What is Marketing Information System? Definition, Objective, Component, and Importance

What is Marketing Information System (MKIS)?

A marketing information system, shortly called MKIS, is a system of collecting, analyzing, storing, and disseminating market information to marketing managers for making marketing decisions.

MKIS is a systematic tool that aids marketing organizations in making effective marketing decisions. It collects data from both internal and external environments of the business. It aims to provide relevant information to the managers for making the right marketing decisions and strategies.

The decision may be about product development, promotion, pricing, delivery, etc. An effective MKIS provides accurate and timely information about the market which let marketing firms be effective and efficient performer in the market.

Marketing gurus Cravens, Hills, and Woodruff have defined it as – A marketing information system consisting of integrated combinations of information, information process and analysis equipment, software, and information specialists that serve the various analysis, planning, and control needs of marketing decision-making.

Objectives of Marketing Information System

The following are the main objectives of MKIS.

• Provide market-relevant information to the marketing manager.
• Aim to help marketing managers make effective marketing decisions.
• Provide information on potential opportunities and threats.
• Helps to manage and control marketing performance.

Components of Marketing Information System

The following four are the main components of any marketing information system.

Related: Marketing Research

Internal Records

Internal records include the data and information from within the company. The internal records or reports may include cash flows, sales records, purchase records, stocks, sales personnel costs, customer databases, and so on of a business.

A careful analysis of what happened inside your business can offer you an insight into how your business is doing, what are its capabilities, where it requires improvements, etc. The main aim of the internal records system is to collect result-oriented information about the organization.

Marketing Intelligence

The marketing intelligence component of MKIS aims to provide the happening information about the market. The marketing intelligence system offers current data on the market this may include information related to changing market trends, competitors’ strategies, customers’ preferences, etc.

The information it provides is mainly external to the organization. Your business will have a better understanding of its specific market and competition by utilizing this information.

Marketing Research

Marketing research is a systematic way of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting the market’s data to find out solutions to marketing problems. Marketing research is problem-focused, and it is only conducted when marketing organizations face some problems.

Related: Process of Marketing Research

To get significant conclusions, marketing research uses primary or secondary data that has been gathered and presented in a tabular style. It makes a significant contribution to the marketing information system since it offers accurate information that has been thoroughly examined by specialists.

Marketing Decision Support System

The last component of MKIS is the decision support system. It is a set of statistical and mathematical tools and decision models that help marketing managers analyze data gathered or supplied through the sub-systems of MKIS and make rational decisions.

The main objective of a decision support system is to give marketers timely, accurate, and pertinent information to help them make informed decisions. It provides marketers with the facts on both internal and external issues affecting business organizations in order to support sound decisions.

Importance of Marketing Information System

MkIS aims to provide marketing managers with timely, accurate, and relevant information so that they can make rational marketing decisions. The following are some important of MKIS to the business.

Helps in Decision-Making

One of the main objectives of MKIS is to help marketing organizations make the right decisions. It provides regularly updated information about different internal and external matters which helps managers to make rational marketing decisions.

Competitive Advantage

MKIS also offers different information about its competitors. It will enable your firm to get insight into competitors’ pricing strategies, products, current markets, and future planning. With this much information, you can improve your business marketing strategies and outperform the competitors.

Opportunities and Threats

MKIS analyzes different external factors of the environment enabling marketing firms to have insight into potential opportunities and threats. Through the availability of such information, firms can be ready in advance to grab opportunities.

Similarly, they can also develop strategies to reduce the impact of probable threats to their marketing activities.

Save Cost and Time

In order to prevent wasting time, money, and effort on pointless operations, marketing information systems pair up with marketing research systems to target the problem area and make the desired decisions.

Increase Performance and Productivity

A marketing organization’s overall success can be increased by using a marketing information system. Businesses may be able to make better, more strategic decisions by employing organized data, evaluating it, and interpreting it. In order to construct a more effective firm, it might also suggest fresh ways to expand or enhance existing systems and continue to gather and analyze data.

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