According to Peter Druker (1986) he said that the aim of aim of
marketing information system (MIS) is to know and understand the
customer so well that the product or services rendered will be key to
marketing decisions. He further said that, many business firms lack
information sophistication. Many do not have a marketing research
department where current and adequate marketing information will be
given. Peter Durker is with the view that emphasis should be given on
the importance of monitoring the marketing environment to keep products
and marketing practices current. He said that management can not
change customer wants, new competitor initiatives, changing distribution
channels and so on, except they develop and manage information.
Kotler (1997) said that there are three developments that make the
need for marketing information greater than at any time in the past:
- From local to national to global marketing: As companies
expand their geographical market coverage, their managers need more
information more quickly than ever before.
- From buyer needs to buyer wants: As buyers income improve,
they become more selective in their choice of goods. To predict buyers
response to different features, styles and other attributes, sellers
must turn marketing research.
- From price to non-price competition: As sellers increase their
use of branding, product differentiation, advertising and sales
promotion, they require information on these marketing tools
effectiveness.
Kotler, further explained that the explosion of information
requirements has been met by impressive new information technologies.
The past 30 years have witnessed the emergence of the computer,
micro-filming, cable television, copy machines, fax machines, tape
recorders, video recorders, video is players, CD-Rom drives,
multi-media packages and other devices that have revolutionized
information handling.
Some firms have develop advanced marketing information systems
that provide company management with rapid and incredible information
about buyer wants preferences and behaviour.
In today’s information-based society, development of good
information can provide a company with a jump on its competitions.
Once it has surveyed the market and obtained the information it
requires, the company can carefully evaluate its opportunities and
choose its target markets to maximize profit.
Madrick (1988) viewed that managers have always had some form of
marketing information system to guide their decision – making. In the
past it was very informal. Some managers simply walked among their
staff asking questions. Today the personal collection of data is not
only impossible but unnecessary. It is impossible because of the great
amount of data that must be gathered, and it is unnecessary, because
computers are now able to do much of this work. He went further to say
that most modern marketing information systems are computer based,.
The computerization of information needed for marketing started in the
late 1950s at companies such as Pillsbury, Dupont and General Mills.
Today, according to Madrick, 98% of firms with sales over and 50
million use some form of computerized marketing information system.
Smaller companies and non-profit organisations have been slower to adopt
such systems because of the expenses. But with the continued
lowering of data processing costs, use of computerized marketing
information system (MIS) is expected to spread in the future.
Shaw and Stone (1987), they said that marketing information system
provides a more interactive approach to marketing communications uses
individually addressable media (e.g. the sales force) to extend help to
a company’s target audiences, stimulate their demand and stay close to
them by keeping an electronic database memory of both actual and
prospective customers and all communications and contacts to help
improve all further contacts. They suggest that marketing information
system is essentially a customer-oriented approach to information
handling and its advantage is in the techniques it uses to apply
computer/communications technology. In practice, MIS provides a store
of historical customer data. This produces better efficiency
internally due to better organised data, thus ultimately leading to
more effective strategic improvements. They said that to achieve
efficiency, it requires a study of an organisation’s current
information base and its ability to monitor existing marketing
activities. It also need the ability to use information to match the
dynamics of a changing market and to report such changes to marketing
management in order that appropriate planning action can be taken.
Lancaster and Massinghan (1993), have said that an organisation’s
strategy, planning and operational control will only be as good as the
information that is available to the decision maker. They viewed
marketing information system as a medium through which information is
collected, channelled, focused and communicated. They concluded by
saying that, marketing information system requirement depend upon a
number of factors: The type of industry or environment, the size of the
organisation, the marketing decisions to be taken and the dynamics of
the industry or environment.
According to Beri (1993), that a good marketing information system
should determine the information needs of the organisation and
generate and process such information on continuing bases storage so
that it can be used when required. He said that an effective marketing
information system have the following components;
- Internal Accounting System.
- Marketing Intelligence System.
- Marketing Research System.
- Marketing Management Science System.
The Internal Accounting System maintains data pertaining to
orders, sales, inventory levels receivables and payables. It should be
able to fulfil the needs of marketing executive, sales
representatives, production managers etc. The marketing intelligence
system collects current information on development the
macro-environment and task environment its purpose is to keep executive
abreast of the changing environment so that they can plan the marketing
strategy to get optimum results. Marketing research takes studies on
specific marketing problems reports its finding to marketing
management. The marketing information system is management science or
operations research. It is concerned with building models for better
understanding and the prediction and control of marketing processes.
According to Rapp (1987), organisations face changes and
challenges from outside as face changes and challenges from outside as
well as inside their boundaries. The role of marketing is to anticipate
and identify such changes and advise the organisation on how to
respond to challenges in the context of a competitive market place.
Marketing needs information to carry out this task. Rapp, went further
to say that, marketing research collect information and marketing
information system analysis and acts on such information. He said that,
the ability of a company to use the vast potential of today’s computer
and telecommunication technology in driving customer – orientated
programmes in a personalized, articulated and cost effective manner.
DEFINITION OF MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM
Marketing is happening all around us all the time, but many
people are confused about what marketing is. Marketing is as old as
mankind, because it deals directly with food, shelter and clothing.
Marketing could be defined as anything that deals with trying to
plan things in relation to people’s needs, desire and preference
through the provision of utilities in form of satisfaction. Marketing
has many definitions of which one of them, according to the United
Kingdom institutes of marketing defines marketing as, the management
process responsible for customer’s requirement profitably. Also, the
American Marketing Association formally defined marketing as the process
of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and
distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchange that
satisfy individual and organisational objectives.
Therefore, Marketing Information System (MIS) is the structure of
people, equipment, and procedure to gather, sort, analyse, evaluate and
distribute too needed, timely and accurate information to marketing
decision makers. According to Druker “The aim of MIS is to know and
understand the customer so well that the product or services rendered
will be key to marketing decisions.
In the 1970s, the biggest change in MIS was the burgeoning
interest in personal computers; the potential of these machines
however, is widely recognised. The personal computer is being used in
combination with new kinds of software and improved graphics to a
decentralised MIS network that vastly increases the quantity and
quality of information available to marketing managers. In the future,
the technology in MIS will undoubtedly be improved, that is, when
product is being developed, producing a good done automatically through
the help of buttons.
In the mid 1980s, companies began up information centres where
managers can get assistance in locating the facts they need and the
tools for analysing quickly and easily. Instead of filling data
requested with a team of programmers, managers can go to the centre and
retrieve and analyse information themselves. Thus, this new concept
is improving management and use of information by marketers.
OBJECTIVES OF MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM
The objectives of the MIS have been considered as of utmost
importance and this is why it will have to be discusses here in detail.
To gather information pertaining to the market where the product
is being sold will give the marketing manager the opportunity to know
the reaction of the consumer of the product, whether to add more of the
quality and quantity of the product or to make more research to reduce
some of the raw-materials used in the product which makes it to be
defective. It will also aid the productivity of the organisation
through bringing the good into the awareness of the public to increase
the rate of turnover.