Marketing information systems

Abstract

In the increasingly competitive environment which has developed in recent years there can be little doubt that marketing intelligence has become a vital factor in the organisation’s ability to succeed. In the past, when change was less rapid than it is today, it was reasonable to assume that the best forecast of the immediate future was a direct extrapolation of past trends. In other words, change was seen largely as inevitable but as a continuous and predictable process. Accelerating technological change and the increase in international competition have resulted in turbulence and discontinuity and demand that we modify this assumption and recognise that to survive under these new conditions we must monitor and analyse our competitive environment continuously. To do so effectively marketing research must be seen as an ongoing process in which the organisation’s database is constantly reviewed and updated. No longer will it suffice to review sales data (which records what has happened rather than what might happen) with the occasional dipstick study to confirm our prejudices and expectations. In future the firm’s survival will depend fundamentally upon its ability to read and anticipate environmental and competitive change and an essential element of this ability will be the creation and maintenance of an effective marketing information system or MIS.