Lecture International marketing (14/e) - Chapter 8

International Marketi
ng
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
Chapter 8
McGraw­Hill/Irwin
International Marketing 14/e

Copyright © 2009 by The McGraw­Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.


What Should You Learn?
• The importance of problem definition in
international research
• The problems of availability and use of
secondary data
• Quantitative and qualitative research methods
• Multicultural sampling and its problems in less
developed countries
• Sources of secondary data
• How to analyze and use research information
8-2


Discussed questions

• What is Marketing Research?
• What is research problem vs. managerial
problem?
• What are the major requirements for Marketing
Research?
• What are the Marketing Research Process?
• What are the main factors influencing Marketing
Research Quality?
• What make international Marketing differ?
8-3


Team work
•

IU MBA Progam is now evaluating its competitors in HCMC, the progam director
has several questions in mind:
–
–
–

How many MBA programs in HCMC? What are their offers (program characteristics, structure, price,
professors, quality, students segments)?
Among these MBA programs, who are the major competitors of IU MBA?
What are the perceived quality of these programs (major competitors only? What are their strengths
and weaknesses?

• Design a research plan (proposal) to answer the director’s questions,
including:
–

–
–
–

The Director ask you to design 2 proposal: 1. you have only 3 days to do without any budget, 2. you
have 2 months and 30 millions VNĐ to do
Type of research (qualitative or quantitative)
Techniques used of each type
Provide several options with different levels of confidence for the director to select

• Suppose the director wants to launch the program to Cambodia, please
advice what additional questions he need to consider and what challenges
he need to prepare for when conducting research plan
8-4


Option 1
1.

How many MBA programs in HCMC? What are their offers (program
characteristics, structure, price, professors, quality, students segments)?

2.

Among these MBA programs, who are the major competitors of IU MBA?

3.

What are the perceived quality of these programs (major competitors only?
What are their strengths and weaknesses?

Methodology:
•

Internet: q1, MBA websites

•

Secret shoppers: q3 (partially), q1, q2

•

Secondary data: related research (if any): 1,2,3,
newspapers

•

Expert interviews: MBA Managers, staffs,

•

In depth Interviews: with MBA students (3)

8-5


Option 1
1.

How many MBA programs in HCMC? What are their offers (program

characteristics, structure, price, professors, quality, students segments)?

2.

Among these MBA programs, who are the major competitors of IU MBA?

3.

What are the perceived quality of these programs (major competitors only?
What are their strengths and weaknesses?

Methodology:
•

Internet: q1, MBA websites
– MBA websites: q1
– Ranking and Accreditation
– MBA Forum

8-6


Option 2: 1 month + 20M VND
•

How many MBA programs in HCMC? What are their offers (program
characteristics, structure, price, professors, quality, students segments)?

•

Among these MBA programs, who are the major competitors of IU MBA?

•

What are the perceived quality of these programs (major competitors
only? What are their strengths and weaknesses?

Methodology:

8-7


Discussion
• What is high context vs. low context culture?
• What is M-time vs. P-time system?
• What is Marketing Research?
• How does Marketing Research help making
marketing decisions?
• What is qualitative research vs. quantitative
research?
• What are the potential problems/ issues for
International Marketing Research?
8-8


Global Perspective
Japan – Test Market for the World
• Enterprises with international scope of
operations
– Need for current, accurate information magnified

• Marketing research
– The systematic gathering, recording, and analyzing of data to
provide information useful in marketing decision making

• International marketing research involves two
complications
– Information must be communicated across cultural boundaries
– The environments within which the research tools are applied
are often different in foreign markets

8-9


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

8-10


Breadth and Scope
of International Marketing Research
• Unisys Corporation’s planning steps for
collecting and assessing the following types
of information
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Economic
Cultural, sociological; and political climate
Overview of market conditions
Summary of the technological environment
Competitive situation

8-11


Top 20 Countries for Marketing
Research Expenditures (millions of dollars)
Exhibit 8.1

8-12


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

8-13


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

8-14


Problems of Availability
and Use of Secondary Data
• U.S. government provides comprehensive
statistics for United States
• 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)

8-15


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 U.S.
• 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”

8-16


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

8-17


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

8-18


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

8-19


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
8-20


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

8-21


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

8-22


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 genderrelated issues can affect willingness to respond
• Less direct measurement techniques and
nontraditional data analysis methods may also
be more appropriate
8-23


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

8-24


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

8-25