Marketing Information Systems (Essay Sample)

Marketing Information Systems
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Q1: How does Salesforce.com use an MIS (Marketing information systems) to enhance its business?
Salesforce.com has put Gumtree’s customers as the primary emphasis. Their Marketing Information System is in execution on their salesforce1 interaction platform that allows sharing of data across customer service, sales and their marketing. The MIS serves to increase the focus given to the client by the business. Using of cloud computing options allows the Gumtree, their dealers and consumers to access all the information they require to transact on Salesforce.com. Salesforce.com has also used MIS in the creation of a singular platform for all of their business transactions. The platform brings together critical operations from marketing, business development, sales and other business services. This MIS system integration allows access to information on remote mobile devices. The mobile devices are tools used by their business development managers in pursuing their business deals with customers. This ease of access to customer sales data and history is an influential factor in making sales. The managers as it allows them to have all essential customer information that might sway a customer’s decision in the acquisition of a product. The knowledge of a buyer’s needs also helps the development managers in creation and fostering of a long-term relationship with their clients and potential consumers.
After creation, relationships get further nurturing through their Exact Target Marketing Cloud. The collected data allows Gumtree to provide personalized content and only relevant information to their dealers and customers. Also, the cloud enables the salesforce.com team to analyse the collected and sent information from both their consumers and their partner dealers. Customer response if further used to customize services to fit their customer needs. This modification is done through the analysis of the clients’ feedback on Salesforce to know which communications are beneficial and those regarded as non-essential by the clients.
Salesforce.com also have an MIS Service cloud that serves the purpose of processing their customer queries. The sales cloud captures all customer transaction information allowing customers a convenient avenue to interact with the business. This communication platform allows clients to continue their conversations with the enterprise from their last interaction. This sense of continuity is a means for created a sense of relationship and continuity between the customer and the business. Sustenance of the relationship allows the customers to feel like an important component to salesforce.com, this in effect creates customer loyalty and hence the fast growth of the company CITATION sal15 \l 2057 (salesforce.com, 2015).
Q2: How has Gumtree Australia utilised Salesforce.com?
Gumtree Australia has employed salesforce.com in creation and sustenance of relationships with their customers. Given the statistical popularity of Gumtree, the use of the salesforce1 platform allows them to front their products to the Australian market in the 2.4 times every Australian visits Gumtree. Effectively salesforce.com has widened the customer scope for Gumtree and also provided an efficient way for the company to interact with their buyers. Further, an online commerce platform allows Gumtree an easy access to the 79 percent of Australians who have internet connectivity on a daily basis. Salesforce.com has provided a convenient platform for target market analysis as Gumtree can observe actively collective and individual customer trends. The analysis is essential for the business in the formulation of their marketing strategy as they seek to conform to the individual customer feedback and also increase the relevance of their communications to their customers and dealers.
Through respective customer feedback, Gumtree can gain market intelligence and make product and market decisions based on the needs of their client base. Market aptitude also helps the company in the formulation of effective marketing models that allow them to match information from customer response to the supplies from their dealers. This matching is attained through their use of the Exact Target Marketing Cloud and the service cloud. Gumtree has also utilised salesforce.com as a means to respond to customer concerns. The platform has provided an effective B2C communication platform not only on a transaction basis but also to serve customer queries. The fast development of Gumtree is significantly attributable to their salesforce1 platform as it is an essential tool used by their business development managers in their interactions and negotiations with customers that are already existing in their database. As such, salesforce.com can be termed as Gumtree’s networking platform as it serves more than a business purpose. All the services on salesforce.com combined provide Gumtree with a market research platform where they get to interact and learn from their buyers. Further, they are also able to make strategic marketing decisions from an informed point of information on all their three cloud platforms.
In the long run, salesforce.com has helped Gumtree in the creation of a stronger brand through increased customer contact and content customization. Further, the platform has acted as an efficient marketing avenue for Gumtree as the interactions are not limited to existing customers only. Whe...