International market research is a blanket term for all the research and preparation you do on a new market, usually before entering it. Unlike domestic market research, international market research is focused on an overseas market, often with completely different cultures, business conditions and consumer behaviors. For example, the world’s largest research firm, Nielsen, is headquartered in the U.S. but derives almost two-thirds of its revenue from outside the U.S. It is standardizing much of the data it routinely collects in 27 different countries.

1. International
Marketing Research
Unit 1:Introduction

2. Topics
• Introduction
• Scope and Significance of International
Marketing Research.
• Distinction between Marketing Research and
International Marketing Research.
• Classification of International Marketing
Research.
• Role of Research in International Marketing
Strategy Formulation.
• Complexity in International Marketing
Research.

3. Introduction
One of the most striking developments of recent decades has been the globalization of business.
The growth of world trade requires more information about foreign markets and companies which
expand into new and unknown markets must possess the information about the demand and
conditions of these markets. Companies invade not only into such developed markets as Europe, US
and Japan, but also into the unstable but growing markets of Latin America, the politically uncertain
markets of the Middle East and Russia, and the rapidly changing markets of South East Asia and the
emerging African markets
International Marketing Research
It is the systematic, gathering, recording and analyzing data to provide information useful to
International market decision making / mode of entry / market entry strategy.

4. Scope of Marketing Research in a Global Environment
Marketing research practices and techniques have become truly global
For example, the world’s largest research firm, Nielsen, is headquartered in the U.S. but derives almost two-
thirds of its revenue from outside the U.S. It is standardizing much of the data it routinely collects in 27 different
countries.
International marketing managers make the same basic types of decisions as do those who operate in only one
country. Of course, they make these decisions in a more complicated environment. As with marketing decisions,
the basic function of marketing research and the research process does not differ between domestic and
multinational research. However, the process is complicated almost exponentially as more and more countries
are involved in the same decision.

5. Factors which influence the marketing research in
different countries are
Factors
Cultural
differences
Racial
Differences
Language
Differences
Historical
Differences
Religious
Differences
Economic
Differences
Climatic
Differences

6. 1. Cultural differences. Culture refers to widely shared norms or patterns of behavior of a large group of
people. It is the values, attitudes, beliefs, artifacts and other meaningful symbols represented in the pattern of
life adopted by people that help them interpret, evaluate and communicate as members of society
Example:
Product. When a soft drink was launched in Arab countries, it has a label with six-pointed stars. The sales were very low as
the stars were associated with Israel.
Price. An American firm was willing to set a reasonable price for the product they intended to sell to the Japanese. A
detailed presentation was made to the Japanese businessmen, but it was followed by a deep silence. The Americans
thought that the Japanese were going to reject the price and offered a lower price. The Japanese kept silence again. After
that the Americans lowered the price again saying that it was the lowest they could sell at. After a brief silence the offer
was accepted. Later the Japanese confessed that the first offered price was quite acceptable, but they had a tradition to
think over the offer silently. An American company suffered great losses in this case.
Place. A company wanted to enter the Spanish market with two-liter drinks bottles and failed. Soon they found out that
Spaniards prefer small door fridges and they could not put large bottles into them.
Promotion. Pepsico came to Taiwan with the ad ‘Come Alive with Pepsi’. They could not imagine that is it translated ‘Pepsi
will bring your relatives back from the dead’ into Chinese.
.

7. 2. Racial Differences. This refers to the differences in physical features of people in different countries.
Example:- types of hair cut and cosmetic products differ greatly in various countries.
3. Climatic Differences. These are the meteorological conditions such as temperature range or degree of rain.
Example:-Bosch-Siemens adapted their washing machines to the markets they sell. In Scandinavia, where there are very
few sunny days, they sell washing machines with a minimum spin cycle of 1,000 rpm and a maximum of 1,600 rpm,
whereas in Italy and Spain a spin cycle of 500 rpm is enough
4. Economic Differences. Economic development of various countries is different and when a company
introduces a new product it adapts it to that new market. There are factors which show the level of economic
development
Buying power and revenue of the market. In developed countries with higher income of revenue people
prefer complicated product with advanced functions, while in poor countries simple product are preferable.
The infrastructure of the market. Such elements of the infrastructure of the country as transport,
communication system and others influence the product.
Example:-When Suzuki entering the Indian market the suspension was reinforced as the state of roads in
India is very poor.

8. 5. Religious Differences. Religion affects the product greatly and makes companies adapt their product to
religious norms.
Example:-If a company exports grocery products to Islamic countries it must have a special certificate
indicating that the animal was slaughtered according to ‘Halal’ methods.
6. Historical Differences. Historical differences affect the consumer behavior.
Example:- Scotch whiskey is considered fashionable in Italy and not very trendy in Scotland.
7. Language Differences. The correct translation and language adaptation is very important.
Example:-when Proctor & Gamble entered the Polish markets it translated properly its labels but failed.
Later they found out that imperfect language must have been used in order to show that the company fits
in.
Besides the differences mentioned above, there may be differences in the way that products or services
are used, differences in the criteria for assessing products or services across various markets and
differences in market research facilities and capabilities[5].

