MKTG 5553 Ch.8 Final Exam

What makes international marketing research distinctive?

"The distinctiveness of international marketing research arises from the fact that the firm is operating within a number of foreign environments. These differences necessitate not only the adaptation of domestic techniques but also the development of new methods of analysis." - For instance: how to reach rural consumer for surveys in emerging market? The environment within the research changes because they don't have phones, updated technology etc.

Secondary data -comparability

- Data may not be comparable across countries (we often need to compare market A or market B and ask which one is profitable?) - statistics are not collected at the same time in each country. ex. Census data collected in China 8 years ago versus census data collected in India 1 Year ago. you have to take in consideration that the data may have been taken at different times. one could of been taken 8 years ago which can be misleading.) (you have o use your own judgement and knowledge) - Organization of data may vary: - Is "cohabitation" a marital category? (In one country there are a people living together considered a household) whereas other countries it may be different - What does the term supermarket constitute? (one country a supermarket could just be strictly groceries whereas others you can get groceries haircut, and more)

Selecting a sample

- Is a probability sample possible? if you don't have a probability sample you cannot generalize the population. --Are lists of respondents/households available? -- Telephone directories don't work in Mexico! (in America they don't work well/are not accurate other ways to fins a probability sample: - other types of non-probability samples may be necessary in developing countries to get a rough estimate of the variable of interest: - convenient sample - snowball sample (hard to reach people such as doctors) you sample them and then ask if they have friends who are willing to participate and so on. Note: when you have a non-probability sample technically you cant sample from a sample to population

secondary data

- Its available at a fraction of the cost - can get data from a syndicated market research firm - Collection and analysis of secondary data should be before primary data - secondary data is usually available at a fraction of the cost of obtaining primary data and can be collected more quickly

Role of marketing research within the corporation

- Marketing research should provide marketing managers information that will help them make better decisions. - Whenever a manager must choose between two or more alternatives, relevant information collected through market research can help the manager make a more effective choice

primary data

- Necessary when secondary data is not available or in suspect (when we think its biased data then we collect primary data) - When marketers need data tailored to meet the needs of a specific marketing decision ex. when apple first introduced the ipod, nothing similar has existed, so we need to collect primary data)

Secondary data - Timeliness

- Timeliness is often a problem - population statistics will usually be two to five years old -- some (from Bolivia) could be 25 years old! bc they are poor so they can only collect census data every 25 years so its not that accurate --For fast growing economies 5-year-old data may be misleading

Secondary Data Sources

- business and public libraries - web search engines - consulates, embassies, chambers of commerce ex. want to find distributers in Korea. you can write to every consulates and their job is to promote trade. you can say "I would like to distribute a product in Korea could you point me in the right direction?" - non-competing businesses, banks, public accounting firms ex. non competing businesses are willing to provide you data - commercially developed and marketed industry and country reports - national statistics (ex. census data and other data collected by government organization)

Focus Groups: Cross Cultural Challenges

- courtesy bias reduces likelihood of Japanese consumers criticizing products in focus groups - if they are a collectivist country they don't like to make biased criticizing comments about products (if you are in a collectivist country where harmony is the answer and you ask a group "How do you like my tie?" even if they don't like it, courtesy bias will say they like it so they don't offend you. - Mixed-gender focus groups are forbidden in Saudi Arabia. (you will have a hard time having a husband and wife talking bc men make the answers) - in some Muslim countries, it can even be difficult to find women who will agree to participate at all - Respondents in polychromic tend to show up late (or not at all!) so you may want to account for this when you create a focus group of have backup people - Young particpants hesitant to critivize or disgree with older particpants in traditional cultures - focus group length should be longer in collectivist high context societies to allow enough to get to know each other (some cultures may think its rude to get straight to the point)

Interpreting results

- cross cultural problems arise due to (culture and understanding the data) - courtesy bias - scalar equivalence (are the scales hard to read? depending on cultures)

Scale "translations"

- does the meaning of the scale itself translate cross culturally? - In America when grading papers we use A-F good school grade - does it make sense outside of US context - "satisfied" versus "happy" versus "delighted" -- not all people may see these words as different meanings - not all cultures and languages see a clear difference or an increase in intensity between these When in doubt use a numeric or Likert scale

Primary Research challenges

- lack of infrastructure to conduct research when we go across countries (in America, we collect data in telephone surveys but in emerging markets they don't therefore we have a problem. - Ex, in ability to conduct telephone surveys in emerging markets due to lack of landlines not all methods are used the same way in every country

Surveys: Developing a Questionnaire

- use focus groups to help capture appropriate variable to investigate - creating a cross-cultural questionnaire requires for meaning and some translation techniques can help. - back translation...or -parallel translation - take care with idiomatic expressions. - In British English, giving someone a "lift" means giving them a ride.

