management in talking to
producers, suppliers and customers, as well as to competitors. Nonetheless, it is a largely
informal process of observing and conversing.

Some enterprises will approach marketing intelligence gathering in a more deliberate fashion and
will train its sales force, after-sales personnel and district/area managers to take cognizance of
competitors' actions, customer complaints and requests and distributor problems. Enterprises
with vision will also encourage intermediaries, such as collectors, retailers, traders and other
middlemen to be proactive in conveying market intelligence back to them.

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Marketing decision support system

Marketing decision support systems (MDSS) constitute a set of core applications of the
MIS.

The MDSS provides computer-based tools, models, and techniques to support the marketing
manager's decision process. In the general case, MDSS is optimized for queries of historical data.

MDSS data typically are derived from both internal and external market sources. The MDSS
features inquiry and report generation functions where the manager can access marketing data,
analyze it statistically, and use the results to determine an optimal course of action.

The MDSS can provide analytical models for forecasting, simulation, and optimization. MDSS
tools include simple spreadsheets such as Excel, statistical analysis packages such as SPSS and
SAS, on-line analytical processing (OLAP) tools, data mining applications, and neural networks.

The MDSS provides the user with the ability to explore multiple options. Typical MDSS
functions include models and tools for:

1. Sensitivity analysis.

Decision-makers can explore changes in a strategic variable such as price and

model its impact on demand or competitive behavior.

2. What-if analysis.

Can be easily accomplished with a spreadsheet. Revenues and costs can be

manipulated to show the impact of each variable on profits and cash flows.

3. Goal setting.

Analysis focuses on the desired result and builds the resource base necessary to
accomplish the goal.

4. Exception reporting.

Analysis looks for results that exceed or fall short of stated goals or benchmarks.
Which products or segments exceeded sales forecasts? Sometimes called gap analysis.
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5. Forecasting models.

Econometric models are used to analyze time series data for the purpose of
predicting future sales and market share levels.

6. Simulation models.

Monte Carlo simulations address marketing decision making under conditions of

uncertainty. Variables such as the market price, unit variable cost, and quantity sold are not
known ahead of the product investment decision. Simulation models allow the marketer to
analyze risk and assess the probabilities of likely outcomes of their decisions.

7. Scorecards and dashboards.

Scorecard systems can present a consistent framework for tracking the

effectiveness of marketing activities. They often have different modules product managers, and
customer service managers. Scorecard systems allow the user to "drill down" on an analytic and
workflow basis to determine the status of any strategic initiative. Dashboards allow frontline
managers to monitor their critical performance indicators. These systems are often used in
conjunction with "best practice" standards for call-center-based customer support.

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Marketing Research

Definition:

According to Philip Kotler, “Marketing research as the systematic design,

collection, and analysis and reporting of data and findings relevant to a specific marketing
situation facing the company.”

The American Marketing Association (AMA, 1961) defines it as `the

systematic gathering, recording and analyzing of data relating to the marketing of goods and
services'.
Green and Tull have defined marketing research as “the systematic and objective
search for and analysis of information relevant to the identification and solution of any problem
in the field of marketing.”

Marketing research is a systematic and objective study of problems pertaining to the marketing
of goods and services. It is applicable to any area of marketing. Research is the only tool an
organization has to keep in contact with its external operating environment. In order to be
proactive and change with the environment simple questions need to be asked:

• What are the customer needs and how are they changing? How to meet these
changing needs? What do the customers think about existing products or services?
What more are they looking at?
• What are the competitors doing to retain customers in this environment? Are their
strategies exceeding or influencing yours? What should you do to be more
competitive?
• How are macro and micro environmental factors influencing your organization?
How will you react t this environment?

The aim of marketing management is to satisfy the needs of the consumer. Marketing research
helps in achieving this. Marketing research is a systematic and logical way of assessing ways of
satisfying customer needs. According to all the above definitions, Marketing Research starts by
stating the problem or the issue to be investigated; indicate what kind of information is required

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to resolve the problem; identify where and how to get it; specify the methodology for analyzing
the research findings; sum up the research findings and then suggest the best solution for
marketing decision making.

