© 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. Chapter 8 Research

© 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. 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: – – –

© 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: – –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. –

© 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: – –Helps to develop a marketing plan. – –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. – –Lack of familiarity with national and international data sources and the inability to use them. –

© 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 – – –

© 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: – – –

© 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. – –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. – Market expansion –Obtaining detailed information for penetrating a market. –

© 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: Consistency of its product or service quality. Government rules in the exporting (source) country. 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: – – – – – – –

© 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. – –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 –

© 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. 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 – Industrial versus consumer research –The researcher selects either consumers or industrial users for conducting research. –

© 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. –

© 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. – –The prevailing conditions in the country and segments to be studied. – –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

© 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 Can be personal, impersonal, obtrusive or inobtrusive. 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 Usually conducted via questionnaires that are administered personally, by mail, or by telephone. 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. – –Direct or indirect questions, the choice of which depends on different degrees of sensitivity to certain questions. –

© 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 Adapt questions to societal constraints. –Question wording Omit leading questions or asking questions in specific terms to avoid generalizations and estimates. 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 – –Conduct spot checks and realism checks on the administration procedure to ensure reasonable data quality. –

© 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. –

© 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. – –Lengthy data and analytical demonstrations should be avoided. – –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 –

© 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. – –Another trend in the Web 1.0 world is the use of social networks to access particular consumer groups. – –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: – – – – – –

© 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:

© 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 –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. – –Uses the mail or facsimile method of communication technique to bridge large distances and therefore makes individuals quite accessible at a reasonable cost. –

© 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. – –Recognize nonlinearity of factors and the possibilities of joint occurrences. –