A Case Analysis of the Cost and Value of Marketing Information

Marketing management is often portrayed as an information‐intensive process. Indeed the willingness to spend on market research is seen by some as a proxy for marketing orientation[1]. In the best firms this information is processed and disseminated by means of marketing information systems; market research provides a toolkit by which to collect the primary data that drive the information systems. Underlying the decision to purchase market research is a process that gives expression to implicit notions of the relative value and cost of the information in question. Here a case is provided that helps to make explicit some of the issues surrounding the cost and value of marketing information. The case is set in the context of making the decision of whether to buy further information before making an important decision, or whether to proceed on the basis of what management already knows. It illustrates how facts and judgment can be combined to arrive at a decision which is consistent with the decision maker′s overall attitude to risk.