Marketing information System - Subsystems of MIS

Marketing Information System:

Definition 1: Marketing information system is a collection of people, equipment and procedures to gather, sift, arrange, analyze and distribute important marketing information to marketing managers for better decision making. The four most important elements of this system are internal reports (like trends of balance sheets, orders, schedules, shipments, and inventories), marketing research system, marketing intelligence system ( data about employees, customers, suppliers, and resellers;  advertisements, competitor actions), Marketing models(Time series sales models, Linear programming, what if models).

Definition 2: The marketing information system (MIS) can be defined as a set of structured relationships, where men, machines and procedures intervene, and whose objective is to generate an orderly flow of pertinent information, coming from internal sources and external to the company, intended to serve as a basis for decisions within specific areas of marketing responsibility.

read more below about marketing information system

Subsystems of Marketing Information System:

Below are the four components of marketing information system, all the subsystems of marketing information system works in concerts to make a functional information system.

1. Internal reporting systems
2. Marketing research systems
3. Marketing intelligence systems
4. Marketing models

Internal reporting systems:

Trends of balance sheets, schedules, shipments, inventories trends of financial, production, manpower, marketing, stock holding, and logistical data; Trends of orders received, stock holdings and sales invoices are analyzed. These trends are used to reach at a better decision.

Marketing research systems:

Data is collected with an objective to address a well-defined problem. In other instances marketing research is done to continuously monitor marketing environment.

Marketing intelligence systems:

Whereas marketing research is focused, market intelligence is not. Sales force, after-sales personnel and district/area managers all are trained to collect information from competitors’ actions, customer complaints and requests and distributor problems. Newspapers, trade magazines, business journals and reports, economic forecasts and other media are also scanned to gather intelligence.

Marketing models:

Time series sales models, Linear programming, what if models etc. and other computerized systems are the analytical subsystem of the MIS e.g. brand switching models analyze the outcomes of switching to different brands. 

 

 

More About Marketing Information System:

In order for a correct interpretation and application of the data from information to be made, the following must be determined:

 
The degree of reliability of the information, subjecting it to an objective analysis examining the method followed to obtain it, as well as the people and institutions that collected the data and published the information. The rate of update of the information used, since we need the most recent and that it adjusts to reality. The degree of detail of the information used, so that data that allow knowing the components of the phenomenon studied are not included in the same concept.

Only adequate information allows having a company policy that determines the objectives to be achieved, the activity to be carried out, the decisions to be taken, etc have a program, follow it and coordinate it; and, finally, establish a control mechanism that verifies that everything is going according to plan, make the necessary corrections and adaptations.