Marketing Information System

Marketing Information System

BUS 339 Marketing Research

Technology has evolved from what it used to be. Smartphones, tablets, cars, all forms of handheld devices are now the dominant and, in all reality, it is not going anywhere. There have been many advances over the last decade and its success has implemented useful products that have made everyday tasks easy and efficient and the ability for businesses to offer services they would not have normally offered without these advances. With so many technological products out on the market, most company’s intents are to make life easier, productive and efficient for the consumer industry. However, the question that comes to mind is, why do some products make it and others fail? Google Glass is a high-tech product that I will be discussing in my paper to explain why the marketing information system could help solve marketing issues this product is facing.

Google Glass is a headset that is worn like eye glasses and has a small screen tucked into the upper corner of the frame that is consistently plugged into the internet and can retrieve emails, and other notifications such as calls through the convenience of the Google Glasses (Https://www.facebook.com/htsuka, 2014). This is ideal so that the consumer does not have to miss anything. Google announced its first smart headset in the summer of 2012. However, the unfinished Google Glass was not intended for the ordinary consumers but intended for developers and priced at $1500 (Tsukayama, 2012). It seemed like a clever idea at the time with much potential. It received a lot of public relations “It was paraded through talk shows, it got a 12-page story in Vogue, models at New York Fashion Week strut down the runway wearing Glass and celebrities like Oprah, Bill Murray, Beyoncé and Jennifer Lawrence were all seen wearing the device at different times” (Bentley.Edu, 2018). To be able to have a computer with internet ready capabilities at any moment could really take the experience to another level. However, with all that publicity, the product failed. So, what happened?

There were a few marketing issues that the Google’s marketing team did not consider. Google Glass launched the product with no date the product could be purchased, they did not provide mainstream advertising and they failed to clearly explain about the product (Reynolds,2015). As previously mentioned, Google Glass was created for developers as a test project and not for consumers. One primary marketing issue was that Google Glass was launched with no actual target in mind. When Google Glass was introduced to the developers it was an unfinished product.

The research design should have been considered before the product launch. Research data plays an important part to how successful the product will be within the market. Information that is developed or gathered by the researcher specifically for the research project at hand. There is also the secondary data which is gathered by someone other than the researcher and/or for some other purpose than that of the current project (Burns & Bush, 2012). Google is one of the top search engines and is an information technology company that has all forms of secondary information available and being able to utilize in-house and public available research as a marketing strategy would have been able to place Google Glass as a leader in wearable technology. The marketing team could have utilized standardized information as a part of the marketing strategy to obtain opinions and suggestions about the product. Standardized information is a type of secondary data in which the data collected and/or the way it is collected are standard for all users (Burns & Bush, 2012). The marketing team should have tried to strategize on finding out who the product would target and thereafter market to that specific audience by incorporating a descriptive research. The makers of Google Glass should have been interested in knowing what the consumer’s interests are and understanding their habits. “When we wish to know who our customers are, what brands they buy and in what quantities, where they buy the brands, when they shop, and how they found out about our products, we turn to descriptive research” (Burns & Bush, 2012). It is important to research and know information about the targeted audience as will provide valuable information such as the customers behaviors and what they are looking for.

When Google Glass was created there were no wearable technology gadgets. However, since then, there has grown competition that have invented wearables such as the smart watch, and the virtual reality headset.

Proprietary information is private, not public knowledge and information that a company wants to keep confidential such as financial data and test results (businessdictionary.com). Google would have benefited from including the demographic, behavioral, geographical segmentations in order to obtain statistics through its own search engines as well as implementing the customer relationship management (CRM) for direct marketing.

If Google’s marketing team would have implemented CRM’s, consumers behavior’s, descriptive research, research design along with survey’s and targeted audience feedback, Google Glass could have had a standing chance and ahead of today’s competition.

References:

Bentley.Edu. (2018, April). The Case for Google Glass: Finding Success Through Failure. Retrieved from https://www.bentley.edu/prepared/case-google-glass-finding-success-through-failure

Biscontini, T. (2015). Wearable technology. Salem Press Encyclopedia Of Science,

Businessdictionary.com. (2018, April). What is proprietary information? definition and meaning. Retrieved from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/proprietary-information.html

Burns, A. C. & Bush, R. F. (2012). Basic marketing research using Microsoft Excel data analysis (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN: 978-0-13-507829-6

Https://www.facebook.com/htsuka/. (2014, February 27). Everything you need to know about Google Glass. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2014/02/27/everything-you-need-to-know-about-google-glass/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e626a09d908a

Reynolds, S. (2015, June 30). Why Google Glass Failed: A Marketing Lesson. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/siimonreynolds/2015/02/05/why-google-glass-failed/#53abb4d051b5

Tsukayama, H. (2012, June 27). Google I/O: Google Glass detailed. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-io-google-glass-detailed/2012/06/27/gJQAvZsF7V_story.html?utm_term=.5c8d74e58869