Chapter 3 - Collecting and Analyzing Market Information

big data

Extremely large data sets from structured and unstructured sources.

situation analysis

The overall process of collecting and interpreting internal, competitive, and environmental information.

issues to be considered in a situation analysis

internal environment

customer environment
external environment

internal environment

Review of current objectives, strategy, and performance

Availability of resources

Organizational culture and structure

customer environment

Who are our current and potential customers?

What do customers do with our products?

Where do customers purchase our products?

When do customers purchase our products?

Why (and how) do customers select our products?

Why do potential customers not purchase our products?

external environment

Competition

Economic growth and stability

Political trends

Legal and regulatory issues

Technological advancements

Sociocultural trends

data

The facts and details of customers, product use, and/or user inputs

analytics

The discovery of trends and patterns within the data via analysis techniques.

insights

The value of data and analytics, as these outcomes identify useable information that helps to improve operations and performance of marketing activity.

internal environment

Refers to an organization’s objectives, strategy, and performance, the availability of resources, and organizational culture and structure.

metrics

Measurable indicators of company objectives, such as sales performance, market share, and/or growth rate.

dashboard

A visual representation of real-time results for each metric across multiple levels and markets.

predictive analytics

The use of historical data inputs to predict future outcomes

5W model

Who, What, Where, When, and Why

derived demand

When the demand for one product depends on (is derived from) the demand of another product.

brand competitors

Companies that market products with similar features and benefits to the same customers at similar prices

product competitors

Companies that compete in the same product class, but with products that are different in features, benefits, and price.

generic competitors

Companies that market very different products that solve the same problem or satisfy the same basic customer need

total budget competitors

Companies that compete for the limited financial resources of the same customers.

frontstage technology

Technological advances that are most noticeable to customers

backstage technology

Technological advances that are not necessarily apparent to customers.

cultural values

The commonly agreed upon guiding principles of everyday life in a society or community.

direct observation

Where the researcher records the overt behaviors of customers, competitors, or suppliers in natural settings.

focus groups

Where the researcher moderates a panel discussion among a gathering of 6 to 10 people who openly discuss a specific subject.

surveys

Where the researcher asks respondents to answer a series of questions on a particular topic.

experiments

Where the researcher selects matched subjects and exposes them to different treatments while controlling for extraneous variables to arrive at casual insights.

analysis of the customer environment

who are our current and potential customers?

what do customers do with our products?

where do customers purchase our products?

when do customers purchase our products?

why (and how) do customers select our products?

why do potential customers not purchase our products

secondary information sources

internal, government, periodical/books, social media/online, commercial data,

primary data collection

direct observation, focus groups, surveys, experiments

problems in data collection

an incomplete or inaccurate definition of the marketing problem.

ambiguity about the usefulness or relevance of the collected data.

severe information overload.

the expense and time associated with data collection.

finding ways to organize the vast amount of collected data and information.

PESTEL analysis

political

economical

social

technological

environmental

legal

political

impact of elections and industry (de) regulation

how do we maintain good relations with elected officials

economical

overall health (growth/stagnant/contraction) of economy and market/industry

consumer optimism/pessimism, and buying/spending patterns

social

Evaluates changing consumer values and ethics

General attitude of current/potential buyers in our industry

technological

Impact production, products, efficiency, ability to compete, etc

Frontstage (seen by customers) backstage (not seen buy customers)

environmental

Impact of environmental policies (packaging, recycling, production)

Availability of natural resources

User consumption trend

legal

Considers impact of international, state, local, laws on marketing activities

Global trade agreements are part of this

stages of competitive analysis

identification - Identify all current and potential brand, product, generic, total budget competitors

characteristics - Focus on key comp by assessing size, growth, profitability, goals, strats of each one

assessment - Assess key comp strengths and weaknesses, capabilities, vulnerabilities

capabilities - Focus on analysis of each key comp marketing capabilities in terms of its product, distribution, promotion, pricing

response - Estimate key comp’s most likely strats and responses under different environmental situations

core elements of the internal assessment

current strategy

current goals, performance, and causes

resources and abilities - now and in the future

firm culture and structure