Transcript Slide 1

International Marketing
14th Edition
P h i l i p R. C a t e o r a
M a r y C. G i l l y
John L. Graham
Developing a Global
Vision Through
Marketing Research
Chapter 8
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
International Marketing 14/e
Copyright © 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
What Should You Learn?
• The importance of problem definition in
international research
• The problems of availability and use of
secondary data
• Quantitative and qualitative research methods
• Multicultural sampling and its problems in less
developed countries
• Sources of secondary data
• How to analyze and use research information
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Global Perspective
Japan – Test Market for the World
• 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
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Breadth and Scope
of International Marketing Research
• Types of information needed by research
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General information about the country, area, and/or market
Information to forecast future marketing requirements
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By anticipating social, economic, consumer, and industry trends within
specific markets or countries
Specific market information used to make and develop
marketing plans
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Product
Promotion
Distribution
Price decisions
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Breadth and Scope
of International Marketing Research
• Unisys Corporation’s planning steps for
collecting and assessing the following types
of information
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Economic
Cultural, sociological; and political climate
Overview of market conditions
Summary of the technological environment
Competitive situation
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Top 20 Countries for Marketing
Research Expenditures (millions of dollars)
Exhibit 8.1
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The Research Process
• Research process steps
1. Define the research problem and establish research objectives
2. Determine the sources of information to fulfill the research
objectives
3. Consider the costs and benefits of the research effort
4. Gather relevant data from secondary or primary sources, or both
5. Analyze, interpret, and summarize the results
6. Effectively communicate the results to decision makers
•
Research steps are similar for all countries
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Variations and problems can occur in implementation
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Differences in cultural and economic development
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Defining the Problem
and Establishing Research Objectives
• The major difficulty is converting a series of
often ambiguous business problems into tightly
drawn and achievable research objectives
• The first, most crucial step in research is more
critical in foreign markets because an unfamiliar
environment tends to could problems definition
• Other difficulties in foreign research stem from
failures to establish problem limits broad enough
to include all relevant variables
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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)
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Availability
and Reliability of Data
• Most countries simply do not have governmental
agencies that collect on a regular basis the kinds of
secondary data readily available in the U.S.
• 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”
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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
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Validating Secondary Data
• Questions to judge the reliability of secondary data
sources
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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
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Gathering Primary Data –
Quantitative and Qualitative Research
• Primary data
– Data collected specifically for the particular research project
• Quantitative research
– Usually a large number of respondents
– Respondents answer structured oral or written questions using a
specific response format (such as yes/no) or to select a
response from a set of choices
– Responses can be summarized in percentages, averages, or
other statistics
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Toto – a Japanese firm with the premiers quantitative research on bathroom
and toilet technology
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Gathering Primary Data –
Quantitative and Qualitative Research
• Qualitative research
– If questions are asked, they are almost always open-ended or indepth
– Seeks unstructured responses that reflect the person’s thoughts
and feelings on the subject
• Qualitative research interprets people in the
sample
• Qualitative research is helpful in revealing the
impact of sociocultural factors on behavior
patterns and in developing research hypotheses
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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
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Ability to Communicate Opinions
• Formulating opinions about a product or concept
– Depends on the respondent’s ability to recognize the usefulness
of such a product of concept
– Product or concept must be understood and used in community
• The more complex the concept, the more
difficult it is to design research that will help the
respondent communicate meaningful opinions
and reactions
– Gerber has more experience in trying to understand consumers
with limitations
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Babies can neither answer questions or fill out questionnaires
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Willingness to Respond
• Cultural differences provide best explanation for
unwillingness or inability of many to respond to
research surveys
• The role of the male, the suitability of personal
gender-based inquiries, and other genderrelated issues can affect willingness to respond
• Less direct measurement techniques and
nontraditional data analysis methods may also
be more appropriate
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Sampling in Field surveys
• Problems in sampling stem from the lack of
adequate demographic data and available lists
from which to draw meaningful samples
• Affected by a lack of detailed social and
economic information
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No officially recognized census information
No other listings that can serve as sampling frames
Incomplete and out-of-date telephone directories
No accurate maps of population centers
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Language and Comprehension
• The most universal survey research problem in
foreign countries is the language barrier
• Literacy poses yet another problem
• Marketers use three different techniques to help
ferret out translation errors ahead of time
– Back translation
– Parallel translation
– Decentering
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Multicultural Research –
a Special Problem
• As companies become global marketers and
seek to standardize various parts of the
marketing mix across several countries,
multicultural studies become more important
• Multicultural research involves dealing with
countries that have different languages,
economies, social structures, behavior, and
attitude patterns
• In some cases the entire research design may
have to be different between countries to
maximize the comparability of the results
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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
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Online surveys and buyer panels
Online focus groups
Web visitor tracking
Advertising measurement
Customer identification systems
E-mail marketing lists
Embedded research
Observational research
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Estimating Market Demand
• To assess current product demand and forecast
future demand
– Requires reliable historical data
• When the desired statistics are not available, a close
approximation can be made
– Using local production figures plus imports, with adjustments for exports
and current inventory levels
• Two methods of forecasting demand
– Expert opinion
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The key in using expert opinion to help in forecasting demand is triangulation
– Analogy
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Assumes that demand for a product develops in much the same way in all countries as
comparable economic development occurs in each country
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Personal Computer and Mobile Phone
Diffusion Rate (per 1,000 people)
Exhibit 8.2
Personal Computer
Mobil Phone
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Problems in Analyzing
and Interpreting Research Information
•
Accepting information at face value in foreign
markets is imprudent
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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
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Responsibility for Conducting
Marketing Research
• A company in need of foreign market research
can rely on an outside foreign-based agency or
domestic company with a branch in that country
• A trend toward decentralization of the research
function is apparent
– Local analysts appear to be able to provide information more
rapidly and accurately
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Control rests in hands closer to the market
– Disadvantage lies in ineffective communications with home-office
executives
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Unwarranted dominance of large-market studies in decisions about global
standardization
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Responsibility for Conducting
Marketing Research
• A comprehensive review of the different
approaches to multicountry research suggests
– Ideal approach is to have local researchers in each country,
– Close coordination between the client company and the local
research companies
• Two stages of analysis are necessary
– Individual-country level
– Multi-country level
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Communicating
with Decision Makers
• Gathered information must be given to decision
makers in a timely manner
• Decision makers should be directly involved not
only in problem definition and questions
formulation, but also in the fieldwork
• Even when both managers and customers
speak the same language and are from the
same culture, communication can become
garbled in either direction
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Managing the Cultural Barrier
in International Marketing Research
Exhibit 8.3
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Summary
• The basis objective of the market research
function is providing management with
information for more accurate decision making
• Customer attitudes about providing information
to a researcher are culturally conditioned
• Foreign market information surveys must be
carefully designed to elicit the desired data and
at the same time not offend the respondent’s
sense of privacy
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Summary
• Many foreign markets have inadequate or
unreliable bases of secondary information
• Three keys to successful international marketing
research
– The inclusion of natives of the foreign culture on research teams
– The use of multiple methods and triangulation
– The inclusion of decision makers, even top executives, who must
on occasion talk directly to or directly observe customers in
foreign markets
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