International Marketing Research

1
International Marketing Research

• 2006

2
Marketing/Research Moral
3
A Little About Myself

• Instructor
• Sarah Villarreal, M.B.A.
• Assistant Marketing and Communications Director
• UC Riverside Extension and Summer Sessions
• 10 years market research experience
• Los Angeles Newspaper Group
• Newspaper Research Consulting
• UC Riverside Extension

4
Market Research Experience

• Survey design and implementation
• Print
• Web
• Telephone
• Data analysis primary/secondary
• Internet research
• GIS
• Focus groups
• Marketing and strategic planning

5
Class Introductions

• Now you.
• Name
• Home country
• Employer
• Experience/familiarity with market research
• What you hope to get out of this class

6
Class Objectives

• Understand why international market research is
  important
• Expand our framework for understanding other
  cultures for business purposes
• Understand (and mitigate) the limitations of
  international research
• Develop a framework for implementing
  international research
• Improve our comfort level in reviewing prepared
  research
• Source contacts for international market research
  purposes

7
Class Structure - Schedule

• Lecture
• 2 group projects/presentations
• Questions/answers and wrap-up
• 15-minute break
• Lunch at 1200

8
Market Research Defined

• Information vital
• What is market research?
• The systematic collection, analysis and
  interpretation of information relevant to
  marketing decisions
• Importance seen through failures of others

9
Research Methods

• Primary research
• Quantitative
• Phone surveys
• Mailed Surveys
• In-person
• Web/Internet
• Structured questions, close-ended
• Qualitative
• Focus groups
• One-on-one, in-depth interviewing
• Laddering/open-ended
• Secondary research

10
When is it international market research?

• Research in your home country for foreign
  entities (internal)
• Research in foreign countries originating from
  your home (external)

11
Information Needs

• Market entry
• General business environment
• Specific to product/service
• Market/position
• Continual monitoring
• Organizations servicing new populations or
  finding new markets

12
Requirements/Process

• What it takes from you?
• Pragmatism
• Curiosity
• Creativity
• Intimacy (In-To-Me-See)
• International Marketing Research Process

13
Research Topics

• Which of these topics is most acceptable at home?
  Unacceptable?
• Health care
• Personal care products/hygiene
• Food products
• Childcare
• Government statistics
• Alcohol consumption
• Sex

14
Research Methodologies

• Which methodologies are utilized at home?
• Focus groups
• Phone surveys
• Mailed surveys

15
Drill Down Focus Groups and Non-Verbal Stimuli

• Focus Groups
• What are they?
• When are they used?
• Advantages?
• Disadvantages?
• Electronic Age
• Non Verbal-Stimuli
• What are they?
• When are they used?
• Sample interview card

16
Sampling

• Particular problems with international research
• Sampling types
• Convenience
• Judgment
• Quota/stratified
• Snowball

17
Back to Research Process

• Data analysis design
• Determine research administration
• Conduct research
• Analyze data
• And so on.

18
Resource Suggestions

• Research design and/or socio-cultural environment
• Business etiquette book
• Consumer Behavior and Culture, Mooij (2003)
• Anthology of poetry
• Classic folk/fairy tales

19
Utilizing Mythos and Culture

• USA
• Independent/individual
• Freedom/classless
• Horatio Alger
• US Subcultures
• Ethnicity
• Religion
• Region
• Your home country?

20
GROUP PROJECT 1

• Relate a fairy/folk tale that best communicates
  some values of your home culture/country. (Be
  brief)
• Relate to class
• Values communicated in folk/fairy tales
• Are they similar or dissimilar to others?
• How might knowing this be helpful to an
  international researcher?

21
Typical Biases

• Secondary research
• Cultural self-referent bias
• More experience/familiarity, less the effect
• Specific biases
• Less well-educated, lower socio-economic status
  women less reliable responses
• Latinos are less critical than Anglos
• Older generations are more critical
• Mailed surveys are more critical
• Individual Confidentiality is presumed

22
Finding Biases in Secondary Data/Research

• ASSUME source research is culturally biased
• Translations - literal or cultural?
• Scales/wording often culturally sensitive
• Differing definitions core words and principles
• E.g., deadline started, trained, budget
  validation, contract price, etc
• Methodologies may not be transferable
• Settings may be unavailable
• Purchased (or canned research), read
  methodology FIRST.

23
Methodology Will Tell You

• How the information was gathered and rationale
• Sampling plan in each country and rationale
• Survey questions (or a copy)
• Translation process (or a copy)
• Data collection period in each country
• Exception details
• Impacting circumstances or crisis
• Methodology, sampling or survey errors
• Omissions
• Special credentials of translators and vendors

24
Recommended Actual Steps

• Establish research questions and formulate a plan
• MAKE CALLS/CONTACTS IN TARGETED COUNTRIES
• Revise research plan
• Expect and plan for delays
• When using vendor/outsourcing
• Review/design a sampling plan
• Review/draft questionnaire/screener
• Review/draft distribution instructions
• Set/secure a completion date
• Agree on output
• Check references
• Make arrangements for payment
• Sign contract (letter of agreement)
• Allow for translation of documents
• Review translations (pretest)
• Then implement research

25
Who to call/contact?

• Your current vendors (referrals)
• Local universities or colleges (professors/deans)
• Professional affiliations/industrial affiliations
• Marketing research associations
• Industry listings/yellow pages (online)

26
Group Project 2

• Scenario
• You are the employee of a US soft drink
  manufacturer and your company is considering
  expanding to Country X. Company executives have
  come to you and asked for guidance as to whether
  they should establish large bottling and
  distribution facilities in Country X.
• The only requirement the company executives have
  given you for the research is that the results
  must be projected to the entire countrys
  population.

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Group Project 2

• Objectives
• Create a research plan addressing each step in
  the international marketing research process
• Make sure to address socio-cultural
  questions/concerns and outline your information
  requirement needs (you do not need to know the
  answers, just be able to ask the relevant
  questions)
• Present to class with each group providing other
  groups with feedback/thoughts

28
Resource Suggestions

• International Business Information, Pagell and
  Halperin (1998)
• International Trade Administration
  www.ita.doc.gov
• Center for International Business Education and
  Research (CIBER) http//ciber.bus.msu.edu
• STAT-USA www.stat-usa.gov
• TradePort www.tradeport.org
• United Nations www.un.org
• World Bank www.worldbank.org
• Gale Country and World Rankings Reporter
• Business Week, The New York Times, Financial
  Times, Advertising Age, Economist
• Google

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Review Class Objectives

• Understand why international market research is
  important
• Expand our framework for understanding other
  cultures for business purposes
• Understand (and mitigate) the limitations of
  international research
• Develop a framework for implementing
  international research
• Improve our comfort level in reviewing prepared
  research
• Source contacts for international market research
  purposes