1. Developing a Global Vision Through Marketing Research Cateora and Graham Chapter 8 1

2. Global Perspective Enterprises with international scope of operations – Need for current, accurate information magnified Marketing research – The systematic gathering, recording, and analyzing of data to provide information useful in marketing decision making International marketing research involves two complications – Information must be communicated across cultural boundaries – The environments within which the research tools are applied are often different in foreign markets 8-2

3. Top 20 Countries for Marketing Research Expenditures (millions of dollars) Exhibit 8.1 8-3

4. Breadth and Scope of International Marketing Research Types of information needed by research – General information about the country, area, and/or market – Information to forecast future marketing requirements By anticipating social, economic, consumer, and industry trends within specific markets or countries – Specific market information used to make and develop marketing plans Product Promotion Distribution Price decisions 8-4

5. Breadth and Scope of International Marketing Research Unisys Corporation’s planning steps for collecting and assessing the following types of information 1.Economic 2.Cultural, sociological; and political climate 3.Overview of market conditions 4.Summary of the technological environment 5.Competitive situation 8-5

6. Defining the Problem and Establishing Research Objectives The major difficulty is converting a series of often ambiguous business problems into achievable research objectives Most critical in foreign markets is an unfamiliar environment in problems definition Other difficulties in foreign research stem from failures to establish problem limits broad enough to include all relevant variables 8-6

7. Language and Comprehension The language barrier and literacy pose a major problem when doing a survey abroad. – It may be that exact translations do not exist for some survey questions. – The population may not have a high enough literacy rate to understand the survey. 7

8. Problems with Secondary Data Availability of the Data Reliability of the Data Comparability of the Data Validating Secondary Data 8

9. Availability and Reliability of Data Most countries simply do not have governmental agencies that collect on a regular basis secondary data. Researchers’ language skills impede access to information – Requires native speaker of language Official statistics are sometimes too optimistic, reflecting national pride rather than practical reality, while tax structures and fear of the tax collector often adversely affect data – Less-developed countries prone to optimism – Willful errors – “Adjusted reporting” 8-9

10. Problems of Availability and Use of Secondary Data U.S. government provides comprehensive statistics for United States Marketing data not matched in other countries – Quality – Quantity – Exceptions are Japan and several European countries Continuing efforts to improve data collection – United Nations – Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 8-10

11. Comparability of Data Issues with data (especially in less developed, countries) – Data can be many years out of date – Data collected on an infrequent and unpredictable schedule Too frequently, data are reported in different categories or in categories much too broad to be of specific value 8-11

12. Validating Secondary Data Questions to judge the reliability of secondary data sources – Who collected the data? – Would there be any reason for purposely misrepresenting the facts? – For what purposes was the data collected? – How was the data collected? – Are the data internally consistent and logical in light of known data sources or market factors? Checking the consistency of one set of secondary data with other data of known validity – An effective and often-used way of judging validity The availability and accuracy of recorded secondary data increase with level of economic development 8-12

13. Problems of Gathering Primary Data Hinges on the ability of the researcher to get correct and truthful information that addresses research objectives Problems in international marketing research – Stem from differences among countries – Range from inability or unwillingness of respondents to communicate their opinions – Inadequacies in questionnaire translation 8-13

14. Problems in Analyzing and Interpreting Research Information Accepting information at face value in foreign markets is imprudent The foreign market researcher must posses three talents to generate meaningful marketing information 1.The researcher must posses a high degree of cultural understanding of the market in which research is being conducted 2.A creative talent for adapting research methods is necessary 3.A skeptical attitude in handling both primary and secondary data is helpful 8-14

15. Using the Internet for Research The internet can be a useful tool for conducting marketing research. It can reach a multitude a people in a short amount of time. While it can be an effective tool, it also has a few large drawbacks. 15

16. Research on the Internet – a Growing Opportunity One billion users in more than 200 countries – One-sixth in U.S. International Internet use is growing almost twice as fast as American use Uses for Internet in international research – Online surveys and buyer panels – Observational research – Online focus groups – Web visitor tracking – Advertising measurement – Customer identification systems – E-mail marketing lists – Embedded research 8-16

17. Drawbacks to Internet Research There can be a large bias as to who fills out the survey, i.e., it may not be representative of the typical consumer. Currently, there is not a large population of foreigners on the internet. ? ! It may generate too much costly data to analyze. 17

18. Summary The objective of market research is providing management with information for more accurate decision making Foreign market information surveys must be carefully designed to elicit the desired data, and not offending the respondent’s sense of privacy. Many foreign markets have inadequate or unreliable bases of secondary information Three keys to successful international marketing research – inclusion of natives of the foreign culture on research teams – use of multiple methods and triangulation – Including decision makers and top executives to talk to or directly observe customers in foreign markets 8-18