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MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEMS (MIS)


Marketing Information Systems (MIS) and Marketing Research

        In the words of Marian Harper “To manage a business well is to manage its future and to manage the future is to manage information.” In order to effectively manage information a company needs a marketing information systems. A marketing information systems is the major tool used by management to aid in problem solving and decision making. Marketing research is a major component in a marketing information systems (MIS). Philip Kotler has defined MIS as “A structured interacting complex of persons, machine and procedures designed to generate an orderly flow of pertinent information collected from both intra and extra firm sources, for use as the basis for decisions making in specified responsibility of marketing management.” Thus, MIS consists of four sub-systems-internal accounting system, marketing intelligence system, marketing research system and management science system.

Marketing information systems operates on a continuous basis while market research is conducted on a project to project basis. However, the relationship between marketing information systems and marketing research may be understood with the help of the following points:

1. MIS is a broader activity – MIS is a major tool used by management to aid in decision making and problem solving, whereas, marketing research is one of the major components of it.

2. MIS is preventive and curative in nature whereas marketing research is curative one. With the help of MIS a marketing company may anticipate changes, forecast their direction and intensity and then adjust its marketing programmes according to the new situations. The function of marketing research starts when a marketing problem is felt by the company, therefore it is curative in nature.

3. MIS handles both internal and external data whereas, in marketing research the emphasis is on handling external information.

4. MIS operates on continuous basis as a system in the organisation. Marketing research operates in a fragmented, intermittent fashion-on a project to project basis.

5.  MIS includes other sub-system besides marketing research, Apart from marketing research other sub-systems of MIS are – internal accounting system, marketing intelligence systems and management science system. Thus, marketing research is one source of information input into a marketing information system.

6. MIS is future-oriented activity. It anticipates prospective problems and the activities of MIS are designed in such a manner as to prevent problems from arising. Marketing research tends to stress the collection of past data to solve present problems.

7. MIS is a computer-based system. A marketing company may design suitable software according to its own marketing and managerial requirements, whereas, marketing research to generally not a computer based process.

In short, marketing research is a formalized means of obtaining information to be used in making marketing decisions. On the other hand, MIS is a system designed to generates and disseminate an orderly flow of pertinent information to marketing managers. Thus, marketing research is concerned with the act of generating information, whereas MIS is focused on managing the flow of information to marketing decision-makers.   



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