Page 126 - International Marketing

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128 International Marketing BRILLIANT'S

(a) The company trains and motivates the sales force to report new
developments. But they are very busy and often fail to pass on
significant information; the company must "sell" its sales force
on their importance as intelligence gatherers.
(b) The competitive company motivates distributors, retailers and
other intermediaries to pass along important intelligence.
Specialists even will be appointed to gather marketing intelligence
by some companies.
(c) The company purchases information from outside suppliers such
as some famous research firms who gather data at a much lower
cost than the company could do on its own.
(d) It is necessary to establish an internal marketing information
centre to collect and circulate marketing intelligence. It collects
and files relevant information and assists managers in evaluating
new information.
Intelligence System
International marketing requires a company-wide intelligence system
that significantly contributes to the coordination of activities. It can be
compared to the central nervous system. As the central nervous system
comprises of cells, which are related to each other, gathers information
and provides it the whole body, similarly, intelligence systems also con-
sist of elements such as people, data files, reports, PCs, etc. which are
related to each other in a network. It contains an information system which
gathers internal and external information and distributes it among the mem-
bers of the company.
Purpose of Market Intelligence
The intelligence system must keep the members of the company
updated with the recent developments. Such an intelligence system will
be used to:
 Monitor the international macro and operating environments.
 Monitor performance in different product markets and geographi-
cal areas.
 Communicate information about products, activities and achieve-
ments to the stakeholders.
 Assess resource allocation decisions and their impact on the
company's success.
 Enter new market or expand presence in a market.
 Minimize the risk of an investment decision being wrong.