Global Marketing Information

Systems and Market Research

Chapter 6
Why Global Marketing Research?
§ Market entry
§ Local market planning
§ Coordinating global marketing strategies/activities
§ Monitoring changes in the global environment
§ Economic, technological, cultural, sociological, political factors
§ Market condition and competition
Business Intelligence
§ Management Information System (MIS)
§ Provides a continuous flow of information about company operations
§ Suppliers, distributors, sales
§ Customer information, e.g., CRM (customer relationship management)
Sources of Market Information
§ Personal Sources
§ As much as 2/3rd of corporate information
§ Executives based abroad, company subsidiaries and affiliates
§ Travel builds contacts and rapport
§ 75% from face-to-face conversations
Sources of Market Information
§ Direct Sensory Perception
§ Seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling, or tasting firsthand to find out what is going
on in a country rather than reading a report.

“I believe it is part of any good marketer’s job to be in touch with their

audience and their product. There’s no substitute for face-to-face,
eye-to-eye, hand-to-hand.”
Cindy Spodek-Dickey
Microsoft Executive
Market Research the Japanese Way
§ Japanese companies do use surveys, but they trust their instincts first
– hands-on research
§ Soft-data gathering
§ Managers visit dealers, retail stores, observe customers
§ They interview customers who actually bought or used a product

§ Hard-data gathering
§ Numbers about shipments, inventory levels, retail sales
Formal Market Research
§ Formal marketing research
§ Project-specific, systematic gathering, recording and analyzing of data to
provide information useful in marketing decision making.

§ Global market research

§ Scale: market research on a global scale

§ Challenges
§ National differences that influence how we obtain and interpret information
§ Cultural, linguistic, religious, historical, economic, political, market differences
§ Information needs to be communicated across cultural boundaries
Formal Marketing Research
Formal Marketing Research
Step 1: Information Requirement
Step 2: Problem Definition
§ Define the problem sufficiently broad to cover the whole range of
issues.
§ Avoid SRC – self-reference criterion
§ Willingness to do market research
§ Minimizing home-country bias
Step 3: Choose a Unit of Analysis
§ What is the scope and where is the focus?
§ Single country
§ Region
§ Global
§ City, state, or province
§ Stella Artois market entry strategy is city focused
Step 4: Examine Data Availability
§ Secondary data
§ Existing data - they have not been gathered for the specific research project
§ Benefits: save cost, time, effort
§ Sources of secondary data
§ Government resources
§ U.S.: National Trade Data Base, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Census Bureau, CIA World
Factbook
§ Canadian Trade Commissioner Service
§ Other organizations
§ Statistical Yearbook of the United Nations
§ Magazines
§ The Economists, Financial Times
§ Private research companies and consulting firms
§ MarketResearch.com
Step 4: Examine Data Availability
§ Possible problems of Secondary Data
§ Availability
§ No existing data for a specific research
§ Obsolete data, esp. technology

§ Reliability
§ Errors in the existing data, esp. government data

§ Validity
§ How the data is collected à the method of the research

§ Comparability
§ Data collected on different scope can’t be compared
§ Concept of different meanings in different cultures
Step 5: Assess Value of Research
§ If secondary data are not available, managers may conduct
further studies to gather primary data
§ Cost-Benefit Analysis of gathering primary data
§ What is the cost?
§ What are the potential gains and losses?
§ Would the company enter the market without spending big money on
research?
§ Small markets may merit only modest research expense
Step 6: Research Design
§ Primary Data
§ when secondary data is not available
§ provides accurate data which give exact answers to a given research
problem

§ Possible problems
§ difficulties in gaining the data
§ cost
§ more time is necessary to gather the data
Step 6: Research Design
§ Some guidelines
§ Use multiple indicators rather than a single measure
§ Individual companies should develop customized indicators specific to the
industry, product market, or business model
§ Always conduct comparative assessments in multiple markets
§ Observations of purchasing patterns, other behavior should weigh more
heavily than reports or opinions about purchase intention or price sensitivity
Qualitative Research Use
§ To provide consumer understanding; to “get close” to the consumer
§ To describe the social and cultural contexts of consumer behavior,
including cultural, religious, and political factors that impact
decision making
§ To identify core-brand equity and “get under the skin” of brands
§ To “mine” the consumer and identify what people really feel
§ Qualitative Research Methods
§ Focus group, observation
Challenges of Gathering Primary Data
§ Different market condition
§ Existing Markets are being served by one or more companies
§ Potential Markets
§ Latent market: an undiscovered segment; demand would be there if an
appropriate product is available
§ Incipient market: a market will emerge is an economic, demographic, political, or
sociocultural trend continues
§ Market Estimation Methods
§ Analogy: assumes that demand for a product develops in much the same way in
all countries as comparable economic development occurs in each country.
§ Expert Opinion: experts such as sales managers or consultants and government
officials are polled for their opinions about market size and growth rates.
Challenges of Gathering Primary Data
§ Survey Research
§ The most universal survey research problem in foreign countries is the
language barrier
§ Methods to avoid translation errors
§ Back translation
§ The questionnaire is translated from one language to another, and then a second party
translates it back into the original à compare the two original language version and
revise any misinterpretation
§ Parallel translation
§ More than two translators are used for the back translation; the results are compared,
differences discussed, and the most appropriate translation selected.
Challenges of Gathering Primary Data
§ Ability to Communicate Opinions
§ It is difficult for a person to formulate needs, attitudes, and opinions about
goods whose use may not be understood, that are not in common use within
the community, or that have never been available.
§ New products, e.g., Google glass

