Marketing Management Support Systems

Developments in information technology have caused a marketing data explosion, but have also provided a powerful set of tools that can transform this data into applicable marketing knowledge. By collecting and transforming this information into useful data-driven and knowledge-driven systems, marketing management support systems enable more strategic and effective decision-making. Consequently, companies are making major investments in such support systems. This textbook on marketing management support systems looks at how to determine the most effective type of support for a given decision-maker in a particular marketing context. This topic is approached from a demand-oriented perspective, as decision aids for marketing professionals can only be effective if these systems match the thinking and reasoning processes of the managers using them.Consequently, the important questions addressed in this book are: how do marketing managers make decisions; how can marketing management support systems help to overcome several cognitive limitations of human decision-makers; and what is the most appropriate type of management support system for assisting the problem-solving methods employed by a marketing decision-maker? The different types of marketing management support systems are addressed in a discussion of the various technologies available. The more conventional data-driven marketing management support systems are covered - marketing models, marketing information systems and marketing decision support systems. The authors also devote extensive attention to more recently developed knowledge-driven marketing management support systems, such as marketing expert systems, marketing case-based reasoning systems, marketing neural networks and marketing creativity support systems. The book introduces the reader to the principles of the different systems and also provides many examples of real-life applications.By using insights gained from marketing science, behavioural decision theory, information systems research and artificial intelligence, the authors bring an interdisciplinary approach to the consideration of marketing management support systems. Besides discussing the state of the field, the book deals with the major research issues involving the design and implementation of these systems. Special attention is paid to considering what factors determine the success of marketing management support systems. Marketing management support systems constitute a rapidly evolving domain of interest to academic researchers and marketing professionals. The book discusses the implications posed for these systems by the ever-growing stream of data available from barcode scanners, direct marketing, and electronic commerce; by the integration of different business processes (enterprise resource planning); and by the need for vertical supply chain co-ordination.Also addressed are how recent advances in information technology, such as new methods for designing software, intelligent agents, and user-friendlier user interfaces, and data analysis (such as new methods for data mining) will affect the subsequent development of marketing management support systems. The challenge for the future is designing marketing management support systems that combine these newer technologies into maximally effective systems that constitute a real competitive edge in the marketplace. This book aims to help spur this implementation by offering a framework for matching the demand and supply of information in order to guide the functional design and development of marketing management support systems in specific situations.