3. Gathering Information and Scanning the Environment

A factor that defines the efficiency of marketing and promotional activities, is the quality as well as volume of information that fuel the development process of the endeavors above. Ultimately, gathering information and scanning the environment of a respective competitive industry is considered to be the primary sequence of steps in terms to offerings development. 

To assist with the generalized volume of activities that take place prior to the development stage of any business, is the concept of Marketing Information Systems (MIS). In a simplistic, yet accurate definition,  the Marketing Information Systems refers to an organized collective analysis which interprets, stores and segments market information, from either the internal or external ecosystem of an organization or industry. This information is consistently fueled to marketers to a regularly defined and consistent basis, equipping them with accurate and timely-defined statistics and analytics.

To further address the concept and framework of Marketing Information Systems, they are composed by four different segmentations, whose contribution allows for consistent flow of information. Specifically, these four different segmentations address the internal records of an organization, going over information comprising of customer data, tendencies, product efficiency in addition to economical related values that define the journey of their offerings. 

In addition to the above, we then have Marketing Intelligence, going over information that define occurrences within the market, such as trends, pricing policies among competitors in addition to change in customer's preferences. Linked with this concept, we also have Marketing Research, addressing similar notions such as the above, however, in a closely related manner to the internal environment of an organization. 

Last but not least, we have the marketing decision support system, capitalizing upon numerous software programs that are utilized for accurate and efficient analysis of data in order to justify marketing decisions. With the utilization of this fourth segmentation, marketers are enabled to address a higher variety and volume of data. (thebalancecom, 2015)

Before finalizing with this entry, to answer the question posed within the presentation we were subjected to during the strategic marketing management course, a few of the megatrends are ultimately influencing marketing operations on a real world level, are globalization, digitalization, technology, big data and finally, global connectivity. These 5 unique, yet, interlinked megatrends, address the mass acquisition of data that is required within marketing endeavors of businesses worldwide, while to further support my choices, the notion of globalization, digitalization, technology as well as global connectivity, add to the degree of reachability, exposure and voice radiation of brands and their message to their respective customer bases.

References:

Gathering information and scanning the environment presentation - Strategic Marketing Management course - KAMK. Retrieved from: DevMoodle - Strategic Marketing Management Course.

https://www.facebook.com/thebalancecom. (2015). What You’re Missing if You Don’t Have a Marketing Information System. Retrieved from The Balance Small Business website: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-is-a-marketing-information-system-mis-2296892