4 Managing Marketing Information to Gain Customer Insights

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In this chapter, we continue our exploration of how marketers gain insights into consumers and the marketplace. We look at how companies develop and manage information about important marketplace elements: customers, competitors, products, and marketing programs. To succeed in today’s marketplace, companies must know how to turn mountains of marketing information into fresh customer insights that will help them engage customers and deliver greater value to them.

Let’s start with a story about marketing research and customer insights in action. Over the past decade, The LEGO Group has used innovative marketing research to gain deep insights into how children really play and then used those insights to create compelling play experiences for children all over the world. In the process, it has rescued itself from near bankruptcy to become the world’s biggest toy maker. As one analyst puts it, The LEGO Group has now become “the Apple of Toys.”

Image shows Lego logo on the left. On the right are a number of colorful Lego blocks.

The LEGO Group’s innovative marketing research produced lots of “Aha! Moments,” helping the brand to recast its classic, colorful bricks into modern, tech-rich play experiences for children around the world.

(left) Bloomberg via GettyImages; (right) © incamerastock / Alamy Stock Photo

Objectives Outline

  1. Objective 4-1 Explain the importance of information in gaining insights about the marketplace and customers.

  2. Objective 4-2 Define the marketing information system and discuss its parts.

  3. Objective 4-3 Outline the steps in the marketing research process.

  4. Objective 4-4 Explain how companies analyze and use marketing information.

  5. Objective 4-5 Discuss the special issues some marketing researchers face, including public policy and ethics issues.

AS THE LEGO STORY highlights, good products and marketing programs begin with good customer information. Companies also need an abundance of information on competitors, resellers, and other actors and marketplace forces. But more than just gathering information, marketers must use the information to gain powerful customer and market insights.

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