What is the Marketing Information System?

Modern marketing requires more dynamic and intelligent information systems every day. The real-time information for decision making every day becomes more relevant. Focusing marketing strategies on the knowledge of customers and markets, requires having antennas placed on the market and multi-source data collection systems that allow anticipating market trends and thus making smarter decisions. Technology, Big Data and artificial intelligence are changing the rules of the Information Systems game. 

Amazon-style smart stores will allow marketing decisions to be made at the time that interactions with customers occur, adjusting strategies at the time events are happening in the market. The Marketing Information System and the digitalization of processes go hand in hand, allowing companies to use technology as a tool for making timely decisions for the market. 

Market research in the digital age

Marketing information systems and market research evolve rapidly, the market needs efficient tools in terms of time and costs, traditional methods lose validity and technology is the protagonist. 

Organizations need to create a marketing research or information system, which can be defined as a set of people, procedures and instruments to: Collect, value, process and disseminate information 

In order to know the environment, make decisions or evaluate results.

A basic condition for successful marketing is the efficient management of information, both from external information (mainly from the market) and from the company itself. Traditionally, companies think of market research when they need information. Market research is that activity that allows a company to obtain the necessary information for its management. Market research links the organization with its environment.

Market research techniques allow us to gather useful information, analyze and interpret it, to help the company (manager, departmental directors, board of directors, etc.) understand the environment, identify problems and opportunities and develop and evaluate action plans of marketing. Market research is changing at high speed, looking for data and information from different sources in real time, research through the use of digital tools is becoming the norm.

Developing only market research techniques is not enough 

There is information that is only available through market research, but many data will be collected only through systematic and continuous information collection processes. 

A company generates and gathers a lot of information in its daily operations. But if you do not have a system to process and recover it, it is unlikely that you will use it properly. Without such a system, information that flows from the sources mentioned is often lost, distorted or delayed. However, a well-designed SIM can offer quickly, less expensive and more complete information for business decision making. Its storage and recovery capabilities allow a greater variety of data to be collected and used. Managers can constantly monitor the performance of products, markets, vendors and other marketing units in a more detailed way.

We can define a marketing information system (MIS) as a set of people, equipment and procedures designed to collect, classify, analyze, assess and distribute the information demanded by marketing managers on time. 

Marketing directors need information about the marketing environment in order to develop their responsibilities for analysis, planning, execution and control.

The role of the marketing information system is:

• Assess the information needs of managers
• Develop the required information 
• Distribute it on time.

This information is obtained from: 

• The company’s internal data
• intelligence systems
• Market research or Marketing research 

And the marketing decision support system, developed with computer tools and models to be implemented within the company itself. Every day, data management and analytics become more relevant in decision making in companies.  

The Marketing Intelligence System: 

The analysis of the environment is part of the Marketing Information System. The marketing intelligence analysis should cover the micro and macro variables, as well as the projections of the new landscape and its trends.

It is created to analyze the general environment of companies at a demographic, economic, political, legal, cultural, and technological level. The information comes from the analysis of external sources, for example: 

• Age pyramids, socio-economic data, education levels 
• Economic situation, trends, global and local panorama
• Values, behaviors, beliefs and tastes of consumers 
• Evolution of technologies, new development and its impact on business, trends. For example, the effect of Big Data on artificial intelligence systems in business. 
• New legislation: Free trade agreements, taxes, exports and imports. 
• Entry of new competitors

Marketing information systems help corporate marketing managers make decisions based on the information provided by the system.

This information helps them clarify their future actions and control the development of the actions that were decided by comparing the real or current with the objectives.

Organization of marketing management indicators, aligned with the BSC (Balance Score Card)  of the organization and with the objectives of the managers.

Internal data systems

Information related to the results and experiences of the companies. The information flows of the company with respect to its micro environment. 

• Sales Statistics
• Market Behavior 
• Sellers Reports
• Financial and accounting statements
• Product features
• Production systems 

The most basic information system used by marketing managers is the internal data system that includes reports on sales, prices, inventories, debts, etc. and through whose analysis important threats and opportunities can be detected. 

At the heart of the internal data system is the order-shipment-invoice cycle.

Sellers, merchants and customers make orders to the company. The order department prepares invoices and sends copies to several departments. Those items of which there are no stocks left are ordered again, the items that are sent are accompanied by their corresponding deliveries and invoices that in turn refer to the rest of the departments concerned.

Photo by Christopher Gower on Unsplash