Scope of marketing research:

Marketing research can be used in:

Product Management:
One of the major scopes of marketing research is to manage the current products
and new products. In product management Marketing Research is helpful in
o Competitive Intelligence - To understand the competitive product strategy.
o Prelaunch strategy for new products
o Test Marketing - To monitor the performance of the brand by launching in a
select area and then taking it across the country. In other words it is a small-scale
product launch used to determine the likely acceptance of the product when it is
introduced into a wider market.
o Concept testing - to test the acceptance of a concept by target consumers.

Sales analysis:
Marketing research is used to study the sales trend and make suitable strategies
when required. It is used to
 Assess market potential
 Estimation of demand for a product
 Market share estimation
 Study seasonal variation for a product
 Market segmentation studies
 Estimate size of the market
 Need analysis to find out where the product fits in

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Corporate Research:

Marketing Research is used to analyze the corporate effectiveness. Some

examples are:

• Assessing the image of the company

• Knowledge of the company activities

Advertising Research:

Advertising is an arena in which Marketing Research is extensively used. Some

scope is:

o Readership feedbacks - Mainly carried out for newspapers and magazines

o Advertising Recall - To assess the recall of television or other advertising and

thereby assess its effectiveness.

Syndicated Research:

This is compiled by agencies on a regular basis and sold to organizations on

subscription basis.

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Marketing Research Methods

Methodologically, marketing research uses four types of research designs, namely:

Qualitative marketing research:

This is generally used for exploratory purposes. The data collected is qualitative
and focuses on people's opinions and attitudes towards a product or service. The respondents are
generally few in number and the findings cannot be generalized tot eh whole population. No
statistical methods are generally applied.

Ex: Focus groups, In-depth interviews, and Projective techniques

Quantitative marketing research:

This is generally used to draw conclusions for a specific problem. It tests a

specific hypothesis and uses random sampling techniques so as to infer from the sample to the
population. It involves a large number of respondents and analysis is carried out using statistical
techniques.

Ex: Surveys and Questionnaires

Observational techniques:

The researcher observes social phenomena in their natural setting and draws
conclusion from the same. The observations can occur cross-section ally (observations made at
one time) or longitudinally (observations occur over several time-periods)

Ex: Product-use analysis and computer cookie tracing

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Experimental techniques:

Here, the researcher creates a quasi-artificial environment to try to control

spurious factors, then manipulates at least one of the variables to get an answer to a research

Ex: Test marketing and Purchase laboratories

More than one research designs could be used at a time. They may start with secondary research
to get background information, and then conduct a focus group to explore the issues. Finally they
might do a full nation-wide survey in order to devise specific recommendations for the client
organization.

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THE MARKETING RESEARCH PROCESS

Marketing Research reduces the uncertainty in the decision-making process and

increase the probability and magnitude of success if conducted in a systematic, analytical, and
objective manner. Marketing research by itself does not arrive at marketing decisions, nor does it
guarantee that the organization will be successful in marketing its products. It is only a tool
which helps in the decision making process.The Marketing Research Process involves a number
of inter-related activities which have bearing on each other. Once the need for Marketing
Research has been established, broadly it involves the steps as depicted in Figure below:

Define the research Problem

Determine the research design

Identify data types and sources

Design data collection forms

Determining sampling design and size

Collect the data

Analyze and interpret the data

Prepare the research report

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1. Define the research problem

The first step in Marketing is to define the research problem. A problem well
defined is half-solved. If a problem is poorly defined, a good research design cannot be
developed. The decision problem faced by the organization must be translated into a market
research problem in the form of questions. These questions must define the information that is
required to make the decision and how this information can be obtained. This way, the decision
problem gets translated into a research problem.

For example, a decision problem may be whether to launch a new product. The corresponding
research problem might be to assess whether the market would accept the new product.

In order to define the problem more precisely, an exploratory research can be carried out. Survey
of secondary data, pilot studies or experience surveys are some of the popular methods.

2. Determine research design

The research design specifies the method and procedure for conducting a
particular study.

