Answer to Question #285390 in Marketing for kenny

Question

Explain the major components of a Marketing Decision Support System and show how the Decision Support System aid Marketers in making informed Marketing decisions 

Answer 1

A decision support system (DSS) is an information system that aids a business in decision-making activities that require judgment, determination, and a sequence of actions. The information system assists the mid and high-level management of an organization by analyzing huge volumes of unstructured data and accumulating information that can help to solve problems and help in decision-making. A DSS is either human-powered, automated, or a combination of both. A decision support systems consists of three main components; database, software system and user interface.

DSS Database- It contains data from various sources, including internal data from the organization, the data generated by different applications, and the external data mined form the Internet. The decision support systems database can be a small database or a standalone system or a huge data warehouse supporting the information needs of an organization. The DSS database usually contains a copy of the production database.

DSS Software System-It consists of various mathematical and analytical models that are used to analyze the complex data, thereby producing the required information. A model predicts the output in the basis of different inputs or different conditions, or finds out the combination of conditions and input that is required to produce the desired output.

DSS User Interface-It is an interactive graphical interface which makes the interaction easier between the DSS and its users. It displays the results of the analysis in various forms, such as text, table, charts or graphics. The user can select the appropriate option to view the output according to his/her requirement.

Marketing Decision Support Systems(MDSS) help decision-makers utilize data and models to solve unstructured problems based on management science, decision theory, systems science, behavioral science, computer science, and information technology. They are used to improve the quality and timeliness of marketing decisions by improving the effectiveness of decision-making. They focus on supporting, rather than replacing, managerial judgment, and ultimately, it is the harmony created between the strategic analysis of the system and the intuition of the manager that helps achieve a synergy during the decision-making process. However, the main drive of MDSS is to support marketing decision-making in a strategic planning context, which includes product design and planning, research and development, large-scope forecasting, customer profile analysis etc. Besides strategic marketing decisions MDSS can be used to support the software vendors' planning strategy for marketing products. It can help to identify advantageous levels of pricing, advertising spending, and advertising copy for the firm's products. This helps determine the firm's marketing mix for product software.