Managing Marketing Information
to Gain Customer Insights
W. Rofianto
Customer Insights
“In today’s hypercompetitive world,”
“the race for competitive advantage
is really a race for
customer and market insights.”
Fresh understandings of customers and the marketplace derived
from marketing information that become the basis for creating
customer value and relationships.
Marketing information system (MIS)
People and procedures for assessing information needs, developing the
needed information, and helping decision makers to use the information to
generate and validate actionable customer and market insights.
Internal Databases
Electronic collections of consumer and market information
obtained from data sources within the company network.
Marketing Intelligence
The systematic collection and analysis of publicly availableinformation about consumers, competitors, and developments in the
marketing environment.
Marketing Research
The systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data
relevant to a specific marketing situation facing an
organization.
The Marketing Research Process
Data Collection
Primary dataInformation collected for the specific purpose at hand.
Secondary dataInformation that already exists
somewhere, having been collected
for another purpose.
Survey Research
Gathering primary data by asking people questions about their
knowledge, attitudes, preferences, and buying behavior.
Ethnographic research
A form of observational research that involves sending trained
observers to watch and interact with consumers in their
“natural environments.”
Misuse of Research Findings
Fine print at the bottom of the box
revealed the following: “Based upon
independent clinical research, kids
who ate Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-
Wheats cereal for breakfast had up
to 18 percent better attentiveness
three hours after breakfast than kids
who ate no breakfast.”
According to the Federal Trade
Commission complaint, the clinical
study referred to by Kellogg actually
showed that children who ate the
cereal for breakfast averaged just
under 11 percent better in
attentiveness than children who ate
no breakfast, and that only about
one in nine improved by 20
percent or more.
