16-Jun-12

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

McGraw-Hill/Irwin
International Marketing 14/e Copyright © 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights
reserved

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

On Twitter: @RamyKhodeir 1
 16-Jun-12

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

Top 20 Countries for Marketing

Research Expenditures (millions of dollars)

8-6

On Twitter: @RamyKhodeir 2
 16-Jun-12

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
– Variations and problems can occur in implementation
► Differences in cultural and economic development

8-7

The Research Process

Define the research problem and establish
research objectives

Determine the sources of information to fulfill the

research objectives

Consider the costs and benefits of the research

effort

Gather relevant data from secondary or primary

sources, or both

Analyze, interpret, and summarize the results

Effectively communicate the results to decision

makers

On Twitter: @RamyKhodeir 3
 16-Jun-12

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

8-8

Problems of Availability
and Use of Secondary Data
• Governments provides comprehensive statistics
for business use.
• 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)

8-9

On Twitter: @RamyKhodeir 4
 16-Jun-12

Problems of Availability
and Use of Secondary Data
Information and decision support Ministry Of Trade & Industry
center
• www.eitp.gov.eg
• www.idsc.gov.eg
Egyptian Export Promotion Centre
Ministry Of Trade & Industry
• www.eepc.gov.eg
• www.goeic.gov.eg

Central Agency For Public Mobilization

& Statistics

• www.capmas.gov.eg

8-9

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 developed countries.

• 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”

8-10

On Twitter: @RamyKhodeir 5
 16-Jun-12

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

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

On Twitter: @RamyKhodeir 6
 16-Jun-12

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
► Toto – a Japanese firm with the premiers quantitative research on bathroom and
toilet technology

8-13

Gathering Primary Data –

Quantitative and Qualitative Research
• Qualitative research
– If questions are asked, they are almost always open-ended or in-
depth
– 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

8-14

On Twitter: @RamyKhodeir 7
 16-Jun-12

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

8-15

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
► Babies can neither answer questions or fill out questionnaires

8-16

On Twitter: @RamyKhodeir 8
 16-Jun-12

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 gender-related
issues can affect willingness to respond
• Less direct measurement techniques and
nontraditional data analysis methods may also be
more appropriate

8-17

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
– 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

8-18

On Twitter: @RamyKhodeir 9
 16-Jun-12

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

8-19

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

8-20

On Twitter: @RamyKhodeir 10
 16-Jun-12

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
– Online focus groups
– Web visitor tracking
– Advertising measurement
– Customer identification systems
– E-mail marketing lists
– Embedded research
– Observational research

8-21

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
► The key in using expert opinion to help in forecasting demand is triangulation
– Analogy
► Assumes that demand for a product develops in much the same way in all countries as
comparable economic development occurs in each country

8-22

On Twitter: @RamyKhodeir 11
 16-Jun-12

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

8-24

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
► Control rests in hands closer to the market
– Disadvantage lies in ineffective communications with home-office
executives
► Unwarranted dominance of large-market studies in decisions about global
standardization

8-25

On Twitter: @RamyKhodeir 12
 16-Jun-12

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

8-26

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

8-27

On Twitter: @RamyKhodeir 13
 16-Jun-12

Managing the Cultural Barrier

in International Marketing Research

8-28

Thank You
@RamyKhodeir

2-31

On Twitter: @RamyKhodeir 14