Focus Groups

- usually used early in the research process - focus groups help capture variable to investigate - its qualitative technique - used to help capture data ex, selling dishwasher machines, but don't know about the Indian market. How can you conduct a survey using question? What are the right questions to ask? you use focus groups with 1-10 people in the target market and ask open ended questions." - based on focus group findings we develop hypotheses to be tested in large-scale quantitative surveys

Information from the U.S. Commerce Dept.

-Country and industry market reports (these are important to America) -Agriculture market research -Video market reports (not just market reports you can download but videos that tell you how to go about things) -Industry and sector office reports -Broad country information -In-country feasibility studies (how to enter the market) -Trade agreements, trade statistics (does the US have any agreements that can prevent you/help you?) -Links to region-specific programs (you can get links to specific programs and find out how to participate)

scope of research

-Global marketing research is used to make both strategic and tactical decisions --market studies (market size, customer needs) "are their differences that consumers are wanting when we go from country to country?" --competitive studies (insights, domestic and foreign) "how would we sell the product?"

Research Process

1. Problem definition and development of research objectives 2. Determination of the sources of information "what kind of data do we need?" 3. Collection and analysis of the data from primary and secondary sources "Collet the data from primary and secondary sources" 4. Analysis of the data and presentation of results "Communicate results to executives to make the best decision"

Validating Secondary Data Questions:

1. who collected the data? Would there be any reason for purposely misrepresenting the facts? (If you are in Russia and they give you statisitics, they could giv eyou only half the data) 2. For what purposes were the data collected? 3. How (by what methodology) were the data collected? (did they do it right?) (American has the best in the world of collecting data) (Was it telephone data?) 4. Are the date internally consistent and logical considering known data sources or market factors?

Secondary data - availability

All necessary data may not be available -Especially true in developing countries we have almost too much information. everything is measured in America (you credit card company know when you swiped your card, what you bought, etc) In other countries it might not be available, accurate etc. - Accuracy may be suspect - international labor organization estimates unemployment in Russia to be 10.4 million people while the Russian Government reports 1.7 million unemployed ((10.4 vs. 1.7) be very weary of what the government provides you in non democratic countries, look at the motive and how it can be biased)) - Shui fen or "water content" (or padding) riddles Chinese statistics ( they want to make their country look good - Even in developed countries some statistics are better than other --Italy v. Canada has better collected data

Problems may differ among countries

Do consumers use bikes for transportation or recreation? - to determine what kind of bicycle to sell, its important to know Americans use bicycles for recreation, and consumers use it in India use it for transportation (vast majority) - one may need to have a caty in the back for transportation, while the other one may need to have a thin tire for light recreation Ask yourself, "who is our competition? " bikes may be competing with snow skis in Scandinavia. labor is cheaper in developing countries so in many Indian homes they have maids to wash dishes, clothes, etc....problems differ in different countries

courtesy bias

In some cultures, respondents are unwilling to criticize other in the public Respondents may not provide their true opinion to not offed the interviewer ex. or they give less than honest answers... give a survey to three countries asking "how satisfied are you with this product?" They all gave an 8/10. we don't really know if these are true because of courtesy bias -In America we exaggerate sometime aka trump stating "I am the best" whereas in China you wouldn't hear someone say that

Example of data provided by intermediaries

In the future, there will be no markets left waiting to emerge- a bank statement -In the future, it will take many imports to make an export - a bank statement

source of information

Primary data - data collected specifically for a research assignment ("you research it yourself" existing data) ex. how many people are citizens in stilly Secondary data - refers to previously collected and available data aka census data (we collect secondary data before primary data) - both present challenges to global marketing research

back translation

The practice where a translated word or phrase is retranslated into the original language by a different interpreter to catch errors. - this make sit easier to understand in different languages bc meaning are different in different countries ex. english translated to Spanish doesn't always makes sense so you need someone to translate it in a way to make sense

Problem definition and research objectives

What is the problem? - What is the choice situation facing the managers? - What is anything has changes in the environment that may account for the current situation ex. if sells went down for a product, and you are the researchers, look at the environment and how its impacted it - What information do the managers need? - If you collected certain information managers want, how will it be used?

