Chapter 5

Are not essential, so consumers can decide whether or not to purchase them.

• Discretionary purchases

• Competition

Information developed from activities that occur within the organization.

• Internal information

• external information

Provides an understanding of factors outside of the organization.

• External information

• Internal information

The information that goes into the system that is needed for decision making.

• Output

• Input

Involves the resources used to maintain information, including equipment and procedures, so that it can be used when needed.

• Input

• Storage

The process of summarizing, combining, or comparing information so that decisions can be made.

• Analysis

• Statistics

The result of analysis given to decision makers.

• Input

• Output

A procedure designed to identify solutions to a specific marketing problem through the use of scientific problem solving.

• Marketing research

• sample

Information already collected for another purpose that can be used to solve the current problem is

• Secondary data

• Data

Information collected for the first time to solve the problem being studied is

• Secondary data

• Primary data