Managing Marketing Information

Discussion Questions No. 4

Questions To Answer:

1. What is big data, and what opportunities and challenges does it provide for marketers?

2. Explain how internal databases differ from marketing intelligence. What are some advantages
and disadvantages of both?

3. What is behavioral targeting? Provide an example of behavioral targeting. How are the firms
responding to consumers and public advocates that it is a form of stalking consumers?

4. Marketers make heavy use of both open-ended and closed-ended questions in questionnaires.
What are some of the benefits or drawbacks of using each of these ways to ask questions?

5. The marketing research process has several very distinct and important stages that need to be
followed. In your opinion, which is the most important? Justify your view on this.

ANSWERS:

1. What is big data, and what opportunities and challenges does it provide for marketers?

 Big Data is the huge and complex data sets generated by today’s sophisticated
information generation, collection, storage, and analysis technologies. Big data has
supposedly created big opportunities. The main idea for businesses is to exploit the
growing mass of accessible information in large based on financial transactions or
customer interactions to maximize business performance and create competitive
advantages.
Big data presents marketers with both big opportunities and big challenges. Companies
that effectively tap this glut of data can gain rich, timely customer insights. However,
accessing and sifting through so much data is a daunting task.

2. Explain how internal databases differ from marketing intelligence. What are some advantages
and disadvantages of both?

 Internal databases are collections of consumer and market information obtained from
data sources within the company network. Information in an internal database can
come from many sources. The marketing department furnishes information on
customer characteristics, in-store and online sales transactions, and web and social
media site visits. The customer service department keeps records of customer
satisfaction or service problems. The accounting department provides detailed records
of sales, costs, and cash flows. Operations reports on production, shipments, and
inventories. The sales force reports on reseller reactions and competitor activities, and
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marketing channel partners provide data on sales transactions. Harnessing such

information can provide powerful customer insights and competitive advantage.

Competitive marketing intelligence is the systematic monitoring, collection, and

analysis of publicly available information about consumers, competitors, and
developments in the marketplace. The goal of competitive marketing intelligence is to
improve strategic decision making by understanding the consumer environment,
assessing and tracking competitors’ actions, and providing early warnings of
opportunities and threats. Marketing intelligence techniques range from observing
consumers firsthand to quizzing the company’s own employees, benchmarking
competitors’ products, online research, and monitoring social media buzz. Good
marketing intelligence can help marketers gain insights into how consumers talk about
and engage with their brands. Many companies send out teams of trained observers to
mix and mingle personally with customers as they use and talk about the company’s
products.

 Advantages and Disadvantages of Internal Databases and Marketing Intelligence

a. Internal Databases
 Advantages – Can be accessed more quickly; less expensive.
 Disadvantages – Income Information; wrong form of decision making;
timeless of information; amount of information; need for sophisticated
equipments and techniques.
b. Marketing Intelligence
 Advantages – Gain insights about consumer opinions and their association
with the brand; gain early warnings of competitor strategies, new product
launches or changing markets, and potential competitive strengths and
weaknesses; help firms to protect their own information.
 Disadvantages – may involve ethical issues.

3. What is behavioral targeting? Provide an example of behavioral targeting. How are the firms
responding to consumers and public advocates that it is a form of stalking consumers?

 Behavioral targeting is using online consumer tracking data to target advertisements

and marketing offers to specific consumers. Information about what consumers do
while trolling the vast digital expanse—what searches they make, the online and mobile
sites they visit, how they shop, and what they buy—is pure gold to marketers. And
today’s marketers are busy mining that gold. Then, in a practice called behavioral
targeting, marketers use the online data to target ads and offers to specific consumers.
The newest wave of web analytics and targeting takes online eavesdropping even
further—from behavioral targeting to social targeting. Whereas behavioral targeting
tracks consumer movements across online sites, social targeting also mines individual
online social connections and conversations from social networking sites. Research
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shows that consumers shop a lot like their friends and are much more likely to respond
to ads from brands friends use.

