E-Marketing

Dr. Karim Kobeissi

Chapter 6: E-Marketing Research

Keywords: Data Vs Information

Data consists of RAW FACTS and FIGURES. Data is a
building block. When that data is organized or
interpreted into sets according to context, it provides
information. For example, recording the temperature
of your classroom continuously over a set period is
data collection. From that data information may be
derived, such as the highest, lowest, and average
temperatures

over

that

period.

Bothdata

informationare used to attain knowledge.

and

Keywords: Management Information System (MIS)

A Management Information System (MIS) broadly refers to a
computer-based system that provides managers with the tools to
organize, evaluate and efficiently manage departments within an
organization. In order to provide past, present and prediction
information, a management information system can include
softwarethat helps in decision making, data resources such as
databases, thehardwareresources of a system,decision support
systems,

people

management

and

project

management

applications, and any computerized processes that enable the

department to run efficiently.

Keywords: Focus Group

A

focus

group

is

group

of

people

assembled to participate in a discussion

about a product before it is launched, or to
provide feedback on a political campaign,
television series, etc.

The Purina Story

Nestle Purina PetCare wanted to know
whether their Web sites and online
advertising increased off-line behavior.
Nestle Purina developed 3 research
questions:
Are our buyers using our branded Web
sites?
Should we invest in other Web sites?
If so, where should we place the
advertising?

The Purina Story (con)

They combined online and off-line
shopping panel data and found that:
Banner click-through rate was low (0.06%).
31% of subjects who were exposed to both
online and off-line advertising mentioned
Purina.
The high exposure group mentioned Purina
more than the low exposure group.
Home/health and living sites received the
most visits from their customers.

Data Drive Strategy

Information overload is a reality for consumers

and marketers alike.

E-marketers

must

determine

how

to

gain

insights from billions of bytes of data to update

marketing strategy.
Purinas e-marketers, for example, sorts through

hundreds of millions of pieces of data about

21.5 million consumers to make decisions.

From Data to Decision: Purina

Marketing Knowledge Management

Knowledge management is the process of managing
the (a) creation, (b) use, and (c) diffusion of knowledge.
Data, information, and knowledge are shared with
internal decision makers, partners, channel members,
and sometimes customers.
A marketing knowledge database includes data about
customers, prospects and competitors.

The Marketing Information System (MkIS)

E-marketers

usually

use

aMarketing

Information System(MkIS) which is a

Management

Information

System(MIS)

designed to supportmarketing decision

making.

Most Common Data Collection Methods

Sources of Data
The three main sources of data that emarketers

use

problems are:
1) Internal Records
2) Primary Data
3) Secondary Data

to

address

research

Source 1: Internal Records

Accounting,

finance,

production,

and

marketing personnel continually collect

and analyze data.
Sales data
Customer characteristics and behavior
Universal product codes
Tracking of user movements through web pages

Source 2: Primary Data

Primary

datais

data

that

has

been

collectedspecially for the purpose in mind. This type

of data are generally original and collected for the first
time.
The Internet and other technologies facilitate primary

data collection:
Marketers use the Net to collect primary data

through online surveys, online focus groups

Source 3: Secondary Data

Secondary

datacorrespond

to

data

collected

and

recorded by someone else prior to and for a purpose

other than the current project .
Secondary data provide information about competitors,
population demographics, economic environment, etc.
Although secondary data can be collected more quickly
and less expensively than primary data, it may not meet
e-marketers information needs:
Data was gathered for a different purpose.
Quality of secondary data may be biased.
Data may be old.

Public and Private Data

Sources

Publicly generated data

U.S. Patent Office

CIA World Factbook
American Marketing Association
Wikipedia

Privately generated data

comScore
Forrester Research
Nielsen/NetRatings

Commercial online databases

Primary Research Steps

Advantages & Disadvantages of Online

Research

Ethics of Online Research

Companies conducting research on the Web

often

give

respondents

gift

or

fee

for

participating.
Other ethical concerns include:
Respondents are increasingly upset at getting unwelcome email requests for survey participation.
Harvesting of e-mail addresses from newsgroups without
permission.
Surveys for the sole purpose of building a database.
Privacy of user data.

Monitoring The Social Media

Companies must now monitor numerous web pages,

blogs, and photo sites in order to learn what is being

said about their brands or executives.
Companies can hire PR firms or online reputation

management firms to help.

They can also set up automated monitoring systems

using e-mail, RSS feeds, or special software.

Google offers e-mail alerts for selected keywords.

Google Alert for Judy Strauss Name

Other Technology-Enabled Approaches

Client-side Data Collection
Cookies
Use PC meter with panel of users to track the
user clickstream.

Server-side Data Collection

Site log software
Real-time profiling tracks users movements
through a Web site.

Real-Space Approaches
Data collection occurs at off-line points of
purchase.
Real-space techniques include bar code
scanners and credit card terminals.
Catalina Marketing uses the UPC scanner
for

promotional

purposes

at

grocery

REAL-SPACE DATA COLLECTION & STORAGE

EXAMPLE

Marketing Databases & Data Warehouses

Product databases hold information about product

features,

prices,

databases

hold

and

inventory

information

levels;
about

customer
customer

characteristics.
Data

warehouses

are

repositories

for

the

entire

organizations historical data, not just for marketing

data.
Software vendors are attempting to solve the website

maintenance
systems.

problem

with

content

management

Data Analysis and Distribution

Four

important

types

of

analysis

for

marketing decision making include:

1) Data mining
2) Customer profiling
3) RFM (recency, frequency, monetary value)
analysis
4) Report generating

1- Data Mining
Data mining is the process of
analyzing data from different
perspectives and summarizing it
into useful information that can be
used to increase revenue, cuts
costs, or both.
Data mining software is one of a
number of analytical tools for
analyzing data. It allows users to
analyze data from many different
dimensions or angles, categorize
it, and summarize the
relationships identified.
Technically, data mining is the
process of finding correlations or
patterns among dozens of fields in
large relational databases.

2- Customer Profiling
Customer profilingis a
way to create a portrait
of
yourcustomersto
help you make design
decisions
concerning
your
service.
Yourcustomers
are
broken down into groups
ofcustomerssharing
similar
goals
and
characteristics and each
group
is
given
a
representative with a
photo, a name, and a
description.

3- RFM Analysis
RFMis a method used for analyzingcustomervalue. RFM stands for
Recency -How recently did the customer purchase?
Frequency -How often do they purchase?
Monetary Value -How much do they spend?
Most businesses will keep data about customer purchases. All that is needed
is a table with the customer name, date of purchase and purchase value.
One methodology is to assign a scale of 1 to 10, whereby 10 is the
maximum value and to stipulate the a formula by which the data suits the
scale. For example in a service based business you could have:
Recency = 10 - the number of months that have passed since the customer
last purchased
Frequency = number of purchases in the last 12 months (maximum of 10)
Monetary = value of the highest order from a given customer (benchmarked
against $10k)
Alternatively, one can create categories for each attribute. For instance, the
Recency attribute might be broken into three categories: customers with

4- Report Generating

Report

generating

softwares are used to

analyze
variousdatabase
sources (e.g., excel,
Access...)
generate

and
human-

Knowledge Management
Metrics

Two metrics are currently in widespread

use:
ROI: total cost savings divided by total cost of
the installation.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): includes cost of
hardware, software, labor, and cost savings.