As studied already, marketing research and hence the research designs can be Classified into one
of three categories

• Exploratory research

• Descriptive research

• Causal research

This classification is based on the objective of the research. In some cases the research will fall
into one of these categories, but in other cases different phases of the same research project will
fall into different categories. Problems are formulated clearly in exploratory research. It aims at
clarifying concepts, gathering explanations, gaining insight, eliminating impractical ideas, and
forming hypotheses. Exploratory research can be performed using a literature search, surveying
certain people about their experiences, focus groups, and case studies. During the survey,
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exploratory research studies would not try to acquire a representative sample, but rather, seek to
interview those who are knowledgeable and who might be able to provide insight concerning the
relationship among variables. Case studies can include contrasting situations or benchmarking
against an organization known for its excellence. Exploratory research may develop hypotheses,
but it does not seek to test them. Exploratory research is characterized by its flexibility. A
descriptive study is undertaken when the researcher wants to know the characteristics of certain
groups such as age, sex, educational level, income, occupation, etc. Descriptive research is more
rigid than exploratory research and seeks to describe users of a product, determine the proportion
of the population that uses a product, or predict future demand for a product. Descriptive
research should define questions, people surveyed, and the method of analysis prior to beginning
data collection. In other words, the who, what, where, when, why, and how aspects of the
research should be defined. Such preparation allows one the opportunity to make any required
changes before the costly process of data collection has begun.

3. Identify data types and sources

The next step is to determine the sources of data to be used. The researcher has to
decide whether to go for primary data or secondary data. Sometimes a combination of both is
used. Before going through the time and expense of collecting primary data, one should check
for secondary data that previously may have been collected for other purposes but that can be
used in the immediate study. Secondary data may be internal to the firm, such as sales invoices
and warranty cards, or may be external to the firm such as published data or commercially
available data. The government census is a valuable source of secondary data. Secondary data
has the advantage of saving time and reducing data gathering costs. The disadvantages are that
the data may not fit the problem perfectly and that the accuracy may be more difficult to verify
for secondary data than for primary data. Many a time the secondary data might have to be
supplemented by primary data originated specifically for the study at hand. Some common types
of primary data are:

• Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics

• Psychological and lifestyle characteristics

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 • Attitudes and opinions

• Awareness and knowledge - for example, brand awareness

• Intentions - for example, purchase intentions. While useful, intentions are not a reliable
indication of actual future behavior.

• Motivation - a person's motives are more stable than his/her behavior, so motive is a
better predictor of future behavior than is past behavior.

4. Design data collection forms

Once it has been decided to obtain primary data, the mode of collection needs to
be decided. Two methods are available for data collection:

1. Observational methods

2. Survey methods

Observational methods: As the name itself suggests, the data are collected through observation.
An observer observes and records the data faithfully and accurately. This may be suitable in case
of some studies but is not useful to observe attitudes, opinions, motivations and other intangible
states of mind. Also in this method, the data collected is non-reactive, as it does not involve the
respondent.

Surveys: It is one of the most common methods of collecting data for primary marketing
research.

Surveys can be:

• Personal: The information is sought through personal interviews. A questionnaire is

prepared and administered to the respondent during the interview. This is a detailed
method of collecting information.

• Telephonic: This is suitable if limited information is sought in a fixed time frame.

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 • Mail: Here, the questionnaire is sent out in mail and the response is sought. Timely
response cannot be sought in this method as there is no control over the survey. All the
people to whom the mail was sent may not respond.

5. Determine sampling design and size

A sampling plan is a very important part of the research process. The marketing
researcher has to decide whether it will be a sample survey or a census. Definitely a sample
survey has its distinct merits. The population from which the sample has to be drawn has to be
well defined. A broad choice is to be made between probability sampling and non-probability
sampling. The sample design is then chosen depending on the suitability and the availability of
the sample frame. The size of the sample chosen is based on statistical methods. This is well
defined and also reproduces the characteristics of the population. In practice, however, this
objective is never completely attained on account of the occurrence of two types of errors - errors
due to bias in the selection and sapling errors.

6. Collect the data

The next step is to collect the data for which the research process has been spelled
out. The interviewing and the supervision of field work should be looked into. One of the most
difficult tasks is interviewing for marketing research. Many a time the respondents may not part
with crucial information unless approached with tact and intelligence. Supervision of field work
is important to ensure timely and proper completion of the field survey. If this is not carried out
properly, then there results an interview error which may be detrimental to marketing research.

