..@Chapter 4@... #marketing information system: people and procedures for assessing information needs, developing the needed information, and helping decision makers to use the information to generate and validate actionable customer and market insights. #internal databases: electronic collections of consumer and market information obtained from data sources within the company network. #marketing intelligence: the systematic collection and analysis of publicly available information about consumers, competitors, and developments int he marketing environment. #market research: the systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data relevant to a specific marketing situation facing an organization. #marketing research process: 1. define the problem and research objectives 2. develop the research plan for collecting information 3. collect and analyze data 4. interpret and report findings. #exploratory research: marketing research to gather preliminary data that will help define problems and assess hypotheses. #descriptive research: marketing research to better marketing problems, situations, or markets, such as the market potential for a product of the demographics and attitudes of consumers. #customer relationship management: managing detailed information about individual customers and carefully managing customer "touch points" in order to maximize customer loyalty.