Traditionally Nepalese market was sellers’ market. In most of the sector, there was no competition or minimum competition in the market. Demand was much higher than supply. In most of the sector, there was presence of public enterprises and government control in the market. Because of the minimum supply in comparison to market demand selling was the easiest task for any marketer and in that situation there was no need of marketing information system, to decision makers. After the restoration of democracy in 2046 BS, democratic government gave emphasis on privatization and economic liberalization. Adaptation of economic liberalization and privatization policy in Nepal, results in creased competition, and private sector emerged in Nepalese business environment. The traditional sellers’ market has been changing into buyer's market. Impact of globalization has been increasing. Internal competition has changed into global competition. In that context, Nepalese marketers realized the need of marketing information.
Following points explains the practices of marketing information system in Nepal.
i. Most of the Nepalese marketing decision makers lack proper information while taking marketing decisions.
ii. Investment in information system is taken as an unnecessary expenditure in Nepalese business scenario.
iii. There is no separate marketing information system in most of the Nepalese organizations. It is in initial phase and development of MKIS in Nepalese organization is in tortoise’s pace.
iv. In many cases, top level managers take their marketing decisions based on their past experience and intuition or rule of thumb.
v. Marketing information system in private sector is better than government sector.
vi. Internal record system is a major part of Nepalese organization's marketing information system. There is a growing use of computer to maintain data warehouse. We can easily observe in most of the government organization that internal record system is very poor. For example, information about citizenship, land ownership, driving license, vehicles, etc.
vii. Use of marketing intelligence system is very limited. It is considered as a waste of financial resources. Usually, marketers use newspaper ad tracking, visiting competitors' website, etc. Some marketers use college students who works as an intern to collect information about competitors. Nepal police, government staffs are also used for marketing intelligence. Presence of business spy is not heard till date in Nepal.
viii. Marketing research is still luxury in Nepal. Most of the research are conducted by university students, Nepal Rastra Bank or donors such as Asian Development Bank, World Bank, etc. Research conducted by students are mainly academic research. Research wings of most of the University are at survival stage.
ix. Multi National Companies sometimes use outsourcing techniques for marketing research. Full service ad agencies such as MARS (Marketing, Advertising and Research Solutions Private Limited), Media Hub, Prisma Ad, etc. sometimes conduct marketing research as per their clients’ need. Some popular media like, Business Age, Boss, BTV also conduct marketing research to some extent. Medium scale marketing research is dominated by ad agencies. Consulting firms are increasing in Nepal day by day.
x. Nepal Government is not research friendly till date.
xi. Use of decision support system in Nepal is getting popular day by day. Use of software for data analysis is increasing. Even private sector organization and college or universities are also conducting research and data analysis training frequently.
xii. Global research firms have already entered in Nepalese market to conduct research, research training and data processing.
xiii. Scope and importance of marketing information system will definitely increase in the days to come.
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