Internet Marketing Information

Knowledge is Power - by Machiavelli

What kind of people buy my products? What do they value? Where do they buy? What kinds of new products would they like to see on the market? Rhese and other related questions are the key to informed marketing decision-making. As we have seen, a prerequisite for the adoption of a marketing orientation is knowledge about customers and other aspects of the marketing environment that affect company operations.

Managers obtain this information by informal and formal means. Casual discussions with customers at exhibitions or through sales calls can provide valuable informal information about their requirements, competitor activities and future happenings in the industry. Some companies, particularly those who have few customers, rely on this type of interaction gathering to keep abreast of market changes.

As the customer base grows, such methods may be inadequate to provide the necessary in-depth market knowledge to compete effectively. A more formal approach is needed to supply information systematically to managers.

A formal method of information provision is developing a marketing information system. A marketing information system is crucial for the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Internet Marketing Information Systems

A good internet marketing information system is built upon an understanding of the information needs of marketing management, and supplies that information when, where and how the manager requires it. Data are derived from the marketing environment and transferred into information that marketing managers can use in their decision-making.

The difference between data and information is as follows:

  • Data: The most basic form of knowledge, e.g. the brand of butter sold to a particular customer in a certain town; this statistic is of little worth in itself but may become meaninful when combined with other data


  • Information: Combinations of data that provide decision-relevant knowledge, e.g. the brand preferences of customers in a certain age category in a particular geographic region


As an insight of the nature of a marketing information system four elements are relevant: internal continuous data, internal ad-hoc data, environmental scanning and marketing research.

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