Marketing Research for Managers, 3rd Edition

3	Marketing research begins at home

3.1	Introduction
3.2	What can be done at home?
3.3	What goes into an internal information system?
3.4	Summary

3.1 Introduction

Many organizations make judgements, prepare plans and reach decisions with little or no contribution from formal marketing research. This chapter indicates ways in which organization of data readily available from sources within the firm can produce information of great practical relevance. The purpose of an internal information system is to produce a continuous stream of data which can:

•	measure current performance
•	identify the characteristics of current performance
•	establish a baseline for change
•	form a basis for comparison: over time, over ...