§ Social Desirability Issue

§ e.g., the social desirability tendency is higher in Malaysia than U.S. and France.
Challenges of Gathering Primary Data
§ Willingness to Respond: Cultural differences offer the best explanation for
the unwillingness or the inability of many to respond to research surveys
and interviews.
§ Japanese are less willing to respond to mail survey than North Americans
§ Social norm, e.g., personal grooming behavior
§ Native/foreign interviewers
§ Timing: during/after work
§ Questionnaire length
§ Translation can shorten/lengthen a questionnaire
§ 20 min American à 18 min Italian
§ 20 min American à 22 min French
§ Incentives
§ Brazil: drinking & socializing is expected
§ Other cultures: incentives can be insulting
Research Methodologies
§ Sampling
§ Probability sample vs. convenience sample
§ The greatest problem in sampling stems from the lack of adequate
demographic data and available lists from which to draw meaningful
samples.
§ The kinds of problems encountered in drawing a probability sample include
the following:
§ No officially recognized census of population.
§ No other listings that can serve as sampling frames.
§ Incomplete and out-of-date telephone directories.
§ No accurate maps of population centers, thus, no cluster (area) samples can be
developed.
§ Non-response error
Equivalency & Comparability Issues
§ Why equivalency and comparability is important in global MR?
§ Compare research results from different countries for
§ Market entry decisions, resource allocation decisions, marketing strategy
adaptation decisions
Equivalency & Comparability Issues
§ Factors that influence equivalency and comparability
§ Secondary data: reliability, validity
§ Concept
§ Concept: do drugstore, discount store, factory outlet exist or have the same
meaning in countries outside of North America?
§ Function: do bicycles and dining out have the same major function in other
countries?
§ How to describe a product attribute/benefits: convenient location may mean different
things in different countries
§ Category: the principle shopper can be the female, male or domestic helper in
different countries; household may include different people in different countries
§ How to measure: people in other countries may engage in different types of leisure
activities
Equivalency & Comparability Issues
§ Factors that influence equivalency and comparability
§ Measure: translation & metric (scale) equivalence
§ Scale
§ Type of scale: 5 or 7 point scale in North America, some other countries may prefer 10-20
points
§ Response tendency
§ Germans are least likely to overstate their purchase intention; Italians and Spaniards are most
likely to overstate their purchase intention.
§ Extremely response style may differ in different countries: Japanese are more conservative (3 &
5) than North Americans (1 & 7)
§ Germans prefer scales “1” as “most/best”; Americans prefer a higher number (7 or 10) as
“most/best.”
§ Sampling
§ Data collection: communication & interpretation
§ Americans prefer to provide a range; Germans prefer an opportunity to provide
an exact answer
Summary of the Challenges
§ Educational & technological skills § Market Research Infrastructure
§ Knowledge/familiarity of § No. of marketing research firms
products/services § Availability of media, Internet,
mailing address
§ Language
§ Data collection challenges
§ Translation
§ Existing scanner data?
§ Culture norms § Reliable mail service?
§ Sampling § Trust of respondents
§ Interviewer § Legal issues
§ Questionnaire length § Privacy – Europe
§ Incentives § Multiculturalism
§ Measurement
13 Languages on a 20-rupee note
Market Research with Bilingual Consumers
§ Does collecting data in one’s second language (English) cause any
systematic error in response?
§ Situations when translation is not a viable option
§ Online business: Amazon.com
§ Multilingual societies/communities: HK, India, Canada
§ International travelers
§ Language differences
§ Bilingual people sometimes feel the English words for emotions (e.g., sad,
happy, love, hate) as less intense than their native language.
§ They will give more extreme rating for emotions in English scale than in native
language scale.
Market Research with Bilingual Consumers
§ 9 Studies conducted in Belgium and Netherlands showed this
tendency when French- and Dutch-speaking consumers answered
questions regarding their emotions.

§ How to correct this error in marketing research? Which method can

be less affected by language?

§ Source: The Anchor Contraction Effect in International Marketing Research, Journal of

Marketing Research, 2011.
Market Research with Bilingual Consumers

§ Source: The Anchor Contraction Effect in International Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing
Research, 2011.
Group Discussion
§ Assume you want to introduce a product into a foreign market
§ Choose three different candidate markets
§ What information do you need?
§ Secondary
§ Primary
§ What equivalency and comparability issues you need to keep in mind?