Page 139 - Foundations of Marketing

106 Part 2 | Marketing Research and Target Markets

the site or making a purchase. Frequent-flyer programs ask loyal customers to participate in
surveys about their needs and desires and to track their best customers’ flight patterns by time
of day, week, month, and year. Supermarkets frequently offer store discount cards, which
allow them to gain consumer data on purchases through checkout scanners.
Marketing researchers can also use databases, such as LexisNexis or online commercial
databases, for a fee, to obtain useful information for marketing decisions. To find research
within a database, a user typically searches by keyword, topic, or company, and the data-
base service generates abstracts, articles, or reports. Information provided by a single firm on
household demographics, purchases, television viewing behavior, and responses to promotions
such as coupons and free samples is called single-source data . For example, BehaviorScan,
offered by SymphonyIRI Group, screens the television and purchasing habits of markets with
20
populations between 75,000 and 215,000 . It is important that marketers gather longitudinal
(long-term) information on customers to maximize the usefulness of single-source data.

Marketing Decision Support Systems

A marketing decision support system (MDSS) is customized computer software that aids
marketing managers in decision making by helping them anticipate the effects of certain deci-
sions. An MDSS has a broader range and offers greater computational and modeling capabili-
ties than spreadsheets and lets managers explore a broad range of alternatives. For instance,
an MDSS can determine how sales and profits might be affected by higher or lower interest
rates or how sales forecasts, advertising expenditures, or production levels might affect over-
all profits. For this reason, MDSS software is often a major component of a company’s MIS.
Some decision support systems incorporate artificial intelligence and other advanced com-
puter technologies.

LO 5 . Identify key ethical and ISSUES IN MARKETING RESEARCH
international considerations in
marketing research.
Marketers should identify and be aware of concerns that can influence the integrity of research,
such as ethical issues and the international environment. Ethical issues are a constant risk in
gathering and maintaining consistently high-quality information. International issues relate
to environmental differences, such as culture, legal requirements, level of technology, and
economic development.

The Importance of Ethical Marketing Research
Marketing managers and other professionals increasingly rely on marketing research, mar-
keting information systems, and new technologies to make better decisions. Therefore, it is
essential that professional standards be established by which to judge the reliability of mar-
keting research. Such standards are necessary because of the ethical and legal issues that can
develop in gathering marketing research data. For example, many consumers are wary of how
their personal information collected by marketers will be used, especially whether it will be
sold to third parties.
It is important that marketers remain ethical at all times, to retain consumer and stake-
holder trust and a positive reputation. To provide standards and guidelines, organizations such
as the Marketing Research Association have developed codes of conduct and guidelines that
single-source data Information
provided by a single marketing promote ethical marketing research. To be effective, such guidelines must instruct marketing
research firm researchers on how to avoid misconduct. Table 4.4 provides sample steps researchers should
follow when introducing a questionnaire to a customer in order to ensure respondent coopera-
marketing decision support
system (MDSS) Customized tion and satisfaction.
computer software that aids As increasing amounts of personal information can be found online, consumer privacy
marketing managers in decision remains a significant issue. Firms have the ability to purchase tremendous amounts of detailed
making data on customer demographics, interests, and more personal matters such as bankruptcy

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