9. General guidelines and considerations for conducting international marketing
research
When thinking about designing marketing research for international markets, it will be necessary to:
1.Clearly understand the research problem from the viewpoint of the host market (and not jump to
conclusions),
2.Consider the market research design relative to the available research infrastructure (that is, the ability to
implement and execute surveys, observation and focus groups).
3.Identify the potential cultural limitations (e.g. limited access to females and less willingness to openly
share/provide information) and consider how that can be addressed (e.g. by using surrogate information) or
how it will need to be considered in the analysis stage of the research
4.It becomes more important to utilize local market research suppliers and agencies, particularly in host
countries that are significantly different to the home country in terms of culture and infrastructure.

10. Difference between Domestic and International
marketing research
Domestic Market Research International Marketing Reseach
Data will be available in single language and
usually easily accesses
Data will be in foreign languages and may be
extremely diffilcut to abtain and interupt
Data Availability will be accurate Formidable, but doubted
Broader than he domestic research

11. Classification of International Marketing
Research
International
Marketing Research
Exploratory
research
Descriptive
research
Causal
research

12. 1.Exploratory research :-
• Deals with discovering the general nature of the problem and the variables that relate to it.
• Exploratory research is characterized by a high degree of flexibility, and it tends to rely on secondary
data, convenience or judgment samples, small-scale surveys or simple experiments, case analyses, and
subjective evaluation of the results.
• Exploratory research is "the preliminary research to clarify the exact nature of the problem to be
solved."
It is done to understand what is happening and why something is happening. Some of the most
common methods of exploratory research are focus groups, interviews, literature research (library,
newpaper, magazines, trade publication and online), and case analyses
The following are some examples for studies with exploratory research design in business studies:
•A study into the role of social networking sites as an effective marketing communication channel
•An investigation into the ways of improvement of quality of customer services within hospitality sector in
London
•An assessment of the role of corporate social responsibility on consumer behaviour in pharmaceutical
industry in the USA

13. Advantages of Exploratory Research
1.Flexibility and adaptability to change
2.Exploratory research is effective in laying the groundwork that will lead to future studies.
3.Exploratory studies can potentially save time and other resources by determining at the earlier stages the
types of research that are worth pursuing
Disadvantages of Exploratory Research
1.Exploratory studies generate qualitative information and interpretation of such type of information is
subject to bias
2.These types of studies usually make use of a modest number of samples that may not adequately
represent the target population. Accordingly, findings of exploratory research cannot be generalized to a
wider population.
3.Findings of such type of studies are not usually useful in decision making in a practical level.

14. 2.Descriptive research:-
• It is focused on the accurate description of the variables in the problem model.
• Consumer profile studies, market-potential studies, product-usage studies, attitude
surveys, sales analyses, media research, and price surveys are examples of descriptive
research.
• Any source of information can be used in a descriptive study, although most studies of
this nature rely heavily on secondary data sources and survey research.
• Descriptive research generally precedes explanatory research
• Its value is based on the premise that problems can be solved and practices improved through
observation, analysis, and description.
• The most common descriptive research method is the survey, which includes questionnaires,
personal interviews, phone surveys, and normative surveys.

15. 3.Causal research:-
• attempts to specify the nature of the functional relationship between two or more variables in the problem
model.
• For example, studies on the effectiveness of advertising generally attempt to discover the extent to which
advertising causes sales or attitude change.
• Causal Research is the most sophisticated research market researchers conduct. Its goal is to
establish causal relationships—cause and effect—between two or more variables

16. Role of Research in International Marketing
Strategy Formulation
• International market research is an essential for developing strategy in readily changing
global marketplace
• Research will help to positioning new products, avoiding product formulations errors,
accurately considerate the cultural differences, classify relevant promotion messages,
being an apprehensive approach of geographical differences, assess the language and
translations challenges.
• Helps Information needs for international market entry includes micro issues (for
instance product and services sales potential, market growth rate and completive
intensity) and macro issues e.g. (Political, legal and regulatory environment of each
international country).
• Information which involves evaluating and integrating data previously collected to
examine changes in international environment.
• Information on issues which surround tactics in developing the appropriate marketing
mix.