7. Analyze and interpret the data

The next step is to analyze the data that has been collected from the field survey.
The raw data is transformed into the right format. First, it is edited so that errors can be corrected
or omitted. The data is then coded; this procedure converts the edited raw data into numbers or
symbols. A codebook is created to document how the data is coded. Finally, the data is tabulated
to count the number of samples falling into various categories. Simple tabulations count the
occurrences of each variable independently of the other variables. Cross tabulations, also known
as contingency tables or cross tabs, treats two or more variables simultaneously. Cross tabulation

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is the most commonly utilized data analysis method in marketing research. Many studies take the
analysis no further than cross tabulation.

8. Prepare the research report

All the research findings have to be compiled in a report to be then presented to

the organization. The format of the marketing research report varies with the needs of the
organization. The report often contains the following sections:

• Authorization letter for the research

• Table of Contents

• List of illustrations

• Executive summary

• Research objectives

• Methodology

• Results

• Limitations

• Conclusions and recommendations

• Appendices containing copies of the questionnaires, etc.

The report has to be written with objectivity, coherence, clarity in the presentation of the ideas
and use of charts and diagrams. Sometimes, the study might also throw up one or more areas
where further investigation is required.

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LIMITATION OF MIS:-

A Management information system is a valuable tool company management uses to judge the
effectiveness of their business operations. The MIS provide detailed insight to certain operations
of a company and also assist management with making critical decision.

Once information is provided through the MIS. Decision can be made regarding the effectiveness
of business operations. Limitation do exist with an MIS, such as the expenses to create and
implement on MIS, training time for employee, lack of flexibility and capturing wrong or
incomplete information.

The main limitation of MIS is as follows………

1) MIS expenses:- MIS implementation can be very expensive for companies looking to
manage their operations more effectively. The cost of this followed by the installation
costs can be extremely expensive for large companies.

2) Employees Training: Properly trained employees are a critical part of an MIS.

Employees are at front lines of business operations and create or manage the daily
activities of the company. If an MIS finds a system flow or management decides to
change a process based on the MIS information, re-training employees will usually be
required.

3) MIS Flexibility:- Once an MIS is created and installed in a company, it may prove to be
an inflexibility system. Making changes quickly to reflect fluctuating business operations
may not be possible depending on the MIS style and functionality. Major business
changes will require major changes to the MIS leading to increased costs and downtime
of information reporting.

4) Information Flow:-The biggest flow an MIS can have is pulling incorrect information
for management. This problems results in wasted time and money for the company,
leading to another review of MIS to correct the information flows.

5) The MIS is conceived as a data processing and not as an information processing system.

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6) The MIS does not provide the information which is indeed by the managers but it trends
to provide the information generally the function calls for. In that case, it becomes an
impersonal system.

7) Inadequate attention to the quality control aspects of the inputs, process and the output
leads to insufficient checks and controls in the MIS.

8) The MIS is developed without streamlining the transaction processing system in the
organization.

9) As the users of information and the generators of data are different, lack of training
would make MIS ineffective.

10) The MIS does not give perfect information to all the users in the organization because
every user has a human ingenuity, bias and certain assumptions which are not known to
the designer. MIS takes into account only quantitative factors.

11) MIS cannot provide tailor-made information packages which are suitable for every type
of decision made by executives.

12) Effectiveness of MIS decreases due to frequent changes in the top management,
organizational structure and the operational team.

13) Incomplete update of the data base affects the reliability for all users.

14) Obtaining the acceptance and support of those who will interface with the system is at
times a problem.

15) Due to redefined periodicity of MIS reports, it might be possible that information reaches
the managers quite late and at times too late.

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Conclusion

MIS is very helpful in effective operations of an organization. But

there is some limitation is also in MIS, the trained employee, cost of

implementation of MIS, incomplete data base, inflexibility, imperfect information

etc. But if the MIS is used in a planned manner it is very helpful.

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Bibliography

Internet

• www.google.com

• www.wikipedia.com

• www.marketingteacher.com

Books

• Marketing management

• Marketing Research by John Wiley & Sons

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