Selecting a Survey Sample

What population is under investigation? - Importance of probability samples --Every element within the population has a known chance of being selected we do surveys of our target population (the people that have information we need, expected consumers, based off demographics (ages, gender, race)) then we sample and then based on the sample we make inferences from the sample of our population. Probability sample is where we draw elements from the population in a random matter. every element has a known chance whatever the population may be. ex, we get a population you want to generalize about and then you draw a sample and generalize it

Estimating Market Demand

expert opinion and analogy - use expert opinion when the history is not a good predictor of the future. ex. COVID pandemic, it was once in a century pandemic and it changed the way businesses operate. It is difficult to predict how the environment will change. - Experts asked about market size and growth rates - triangulation is key; compare multiple responses (ask more than one expert in that overall area and get more than one perspective)(get estimates and if they don't agree why don't they? This will help you make estimates) - Analogy - Assumes demand develops similarly in all countries - as GDP(gross domestic product) grows in Country X, so does its demand for product - So, as GDP grows in Country Y, so should its demand for product ex. if we know the GDP in America, and then we go to Canada, we can use the same reasoning to compare and make the same relationship to make an estimate (only if the conditions are similar) (rich country compared to other rich country) "compare apples to apples)

Lost in Translation

lacking or missing the full meaning of a word or words after being changed from the original language to another language "KFC finger licking good was called something else in India"

parallel translation

more than two translators are used for the back translation (they don't talk to each other) ; the results are compared, differences discussed, and the most appropriate translation selected

The challenges of international market research

shortcoming faced by foreign marketers - availability of dat - reliability of data -- willful errors common to improve image of country or company "they have to compare the countries" "income of Canadians vx. income of Mexicans" - Data collected at random times and through random methods (surveys, questionnaires) - the date categories are incompatible across countries (size of households... are we comparing apples vs. oranges)

What is marketing Research?

the systematic gathering, recording, and analyzing of data to provide information useful to marketing decision making ex. you are buying a car and you research via online, through a friend etc.

Analysis by Inference

the variable that we are trying to measure are not available to use so you have to make inferences that are related to the variable... for instance, when we use a variable that is highly relatable to the other variable that we infer, this variable is called a proxy variable - Sometimes data about the variable that we need is not available, so we must us a *proxy variable* instead. - Proxy variable (variables that are highly correlated with the variable of interest) - Use the size of the television market to predict the size of the Digital video recorder market (what all Americans have in their household) the obvious market to look at is the television market so you can get an estimate - Car sales are a proxy variable for replacement-tire demand. (if you are looking to see the demand for tires, and data is not available, look at the total of automobiles in a given month, make a rough estimate of how long a tire lasts for an automobile) (make reasonable logical inferences.

Primary research challenges

• not all methods are used in the same way in every country (because the technique you use may be suitable in one country and not in others) (ex. telephone surveys, the main source of research in America but not in other countries) - Mail survey virtually impossible in some emerging countries - telemarketing is popular in France - observations is particularly useful in the Middle East • some countries hate certain methods, others really prefer them • mail impossible in India, mail very successful in Germany, telemarketing popular in France, observation useful in the middle east

privacy concerns

• personal finances can be a touchy subject -- The Dutch are more willing to discuss sex than money • EU privacy directive limits the use of telephone/internet interviews for questions related to subjects such as health, political beliefs and sex habits - In American theres almost no rules in selling data/ theres only few privacy laws • US Safe Harbor Framework Ex. in the economist magazine they say they want to take them on to issues related to consumer data privacy

collecting the data

• supervising data collectors is especially important in developing countries ex. face-to-face surveys in developing countries by getting phone number then randomly call people • where and how you collect data varies by country. - depends on culture (some prefer face-to-face (high-context cultures))whereas others don't like to give info over the phone) - Japanese prefer face-to-face interviews and are reluctant to answer phone surveys - Mall intercepts are uncommon in the Arab World. Approaching strangers is not normally acceptable.