PREDICASTS is an international organisation which provides from its United Kingdom office a comprehensive service to marketing researchers in Europe. Information is available as data-basis and in publications.
Marketing people need a flexible computerized tool to analyze, plan, model and forecast changing marketing situations. They need to constantly ask those countless, hypothetical "what-if" questions across many variables. But they also need an easy-to-use software tool which doesn't require that the marketing specialist also be a computer programming specialist. Where, among all of the available packages, is that flexible software for marketing applications which allows for growth and development in both new directions and dimensions? Where is that system which allows learning, or trial-and error process to take place, and then provides the opportunity to incorporate these building-block experiences into further development of more refined, pinpointed marketing objectives? TYMCOM SERVICE is the timesharing service of the international Tymshare Group available world wide through an international data communications network. Application and consulting services are available through offices in major cities.
Marketing Managers all over the world are overloaded with an abundance of information data. This information "overkill" has its source not only in the computer department of an enterprise. A very large part of it is produced and distributed by Marketing Research Agencies themselves. In particular Panel Research Agencies produce at regular intervals volumes of computer data, crowding not only their own archives and desks but unfortunately also the heads of their clients. Instead of the lack of information known in the earlier stages of our history, high-volume data sources have been evolved today. Marketing Managers are desperately demanding assistance: it is not quantity, but quality of information that is needed. But out of the mass of information supplied Marketing Management wants the few crucial questions pinpointing and analysing. For this reason data analysis is becoming increasingly more important in Marketing Research than the problems encountered in the early days, those of data collection. Some new solutions to that old problem in Marketing Research are shown and illustrated by applying time-series-analysis and Marketing Information systems (MIS) by Marketing Research Agencies.
In 1977 I installed the EXPRESS Market Research Information Service at UNION Deutsche Lebensmittelwerke OmbH, a Unilever subsidiary. This paper discusses the value placed by the management on the system, after two years' experience of the system and its users within the company. From this the formula the success for future MIS installations can be deduced.
The decline in the cast of computing has put new decision making tools based on mathematical models and statistical formulae within the grasp of a wide range of commercial organisations. However, mathematical models have their limitations in a business environment and decision making requires more background information than processed numerical data can provide. On-line retrieval systems now provide a facility which can supplement on-line processing of computerised models. Euronet DIANE is one of the most significant European achievements in this field.
QUANTUM is a sophisticated package designed to maximise the benefits of computer technology for the Survey Practitioner. It is used extensively in Europe and USA for both ad-hoc surveys and larger more complex studies in the commercial and public sectors of industry. QUANTUM combines in one package the facilities available in most survey analysis packages, namely data editing, reformatting, generation of new variables, weighting, tabular and statistical analysis. It operates on PRIME and IBM computers in batch or interactive mode. This paper discusses briefly some technical aspects of its current features and then outlines the total system approach used in the design of the package.
The EXPORIENT data bank became operational in 1979 within the International Trade Centre UNCTAD/GATT with a view to collecting and processing rapidly and systematically foreign trade data on a large number of countries and to facilitating the selection of target markets for further intensive desk and field investigations. Export promotion organizations in numerous developing countries are currently using the services of this data bank by receiving regularly comprehensive series of tabulations on microfiche (ITS) or by requesting tailor-made printouts. Various computer programs provide detailed analyses of the export performance of individual developing countries (Profilimport tables and graphs) as well as their competitors (Market Analysis tables) for any given SITC product. In the changing context of international trade, such a quantitative approach, complemented by the experience drawn from recent marketing activities, is necessary to build efficient export promotion strategies. Subsequently, it provides an evaluation of the results of past marketing efforts with a view to revising the orientation of trade diversification policies by products and markets.
Only a flexible, sophisticated and scientifically based system can give a satisfactory answer all sides can agree to and use as rational guidelines for the future. Colgate- Palmolive utilizes a MMIS to analyse the effect of its marketing-mix and to give medium and long-range sales forecasts. In addition to data processing the main role of this MMIS is to process and evaluate market information. The structure of this MMIS, which has become known in Europe under the name of MARKET, and some of its possible applications will be discussed in the paper "FORSYS/MAVIS and MAR- KET/E. I.S. - forecasting-oriented information systems for use on the operational and strategic levels of decision making" by J.M. Becher. Here, the structure of a multivariate market model is to be described, which Colgate-Palmolive uses to explain and forecast the market for nappies in an European country. This model was constructed with the above mentioned system and is being continuously up-dated.
SISDATA, the Statistical Information System, designed and maintained by Slamark International, an Italian information system and marketing consultancy firm, deals with secondary statistical data, that is, the data of the main sectors of a country's economic and social activity normally surveyed in official statistics. The system has two facets: a socio-economic analysis function applied to extremely disaggregated data covering a considerable time span, and a dynamic trend observer dealing with the most recent aggregated data in the form of time series. Currently envisaged in a European dimension, the Italian archive is already operative and will be joined by the French, Federal German and British sectors. The System is, moreover, multi-lingual, the descriptions to the statistical tables (rows and columns) being provided in the language of the country surveyed and English as the interface language.
The retailing sector because of its unique characteristics and its environment is in great need of information. This need is greater as the risk is greater. Small retailers are facing greater risks and, therefore, their need for information is also great. Retail Information Management Systems (RIMS) is an answer to information needs and risk management. RIMS has an internal and an external component. The internal component is composed of six separate information units. RIMS produces three different outputs, standard reports, answers to specific questions and special assessment and evaluation.
Only comparatively recently has informatics been accepted as a science in its own right and its content and boundaries are still unsettled. In effect, the definition of the term informatics is still being argued between experts both at national and international levels. Without going into a lengthy discussion on the semantic and other distinctions it should be made clear that in this paper, the term is understood as the electronic processing of data within information systems. And, in fact, this paper is concerned with those information systems which form the operative instrument for the organization, processing and retrieval of information itself.
The availability of advanced techniques provides job satisfaction for analytical staff and the use of such techniques provides the information needed by management to maintain a competitive edge. The use of these techniques is usually by specialist and highly qualified staff although we would stress that this is not necessarily so. These staff need to concentrate their efforts on the analysis and interpretation of results not on programming. We have therefore made our systems as easy to use as possible and TSAM for example can be learned in as little as one day. The interactive nature of our service makes possible the rapid evaluation of alternatives and re-runs with new data. This simplifies tasks and improves the probability of optimum results. Clear presentation of these results is important and we have therefore provided reporting and graphics facilities as built in options.