Marketing decision support system is the coordinated collection of systems, tools, techniques and data with the supportive hardware and software through which a given organization gathers and interprets certain information in the business environment. These systems assist in decision making in formation of marketing plans and help in the identification of advantageous levels of pricing.
Steps of Marketing Research Process
Problem identification – This involves a clear and precise understanding of the existing problem. It is important that the research team identifies and understands the problem in its capacity, as it affects all the activities that are involved in the research process.
Designing a Proper Approach – here, the research team examines a variety of factors such as the company’s goals, financial resources, manpower etc. it may involve discussions between the research team and some experts.
Development of the Actual Research Design – this step needs very precise execution and includes qualitative analysis and sampling of the required data.
Data Collection and Survey – This process involves field-related activities such as interviews and feedback sessions that are done by data collection agents.
Report Generation and Presentation – the research findings are accurately and clearly presented through graphs, pie-charts and appropriate statistics.
Marketing channel and intermediaries. These are the activities that transfer of goods ownership from production to consumption and involve all the marketing activities. The intermediaries are needed to execute the assortment of necessary activities and transfer goods to final users.
Channel relation types. The channel relationships create an efficient exchange environment. They are very important for the channel management because the relationships carry with them various levels of financial, time and resource investment. Channel relation types range from single transactions to alliances or partnerships. The relationships have some significant costs. For example, a single owner model is risky as large amounts of capital assets are required.
