Abstract
The healthcare market is a dynamic sector, where marketing decisions are decisive and critical. Strategic and tactical planning demand data and information to produce knowledge, which will capacitate firms for business maneuvers as product positioning, pricing, and technological implementation for optimal business development. Marketing data and information must be provided from a variety of sources to produce knowledge, in a process that can be characterized as “organizational intelligence.” Collected contents from healthcare associated industrial sectors, such as chemical and pharmaceutical, have the potential to produce integrated value chain knowledge, improving analysis and decision processes. Approaching the healthcare market, a framework for an intelligence system for marketing decisions is discussed in this chapter. Initially reviewing the literature, a conceptual base is formed, which delimits the evaluation of intended framework. As an exam of practical marketing intelligence system application, case studies of real decisions observed in Brazilian market are done at the end of the chapter to evaluate how intelligence and knowledge, as conceptualized in the literature review, serve in typical healthcare marketing competition, as managerial support for problem solutions.
TopBackground
In this section, concepts will be discussed to form the fundamental base for market intelligence system comprehension. Such base is initially oriented by a study of basic concepts of data, information, information systems and knowledge, as the intelligence system is proposed as an evolution of these conceptual paradigm, largely debated in areas such as information science, knowledge management and information technology. In sequence, intelligence and related concepts will be studied, completing the intended description of an essential foundation for chapter development.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Intelligence: From a marketing intelligence system focus, intelligence is conceptualized as a continuous process to generate knowledge from data and information, allowing organizational problems solution and continuous learning (of best practices, for instance).
Market Intelligence: Continuous production of knowledge, from data and information, allowing an organization to solve problems and gain strategic competitive advantage.
Knowledge: An organized set of information, added up with domain of the context in which it was produced.
Information: An organized set of data, referred to the same context, homogeneous.
Tactic Planning: Task to produce and monitor execution of plans, derived from strategic planning, to guide departments, sectors and business units in an integrated fashion.
Strategic Planning: A continuous process to produce the orientation derived from strategic thinking. It is usually done with expressive contribution of various organizational factors, as information technology tools, tactic integration as financial, logistics, operations, and human resources management processes.
Information System: An integrated system which involves information technology tools, trained people (as managerial personnel) and organizational structure to deal continuously with information for its various purposes.
Tactic Planning: Task to produce and monitor execution of plans, derived from strategic planning, to guide departments, sectors and business units in an integrated fashion.
Data: A value that could be generated from a measurement, observation or counting. It is expressed in defined units and can be easily converted.
Market Intelligence: Continuous production of knowledge, from data and information, allowing an organization to solve problems and gain strategic competitive advantage.
Intelligence: From a marketing intelligence system focus, intelligence is conceptualized as a continuous process to generate knowledge from data and information, allowing organizational problems solution and continuous learning (of best practices, for instance).
Strategic Planning: A continuous process to produce the orientation derived from strategic thinking. It is usually done with expressive contribution of various organizational factors, as information technology tools, tactic integration as financial, logistics, operations, and human resources management processes.
Marketing Intelligence System: A market intelligence (see the definition of Market intelligence) oriented set of tools, techniques, and organizational structure to continuously produce knowledge from data and information, in order to solve marketing problems and decisions.
Information System: An integrated system which involves information technology tools, trained people (as managerial personnel) and organizational structure to deal continuously with information for its various purposes.
Marketing Intelligence System: A market intelligence (see the definition of Market intelligence) oriented set of tools, techniques, and organizational structure to continuously produce knowledge from data and information, in order to solve marketing problems and decisions.
Data: A value that could be generated from a measurement, observation or counting. It is expressed in defined units and can be easily converted.
Knowledge: An organized set of information, added up with domain of the context in which it was produced.
Information: An organized set of data, referred to the same context, homogeneous.