 Online listening, behavioral targeting, and social targeting can help marketers to harness
the massive amounts of consumer information swirling around the internet. However,
as marketers get more adept at trolling blogs, social networks, and other internet and
mobile domains, many critics worry about consumer privacy.
Proponents claim that behavioral and social targeting benefit more than abuse
consumers by feeding back ads and products that are more relevant to their interests.
But to many consumers and public advocates, following consumers online and stalking
them with ads feels more than just a little creepy.
Regulators and others are stepping in. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has
recommended the creation of a “Do Not Track” system (the online equivalent to the “Do
Not Call” registry)—which would let people opt out of having their actions monitored
online. However, progress has been mixed. Meanwhile, many major internet browsers
and social media have heeded the concerns by adding extended privacy features to their
services

4. Marketers make heavy use of both open-ended and closed-ended questions in questionnaires.
What are some of the benefits or drawbacks of using each of these ways to ask questions?

 The questionnaire is by far the most common instrument, whether administered in

person, by phone, by email, or online. Questionnaires are very flexible—there are many
ways to ask questions.

Closed-ended questions include all the possible answers, and subjects make choices
among them. Examples include multiple-choice questions and scale questions. Closed-
ended questions, on the other hand, provide answers that are easier to interpret and
tabulate.

Open-ended questions allow respondents to answer in their own words. Open-ended

questions are especially useful in exploratory research, when the researcher is trying to
find out what people think but is not measuring how many people think in a certain
way.
 Benefits Of Drawbacks Of Open-Ended And Closed-Ended Questions
a. Closed-Ended Questions
 Benefits
 If comparing the answers of several people, then the answers
to closed questions are much easier to compare and rate. If the
question is closed enough (e.g. multiple choice) then it is even
possible to perform a statistical analysis of the answers.
 They are easy and quick to answer.
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 There will be almost no answers that are difficult to

understand.
 If you so desired, you could use leading closed questions to
direct a conversation, for example, using “can you live with this
decision?” (closed) rather than, “does everyone agree with this
decision?” (open).
 Drawbacks
 They can force the respondent into an answer they don’t
necessarily want to give.
 This can make the respondent frustrated as they are unable to
adequately express their opinion.
 It can be difficult to determine if someone has misunderstood
the question.
 They don’t often lead to a deeper understanding of the topic in
question for the person posing the question.

b. Open-Ended Questions
 Benefits
 They allow for an infinite array of answers.
 They allow you to understand the data points and logic that has
caused the respondent to form their opinion.
 They allow you to more deeply understand the topic under
discussion.
 The respondent can feel that they are receiving personal
attention and that the proposer is interested in their opinion.
 Drawbacks
 If the group is large it can take a long time to extract answers
using open questions.
 If the group is large you must be careful the group doesn’t fall
into groupthink.
 They can lead to a lot of noise than closed questions. This noise
can make it difficult to develop a deep understanding of the
reasons behind the issue.
 They are simply not practical for very large groups.

5. The marketing research process has several very distinct and important stages that need to be
followed. In your opinion, which is the most important? Justify your view on this.

 Marketing Research is process of gathering, analyzing and interpreting information

about a market, about a product or service to be offered for sale in that market, and
about the past, present and potential customers for the product or service; research
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into the characteristics, spending habits, location and needs of your business's target
market, the industry as a whole, and the particular competitors you face

The first step in the marketing research process involves defining the problem and
setting the research objectives, which may be exploratory, descriptive, or causal
research. The second step consists of developing a research plan for collecting
data from primary and secondary sources. The third step calls for implementing the
marketing research plan by gathering, processing, and analyzing the information. The
fourth step consists of interpreting and reporting the findings. Additional
information analysis helps marketing managers apply the information and provides
them with sophisticated statistical procedures and models from which to develop more
rigorous findings.

 The most important step in the marketing research process is the first step. It is
developing the approach; it is where you establish a budget, understand influencing
factors such as the environment or economy, decide on sampling and survey methods,
and formulating hypotheses.