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Chapter 8
Research
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Defining the Issue
• The American Marketing Association defines market
research as the function that links the consumer,
customer, and public to the marketer through
information.
• Information is used to:
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International and Domestic Research
• International and domestic research vary in the
following areas:
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– New environment which involves understanding the
culture of the host country and its demographics,
political system, stability, differences in societal
structures and language, legal issues, technological
level, and the economic environment.
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
International and Domestic Research
• International and domestic research vary in the
following areas:
– Internationalization exposes a firm to more than one
market, each market having a number of varying
dimensions.
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© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Recognizing the Need for Research
• Entering a market without conducting marketing
research places firms, their assets, and their entire
operation at risk.
• Marketing research is important because it:
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– Helps to develop a marketing plan.
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– Provides management with foreign market intelligence.
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Recognizing the Need for Research
• Firms are reluctant to engage in international
marketing activities due to :
– Lack of sensitivity to differences in consumer tastes
and preferences.
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– Lack of familiarity with national and international data
sources and the inability to use them.
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© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The Benefits of Research
• The value of research in making a particular decision
may be determined by applying the following
equation: V(dr) – V(d) > C(r); where
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© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Determining Research Objectives
• Research objectives vary from firm to firm because of
the views of management, the corporate mission, and
the marketing situation.
•
• The three objectives for conducting international
market research are:
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© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Determining Research Objectives
• Exporting - Foreign market opportunity analysis
– Broad-brush approach to narrow down international
marketing activities; the two approaches being country
ranking and clustering.
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– Information on individual market data to identify
fastest-growing markets, largest markets for a
particular product, market trends, and restrictions.
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Determining Research Objectives
• Exporting - Foreign market opportunity analysis
– Consideration of governmental restrictions.
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• Market expansion
– Obtaining detailed information for penetrating a market.
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© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Determining Research Objectives
• Importing
– Firms shift their focus from supplying to sourcing.
– Importer needs to be aware of:
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• Consistency of its product or service quality.
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• Government rules in the exporting (source) country.
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• Risks of disruption and terrorism.
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Determining Secondary Information
Requirements
• Secondary data for international marketing research
can be procured from:
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© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Determining Secondary Information
Requirements
• Evaluating data
– Consider the quality of the data source, with primary
focus on the purpose and method of original data
collection.
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– Assess the comparability and compatibility of the data.
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Determining Secondary Information
Requirements
• Analyzing and interpreting secondary data
– Requires combination and cross tabulation of various
sets of data or the use of proxy information to arrive at
conclusions which address the research objectives.
– Proxy variable -
• Data privacy
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© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The Primary Research Process
• Primary research is conducted to fill specific
information needs.
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• It is also useful in international market segmentation.
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The Primary Research Process
• Determining information requirements
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• Industrial versus consumer research
– The researcher selects either consumers or industrial
users for conducting research.
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© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The Primary Research Process
• Determining research administration approaches:
– Centralized -
– Coordinated -
– Decentralized -
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The Primary Research Process
• Outside research services
– Appropriate for large-scale international marketing
research or when highly specialized research skills are
required.
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© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The Primary Research Process
• Selection of the research technique depends on a
variety of factors.
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– The prevailing conditions in the country and segments
to be studied.
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– Cultural and individual preferences.
• Research instruments are useful for gathering
qualitative and quantitative data.
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The Primary Research Process
• Qualitative research techniques
– Interviews –
– Focus groups
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•
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The Primary Research Process
• Determining the research techniques
– Observation
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• Can be personal, impersonal, obtrusive or inobtrusive.
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• The degree to which the observer has to be familiarized
or introduced to other participants may vary.
•
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The Primary Research Process
• Quantitative research technique
– Surveys
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• Usually conducted via questionnaires that are
administered personally, by mail, or by telephone.
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• Allows the researcher to rapidly accumulate a large
quantity of data amenable to statistical analysis.
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The Primary Research Process
• Designing the survey questionnaire - Question format
– Structured questions allow the respondents only limited
choice options.
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– Direct or indirect questions, the choice of which
depends on different degrees of sensitivity to certain
questions.
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© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The Primary Research Process
• Designing the survey questionnaire
– Question content
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• Adapt questions to societal constraints.
– Question wording
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• Omit leading questions or asking questions in specific
terms to avoid generalizations and estimates.
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• Pretest the survey.
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The Primary Research Process
• Developing the sampling plan - Data collection
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– Conduct spot checks and realism checks on the
administration procedure to ensure reasonable data
quality.
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© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The Primary Research Process
• Developing the sampling plan - Analyzing and
interpreting primary data
– Use the most appropriate and best available tool for
proper interpretation and analysis of accumulated
information.
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© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The Primary Research Process
• Developing the sampling plan - Presenting research
results
– The primary focus of the presentation must be
communication.
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– Lengthy data and analytical demonstrations should be
avoided.
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– Possibilities for analogous application should be
highlighted.
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The Primary Research Process
• Developing the sampling plan - Follow-up and review
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© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The Primary Research Process
• Developing the sampling plan - Research on the web
– The Internet serves as a portal to reach out to
consumers in a low-cost fashion.
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– Another trend in the Web 1.0 world is the use of social
networks to access particular consumer groups.
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– The limitations of Web 2.0 market research efforts are
reliability, sampling, and the methodology.
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The International Information System
• The system serves as a mechanism to coordinate the
flow of information to corporate managers for
decision-making purposes.
• The system should have the following attributes:
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© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The International Information System
• Environmental scanning
– Is useful for receiving information on:
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© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The International Information System
• Environmental scanning
– Can be performed by
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– Is conducted by a variety of groups within and outside
the corporation.
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The International Information System
• Delphi studies
– A creative and highly qualitative data gathering method
used for obtaining factual data.
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– Uses the mail or facsimile method of communication
technique to bridge large distances and therefore
makes individuals quite accessible at a reasonable
cost.
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© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The International Information System
• Scenario building
– Looks at different configurations of key variables in the
international market to envision new environmental
conditions and understand the potential domestic and
international impact on corporate strategy.
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– Recognize nonlinearity of factors and the possibilities
of joint occurrences.
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© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.