THE COMPONENTS OF THE MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM AT BSL

1. Internal Record System
As the name itself suggests, it is the internal records that can be used by the marketing managers.
BSL is having a sound and systematic internal record system assisted with computers. All the officials are having a computer on, on their tables. They communicate through e-mails at times and by phones at other times.
Order to Payment Cycle
The order to payment cycle is the heart of the internal record system. At BSL, it includes, invoices, shipping and billing documents, vouchers, orders on fax, orders through e-mails, etc.
BSL is generally using the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) for speed, accuracy and efficiency of the order to payment cycle.
Sales Information System
At BSL, the sales force provides the sales information to the marketing managers. These may include their agents, dealers, whole sellers and retailers, who provide information regarding the sales of a particular fabric, how consumers respond to it, and its potential.
Sometimes information is given daily or even monthly or half yearly as per the market of the sales force person and as per the vitality of the information.
Telephones, fax and e-mails are the usually used devices for information exchange.
2. Marketing Intelligence System
“Whereas the internal record system supplies results data, the marketing intelligence system supplies happenings data.”
– Philip Kotler
Books, newspaper, trade publications, talking to customers, supplies and distributors, and meeting with other company’s managers, are the general source of marketing intelligence.
At BSL, they have several steps to improve their marketing intelligence.
Train and motivate the sales force to spot and report new developments.
The marketing manager remains in continuous contact of the distributors, retailers, and other intermediaries to gather important information.
If time demands, it can purchase information from outside suppliers such as research companies. This may prove to be more economical then gathering by itself.
The marketing manager and other people gather and circulate marketing intelligence by surfing various books, publications, newspapers, etc.
3. Marketing Research System
“The systematic collecting recording and analyzing of information to support marketing decision making is marketing research.”
– Philip Kotler
One of the most powerful tools available to the marketers of any organization is its market research system.
Procter & Gamble assigns marketing researchers to each product operating division to conduct research for existing brands. There are two separate in-house research groups. Each year P&G calls or visits over 1 million people in connection with about 1,000 research projects.
At Hawlett Packard, marketing research is handled by the Marketing Research and Information Centre (MRIC), located at the headquarter of HP. The MRIC is a shred resource for all HP divisions worldwide and is divided into three groups: The Market Information Center, The Decision and Support Teams, Regional Satellites.
So, big giants like P&G and HP give enough importance to marketing research and they should because marketing research can be applied to nearly every marketing activity and therefore most companies use research in a variety of ways.
At BSL, Marketing Research is an important activity of the marketing department. They generally do so, to know the customers demands and be in lieu with the demands, so as to innovate and also ‘surpass customer expectations.’
Generally, in most cases, both primary and secondary data are used for data collection.
The marketing people remain in direct contacts with the big customers and appoint agents for the small ones. The agents, remain in contact with the market and after having done observations, they report to the marketing department. Sometimes, in cases when the company wants to explore new markets, the marketing people visit the places by themselves and talk to the prospects personally
For example, to explore the uniform market in Rajkot, the marketing people at BSL are likely to is it the city with their entire price and products catalogues and talk directly to the prospects institutions and organizations.
In this way, BSL is having an effective MR system.
4. Marketing Decision Support System
The Marketing Decision Support System (MDSS) is a coordinated collection of data, systems, tools, and techniques with supporting software and hardware by which an organization gathers and interprets relevant information from business and environment and turns it into a basis for marketing action.
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The MDSS of every company is very objective. It differs according to industries, companies, policies, decisions and even, decision makers. Certain models may not be standard but they may be very useful for certain companies.
In its decision making processes which is a secret recipe of the company, it must surely be making use of certain statistical tools and techniques, and various models like – new product pretest models or, sales-response models, etc.