Marketing decision support systems

Discusses the application of decision support systems (DSS) to assist in solving marketing decisions. As the marketing environment becomes more competitive the pressure to gain the "edge" over your competitors becomes more intense. Marketing decision support systems (MDSS) are valuable tools to assist in making marketing decisions to do just that! MDSS can be used to support, rather than replace, decision makers in the complex, semi or unstructured situations which are common in marketing problems. They incorporate the personal judgement and experience of the user to improve the effectiveness, rather than the efficiency of decision making. This means that managers will have more "quality" time to spend on analysis and planning for the future, rather than merely reflecting on the past. Discusses different types of DSS within an environment where there are discrepancies over definition, jargon and suppliers' claims.