17. Challenges of conducting international marketing
Research
Challenges
Cultural Differences
Language
differences
Language rules
Traditional and
Cultural norms
Period and Time
Zone
International
holidays
Translation and conversion
Sampling collecting issues
Local Interviews
Questionnaire time-span
Data collection complications
Market examines and research
infrastructure
Legal restrictions
Measurement and dimension issues

18. 1. Cultural Differences
Operate market research is an international environment requires concentration to obtain details and
learning new things. In managerial point of views this includes more infinite knowledge of native
cultures. Cultural components for instance, social institutions, gender role, language, religion,
aesthetics, education, and time orientations are closely related to national culture.Cultural differences
intensely affect on acceptance of products and services, in the other hand market behavior. The
knowledge of target markets plays a critical role in manipulation of research. Market research
professionalises require certain level of educational and technical skills. These skills are very
demanding to operate the international marketing research strategies.
1. Language differences.
As market research is being carried out internationally researchers have to take language and culture
consideration while designing their questionnaires. Language is the most important factors which brings
challenges in carrying out international research. Many organizations have command over English language, but
that does not mean that everyone can understand English. Situations can become more complicated when there
variations within the same language for instance, Americans and British have some variations in the way of speak
English.
2. Translation and conversion.
The most common problem that researchers face is translating their questionnaire developed for one country can be difficult to
translate into another language because of differences in idioms, concepts, syntax,.In international marketing research, accurate
information takes an essential part to maintain their targets. So sometime market researchers send back the questionnaires
translated in to proper translations. In this process questionnaires translated one language to another language to interpret the
important information about international marketing research.

19. 3. Language rules.
Syntax is related to the language as it refers to constructions of sentences and phrasing of words together for instance,
translating English in grammar language is very difficult because of sentence constructions.
4. Traditional and Cultural norms
After language the most important factor is cultural norms in the international marketing researchers. These norms are very prominent strengths
and can easily identify the difference between the successful and failure production establishment. Unfortunately these norms are very dedicated
rather than transparent which make very difficult to analysis the international market.
Example U.S Ketchup Company that, after knowing that the ketchup is not available in Japan, so they decided to attempt the market for
introduce the ketchup over there. Rather than they should be focus on it why is the ketchup is not available in Japan, here they ignore the
investigation through international market research and invested the huge amount for launch their product establishment. After this the company
of U.S become to know that soy sauce preferred in Japan.
5. Period and Time Zone
Time zone should be kept in minds while conducting market research. Differences in time zone have a huge impact on communication and timings of the
project. Extra time is required for project and communications to take place across the world. Time of days also matter in countries like Japan where business is
only done in business hours.
So the ignorance the importance of cultural norms has become a cause of certain problems in international marketing research.
6. International holidays
Foreign holidays another factor like time zone that has to be kept in mind, as different countries have different holidays depending on their culture, religion,
and their beliefs. It is important to check holidays schedule before starting research in another country .Nearby every Monday is holiday somewhere in the
world.

20. Sampling collecting issues, sampling framework.
Sampling is a very common practice in the manipulating of international marketing research.
consideration the case of China, China has a total population is 1.2 billion, 350 million of its total population is live in urban
areas of 622 cities and scores of smaller towns. Of the cities only 32 have population of at least one million, while 42 have
population between 5000,000 and one million, and the remaining 548 have population of less than 500,000 since no smaller
towns and rural areas are included in market research So it become very hard to collect hundred percent from the samplings.
(i). Local Interviews
It is very complicated communication process, but market researchers tried to adopt this technique to be aware the customer’s point of views
about the products qualities. This technique has also certain problems due to language barriers among the countries.
(ii) Questionnaire time-span
Different language can shorten and lengthen the amount of time it takes to get through a questionnaire
Example :-translated into Italian, a 20 minutes American questionnaire will last only approximately 18 minutes. Translated into French, the same
questionnaire will take 22 minutes. The difference between in durations is attributable to the subtle nuances of both languages

21. Measurement and dimension issues
In international marketing research it is critical to establish the equivalent of scale and measures used to obtain data from
different countries .One of the major issues that must be dealt with early in the international market research process in the
equivalence of data
This includes three factors which are as below.
1. Same phenomena should be used in both countries in the study of equivalence.
2. The phenomena are being measured consistently each country.
3. The samples are used in each country must be equivalent to each other.
These factors are involved in the measurement issues which are rapidly increased time to time in international environments. The
perception of reliability, describe as consistency over time, and validity which is responsible that what kind of instrument is
basically used to measurement and it is very important to any market research efforts.

22. Market examines and research infrastructure
Media internet quality control is very important in market research projects so if any country has no proper media technology there market research
has face lots of problems and has no any success in the market research. Widespread print and broadcast media are used generally in Western
advantages.
Data collection complications
The process of carrying salesperson is the international market is more difficult than the domestic market. It is expensive, more time taking, unreliable
mailing services in developed countries makes influence international mail survey challenging
Legal restrictions
Privacy and legal restrictions have different challenges in international marketing research. European countries have strict privacy policies which can
shut down marketing activities that collect and portrait personal information. For instance, the Chinese are monitoring questionnaire structure even
the endorsement of the final data. This is in direct conflict the American approach of non-disclosure of proprietary client result

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