Meredith’s Marketing Information System

1.  Analyze Meredith’s marketing information system. What are its strength and weaknesses?

The new marketing information system of Meredith as a media and marketing company has both strengths and weaknesses. One of the strengths that can be observed in the new marketing information system is that it is capable of tracking the performance of marketing campaigns of its business users efficiently. The information about the company’s publications and campaigns is readily available to be accessed by the business users. Moreover, the various features such as new subscriber, gift promotion, billing renewal, and online marketing campaigns of the business operation have been enforced and can be viewed by the top management. The information system provides overall insights of the whole operation and the various transactions entered into by the company (Liggett, 2005).

Furthermore, the issue of transparency has been resolved by the said information system because pertinent data are accessible for the business users anytime from now on. For instance, business users can now monitor the subscription transactions from the start up to the end of the subscription order (Liggett, 2005).

However, it has been noted by the business users that the information system is not user-friendly. Though it does provide the necessary information for the users as accurately as possible, it is not that easy for the users to operate the system. The main problem is that the users need to go through various complicated processes before they can obtain the information they need (Liggett, 2005).

2. Can impersonal data points really result in meaningful relationships? Explain.

Upon careful examination, one might conclude that impersonal data points would not result in meaningful relationships. The main reason for this is that data points such as statistical figures would only quantify the process, but it would not really help in establishing a meaningful relationship for the users. As in the case of Meredith, the users would go through the transactions by means of the information system only. There would be no human contact or communication whatsoever. Though this may prove to be efficient, the system would not establish meaningful relationships because it does not involve a human operator managing the transactions.

3. Does Meredith’s marketing information expertise transfer into other media and products?

In the new information system of Meredith, marketing information expertise would be transferred to other media and products. This can be proved by the fact that the system would make the users more independent. For instance, the marketing campaigns are already circulated through the system. Data are being processed automatically and independently, which is why anybody can use and access the transactions. Thus, marketing information expertise may be transferred into other media and products.

4. As a company still heavily rooted in print, what does Meredith’s future hold?

As a publishing company, Meredith might not have a profitable future because the trend nowadays is the proliferation of digital files. Though publishing printed materials would not really disappear totally in the next few years, the widespread use of the Internet would force publishing companies to engage in online marketing. This implies that reading materials would be distributed and published online, as the prediction of experts suggests.  The digitization of different kinds of materials such as audio, videos, and even books has become the new trend today.

5. What recommendations would you make to Meredith’s executives?

In order to survive in the publishing industry, Meredith Company has to make some drastic decisions. One of the recommendations for the company is to engage in online publishing and gradually abandon the reproduction of printed materials. An Amazon.com-like strategy would be highly viable for the companies such as Meredith because of its long standing reputation as a publishing company in the country.

Another recommendation would be to upload the printed materials through the Internet for subscription while still circulating them in an actual market. This would imply that the company would not abandon the printed materials but would distribute them online as well. This is a two-bladed strategy which targets consumers online and the ones in the actual market.