Chapter 8

Developing a Global
Vision through
Marketing Research

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Learning Objectives
LO1 The importance of problem definition in
international research
LO2 The problems of availability and use of secondary
data
LO3 Sources of secondary data
LO4 Quantitative and qualitative research methods
LO5 Multicultural sampling and its problems in less-
developed countries
LO6 Using international marketing research
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Marketing Research
Marketing research is the systematic gathering,
recording, and analyzing of data to provide
information useful to marketing decision making.
As an enterprise broadens its scope of operations to
include international markets, the need for current,
accurate information is magnified.
A marketer must find the most accurate and reliable
data possible within the limits imposed by time, cost,
and the present state of the art.
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International Marketing Research
Researchers maintain that entry into a fast
developing, new-to-the-firm foreign market is one of
the most daunting and ambiguous strategic decisions
an executive can face.
Complications in international marketing research:
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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Bill Gates interacts with customers

Greg Baker/AP Images

Its crucial for top executives to get away from their desks and spend time in the marketplace.
While detailed marketing research reports are important, decisions at the very top of the
largest corporations must still be informed by a sense of the market and customers,
obtainable only through direct contact by top executives.
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Breadth and Scope of International
Marketing Research
Research can be divided into three types on the basis
of information needs
1. General information about the country, area, and/or
market
2. Information necessary to forecast future marketing
requirements by anticipating social, economic, consumer,
and industry trends within specific markets or countries
3. Specific market information used to make product,
promotion, distribution, and price decisions and to
develop marketing plans

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The Research Process
Define the research problem and establish research
1.
objectives.
Determine the sources of information to fulfill the
2.
research objectives.
3. Consider the costs and benefits of the research effort.
Gather the relevant data from secondary or primary
4.
sources, or both.
5. Analyze, interpret, and summarize the results.
6. Effectively communicate the results to decision makers.

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Defining the Problem and
Establishing Research Objectives
The major difficulty here is converting a series of often
ambiguous business problems into tightly drawn and
achievable research objectives.
Researchers often embark on the research process with only a
vague grasp of the tota problem.

Other difficulties stem from failures to establish problem

limits broad enough to include all relevant variables.
Information on a far greater range of factors is necessary to
offset the unfamiliar cultural background of the foreign market.

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Problems of Availability and
Use of Secondary Data
The problem for American marketing researchers is
sorting through too much data.
Available data may not have the level of reliability
necessary for confident decision making for many
reasons.
Comparability of data can even be a problem when
the best commercial research firms collect data
across countries, and managers are well advised to
query their vendors about this problem.
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Shortcomings Faced by Foreign Markets

Availability Reliability

Authenticity Comparability

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Validating Secondary Data
The following questions should be asked to
effectively judge the reliability of secondary data
sources:
1. Who collected the data? Would there be any reason for
purposely misrepresenting the facts?
2. For what purposes were the data collected?
3. How (by what methodology) were the data collected?
4. Are the data internally consistent and logical in light of
known data sources or market factors?
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Gathering Primary Data:
Quantitative and Qualitative Research
Primary data Data collected specifically for the
particular research project at hand
Collected if even after seeking all reasonable secondary
data sources, research questions are still not adequately
answered
Sources
Sales representatives
Distributors
Middlemen
Customers
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Types of Marketing Research
Quantitative research
A large number of respondents are asked to reply either
verbally or in writing to structured questions using a
specific response format (such as yes/no) or to select a
response from a set of choices.

Qualitative research
Questions are askedthey are almost always open-ended
or in-depthand unstructured responses, including
storytelling, that reflect the persons thoughts and feelings
on the subject are sought.
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Legos Olivia

Studio 101/Alamy
This Olivia figure attempts to reflect the girls reported preferences for thinner
shapes and pastel colors, rather than the boxy, primary-colored toys for boys.
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Qualitative Research: Uses
Used in international marketing research to formulate and
define a problem more clearly and to determine relevant
questions to be examined in subsequent research
Used to stimulate ad message ideas and where interest
centers on gaining an understanding of a market rather than
quantifying relevant aspects
Helpful in revealing the impact of socio-cultural factors on
behavior patterns
Helpful in developing research hypotheses that can be tested
in subsequent studies designed to quantify the concepts and
relevant relationships uncovered in qualitative data collection

