Chapter 4 Managing Marketing Information to Gain Customer Insights

Part 1: Defining Marketing and the Marketing Process (Chapters 1–2)
Part 2: Understanding the Marketplace and Consumers (Chapters 3–6)
Part 3: Designing a Customer-Driven Strategy and Mix (Chapters 7–17)
Part 4: Extending Marketing (Chapters 18–20)

4

Marketing
Information to Gain

Managing

Customer Insights

Chapter Preview

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 deliver greater value to customers.
Let’s start with a good story about marketing research and customer insights in action at P&G, one of the world’s largest and most re-

spected marketing companies. P&G makes and markets a who’s who list of consumer megabrands, including the likes of Tide, Crest, Bounty,
Charmin, Puffs, Pampers, Pringles, Gillette, Dawn, Ivory, Febreze, Swiffer, Olay, Cover Girl, Pantene, Scope, NyQuil, Duracell, and dozens more. The company’s stated purpose is to provide products that “improve the lives of the world’s consumers.” P&G’s brands really do create value for consumers by solving their problems. But to build meaningful relationships with customers, you first have to understand them and how they connect with your brand. That’s where marketing research comes in.

P&G: Deep Customer Insights Yield Meaningful
Customer Relationships

C

reating customer value. Building meaningful customer relationships. All this sounds pretty lofty, especially for a company like P&G, which sells seemingly mundane, low-involvement consumer products such as detergents, shampoos, toothpastes, fabric softeners, toilet paper, and disposable diapers. Can you really develop a meaningful relationship between customers and a laundry

References: 23. Adapted from Brooks Barnes, “Lab Watches Web Surfers to See Which Ads Work,” New York Times, July 26, 2009. for Consumer Insights,” Forbes, November 16, 2009, www.forbes .com/forbes/2009/1116/marketing-hyundai-neurofocus-brainwaves-battle-for-the-brain.html. 40. See Jaikumar Vijayan, “Disclosure Laws Driving Data Privacy Efforts, Says IBM Exec,” Computerworld, May 8, 2006, p. 26; “Facebook Chief Privacy Officer—Interview,” Analyst Wire, February 18, 2009; 26. See Barney Beal, “Gartner: CRM Spending Looking Up,” SearchCRM .com, April 29, 2008, http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/news/article/ April 1, 2009; and “Research and Markets: Global Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Sales Automation Software Market 2008–2012,” M2 Presswire, January 14, 2010. 41. Federal Trade Commission, “Kellogg Settles FTC Charges That Ads for Frosted Mini-Wheats Were False,” April 20, 2009, www.ftc.gov/ .com/rangelife/2009/04/kelloggs-frosted-miniwheats-neuroscience-the-ftc-reckoning.html, April 21, 2009; and Todd Wasserman, “New FTC Asserts Itself,” Brandweek, April 27, 2009, p 27. Mike Freeman, “Data Company Helps Walmart, Casinos, Airlines Analyze Customers,” San Diego Union Tribune, February 24, 2006, 2009, www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/06/kroger-uses-shopperdata_n_155667.html. Also see Chris Blackhurst, “Tesco at Top of Its Game As Leahy Plays His Cards Right,” December 14, 2009, www. 32. Adapted from information in Ann Zimmerman, “Small Business; Do the Research,” Wall Street Journal, May 9, 2005, p BusinessWeek, January 9, 2008, www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/ content/jan2008/sb2008019_352779.htm; and www.bibbentuckers (Boston: PWS-Kent, 1990), p. 338. For more discussion on international marketing research issues and solutions, see Warren J. Keegan and Mark C NJ: Prentice Hall, 2011) pp. 170–201. 38. See Stephanie Clifford, “Many See Privacy on the Web as Big Issue, Survey Says,” New York Times, March 16, 2009, www.nytimes.com; and Mark Davis, “Behavioral Targeting of Online Ads Is Growing,” McClatchy-Tribune Business News, December 19, 2009 “Consumers Encouraged to Protect Their Privacy Online,” PR Newswire, January 27, 2010. January 26, 2010, p. B1; “Macolyte,” Urban Dictionary, www .urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Macolyte, accessed October 2010; Katie Hafner, “Inside Apple Stores, a Certain Aura Enchants the Faithful,” New York Times, December 27, 2007, www .nytimes.com/2007/12/27/business/27apple.html; “Apple,” the Apple+, accessed March 2010; Steve Maich, “Nowhere to Go But Down,” Maclean’s, May 9, 2005, p Stubborn Luxury of Apple,” BusinessWeek, November 23, 2009, p. 82; Adam Lashinsky, “The Decade of Steve,” Fortune, November 23, 2. GDP figures from The World Fact Book, April 2, 2010, https://www .cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html;