MIS Building Blocks
The three-letter acronym for a system that gathers, sorts, analyzes, and distributes timely information to marketing decision-makers.
What is an MkIS (or MIS / Marketing Information System)?
Data collected firsthand specifically for your current research problem—like sending out your own customer survey.
What is primary data?
The most common method for gathering primary quantitative data, often delivered via email, text link, or a code on a store receipt.
What is a survey (or questionnaire)?
When you scan your Starbucks or Chick-fil-A rewards app at checkout, your order goes into this type of software that tracks customer interactions and loyalty.
What is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system?
Asking a survey question like, "Don't you agree our amazing new sneakers are super comfortable?" introduces this flaw.
What is bias (or a leading question)?
Sales receipts, inventory counts, and customer billing histories are examples of this type of company data.
What are internal records (or internal data)?
Using U.S. Census reports or a published industry article to pick a new store location is an example of using this type of data.
What is secondary data?
A moderated group discussion with 6 to 10 target customers to get honest reactions to a new product concept or ad campaign.
What is a focus group?
The barcode scanner at a retail cash register captures this real-time sales and inventory data.
What is POS (Point-of-Sale) data?
Selling customer email addresses or phone numbers to third parties without permission violates this core ethical principle.
What is customer privacy (or data privacy / consent)?
Unlike one-time research projects, this MkIS component involves the ongoing, everyday monitoring of competitors, industry news, and market trends.
What is marketing intelligence?
Between primary and secondary data, this one is almost always faster and cheaper to get, though it might be outdated or too broad.
What is secondary data?
Watching shoppers walk through a store to see which displays catch their eye without asking them a single question.
What is observation (or observational research)?
Small text files stored on your web browser that let advertisers track which products you viewed and show you ads for them later.
What are cookies?
Before collecting personal tracking data on a website, companies are often legally required to let users actively do this—agreeing to cookies or email lists.
What is opt in (or give consent)?
Raw numbers and facts aren't useful on their own until analysts interpret them and turn them into these actionable takeaways for managers.
What are marketing insights (or actionable insights)?
This type of data deals with numbers, percentages, and statistics—such as "72% of Gen Z shoppers prefer mobile checkout."
What is quantitative data?
Testing two different versions of an email subject line or website button to see which one gets more clicks.
What is an A/B test (or experimental research)?
Tracking brand mentions, hashtags, and customer sentiment across TikTok, Instagram, and X is known by this two-word term.
What is social listening (or social monitoring)?
If a hacker breaks into a company's MkIS database and steals customer credit card info, the company has suffered one of these.
What is a data breach?
This software component of an MkIS combines data and analytical models to help managers test "what-if" scenarios before making a major decision.
What is a Marketing Decision Support System (MDSS)?
Instead of hard numbers, this type of data captures opinions, emotions, and the "why" behind consumer behavior.
What is qualitative data?
When you can't survey every single customer in your target market, you study this smaller, representative group instead.
What is a sample?
Netflix and Spotify use this type of predictive technology to analyze your past behavior and recommend what you'll watch or listen to next.
What are recommendation algorithms (or predictive analytics / AI)?
Only surveying shoppers at a mall at 2:00 PM on a Tuesday creates this type of error, because it leaves out students and full-time workers.
What is sampling bias (or a non-representative sample)?