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Problems of Gathering Primary Data
Ability to communicate opinions

Willingness to respond

Sampling in field surveys

Language and comprehension

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A call center in New Delhi, India

Brian Lee/Corbis
Both customer service and telephone survey research are being outsourced to lower-wage
English-speaking countries.
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13 Primary languages listed on a 20-rupee Indian note

John Graham

John Graham
Marketing researchers in India have to consider the problems of language diversity.
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Translation Techniques
A researcher cannot assume that a translation into
one language will suffice in all areas where that
language is spoken.

Marketers use three different techniques:

Back translation
Parallel translation
Decentering

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Japanese second graders writing characters for shou

Cary Wolinsky/Trillium Studios

The Japanese language commonly uses 15,000 kanji characters, which are borrowed from
Chinese. The differences in the structure of the language from English make translation of
questionnaires a most daunting task.
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Multicultural Research: A Special Problem

Involves countries that have different languages,

economies, social structures, behavior, and attitude
patterns

Ensure comparability and equivalency of results

Consider varying reliabilities in different countries

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Research on the Internet:
A Growing Opportunity
Online surveys and buyer panels
Online focus groups
Web visitor tracking
Advertising measurement
Customer identification systems
E-mail marketing lists
Embedded research
Observational research (netnography)

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Estimating Market Demand
Expert Opinion
Experts are polled for their opinions about market size and
growth rates.
The key in using expert opinion to help forecast demand is
triangulation, that is, comparing estimates produced by
different sources.
Analogy
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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The ruins of the Temple of Delphi

John Graham
Everybody wants to see the futureeven the ancient Greeks consulted the
Oracle of Delphi. Modern forecasters may have better tools, but the hazards
of the job are still great. Or, as Yogi Berra eloquently put it, The future aint
what it used to be.
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Exhibit 8.1
Mobile Phone Diffusion Rate (per 100 people)

Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators 2010 (Washington, DC:

World Bank, 2012).
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Problems in Analyzing and Interpreting
Research Information
Both secondary and primary data collected by the
market researcher are subject to many limitations.

Accepting information at face value in foreign

markets is imprudent.
The meanings of words, the consumers attitude toward a
product, the interviewers attitude, or the interview
situation can distort research findings.

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Coping with Disparities
The researcher must possess a high degree of
cultural understanding of the market in which
research is being conducted.
The social customs, semantics, current attitudes, and
business customs of a society or a subsegment of a society

A creative talent for adapting research methods is

necessary.
A skeptical attitude in handling both primary and
secondary data is helpful.

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Responsibility for Conducting
Marketing Research
Decentralization: Local analysts provide information
more rapidly and accurately than a staff research
department
Advantage
Control rests in hands closer to the market

Disadvantage
Possible ineffective communications with home-office
executives
Potential unwarranted dominance of large-market studies
in decisions about global standardization
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Ford and Philips research centers

John Graham

John Graham
Both Ford and Philips keep track of European technology and consumers and
develop products for global markets at their research centers in Aachen,
Germany. Some of the best technical universities in Europe are close by in
Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany.
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Communicating with Decision Makers
Decision makers must be provided with analyses and
interpretation of information gathered in a timely
manner.
Decision makers must be involved in the fieldwork of
seeing the market and hearing the voice of the
customers in the most direct ways when the occasion
warrants.
Marketing decision makers have questions about how best
to serve customers, and those questions are posed and
answered often through the media of questionnaires and
research agencies.
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 Exhibit 8.2
Managing the Cultural Barrier in International Marketing Research

There are four kinds of companyagencycustomer relationships. Options B and C

are better suited for managing the cultural barrier across the chain of communication.
That is, in both cases, the cultural barrier is bridged within a company where people
have a common corporate culture and work together on an everyday basis.
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Summary
The basic objective of the market research:
Providing management with information for more accurate
decision making

The three keys to successful international marketing

research:
1. The inclusion of natives of the foreign culture on research
teams
2. The use of multiple methods and triangulation
3. 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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