Chapter 4 – International Marketing Research and Opportunity Analysis Doole, Lowe and Kenyon International Marketing Strategy

Learning Objectives Appreciate the key roles of marketing research in international marketing Understand the concepts and techniques to identify and evaluate opportunities internationally Build a market profile analysis of a foreign country market Discuss the difficulties and issues that arise in developing multi-country primary research studies

The role of marketing research and opportunity analysis Define the problem Develop an approach Design the research Undertake fieldwork Analyze the data Report and present findings

The role of marketing research and opportunity analysis (cont.) Scanning international markets to identify and analyze opportunities Building marketing information systems to monitor environmental trends Carrying out primary marketing research for input into the development of marketing strategies UK Statistics: https://www.ons.gov.uk/

Opportunity identification and analysis Identification of opportunities accessibility profitability market size Do you think you need to conduct a market research to test if the drink or food that you selected will be accepted by your target customers? – i.e. Market Testing – Normally, companies use focus group to test.

International marketing segmentation Scanning: identify and analyze opportunities and evaluate which markets to prioritize for further R & D Develop framework: Market segmentation – partition market into submarkets or segments Pareto Law – 20% of countries generate 80% of results therefore, these countries must receive greater managerial attention and resource allocation The most importance of SWOT analysis is to identify New Market Opportunities ?

Researching which geographic segments are competitive Some countries are more competitive and pose less risk than others

International marketing segmentation (cont.) Transnational segmentation Demographic: sex, age, income level, social class and educational achievement Psychographic: lifestyle factors – activities, interests and opinions Behavioural: patterns of consumption, loyalty to product category and brand needs benefits occasion usage

International marketing segmentation (cont.) Hierarchical country – consumer segmentation Identify countries with infrastructure and accessibility Select countries that meet qualifying criteria Develop mini-segments e.g. information search behaviour / product characteristics required Look for similarities across segments identify characteristics of demand for each segment. Rate in terms of potential response Use Cluster Analysis to identify meaningful cross-national segments

The market profile analysis (cont.)

Further sources of information institutions Business libraries University libraries International chambers of commerce International Market Intelligence Centre (Trade Partners UK) Business Links Embassies Banks Trade associations Export councils Overseas distributors Overseas sales subsidiaries Foreign brokerage houses Foreign trade organizations

The market profile analysis (cont.) Problems in using secondary data Availability Accessibility Accuracy Scarcity Timeliness of collection Way data is reported / interpreted

Primary research in international markets (cont.)

Primary research in international markets (cont.) Organizing the research study Should the research be carried out by foreign local subsidiaries or should all marketing research be centralized at headquarters? Should the fieldwork be carried out in house or by an agency?

Primary research in international markets (cont.) In-house or agency Local agency in the market under investigation Domestic agency with offices overseas Domestic agency with overseas associate companies Domestic agency which subcontracts fieldwork to an agency in the market under investigation Domestic agency with competent foreign staff Global agency with offices around the world

Primary research in international markets (cont.) Multi-country studies Project discussed at length with the client Fieldwork agencies in each country selected Questionnaire designed centrally Translated locally, translation checked centrally Piloted locally Finalised centrally Interviewers briefed locally by executive of central company Fieldwork carried out locally Coding and editing plan provided for the local agencies Edited and coded questionnaires returned to head office Coding and editing check carried out centrally Computing and analysis carried out centrally