2. Breadth and scope of international
marketing
Foreign market research is broader and is based
more information than domestic marketing
Foreign market research is based on three types
of information
1. General information about the country, area
and market
2. Information necessary to forecast marketing
requirement
3. Breadth and scope of international
marketing
3. specific market information used to make
product, promotion distribution and price decision
and to develop marketing plan
Domestic market research is based on one type
of information which is:
specific market information used to make product,
promotion distribution and price decision and to
develop marketing plan
4. The research process
Marketing research is always limited by time and
cost
Effective research process follows six steps:
1. Define the research problem and establish
research objectives
2.Determine the sources of information to fulfil the
research objectives
3.Consider the costs and benefits of the research
effort
4.Gather the relevant data from secondary or
primary sources, or both
5. The research process
5. Analyze, interpret and summarize the result
6. Effectively communicate the results to decision
makers
Research program are similar for all countries but
implementation may differ due to difference in
cultural and economic environment
6. Defining the problem and
establishing research objectives
The main difficulty of this step is converting a
series of often ambiguous business problems into
tightly drawn and achievable research objectives.
This step is more critical in foreign markets:
1. Unfamiliar environment tends to cloud the
problem definition. Researchers fail to
anticipate the influence of local culture on the
problem and treat the problem definition as if it
were in the researcher's home environment.
Ex: Diseny land
7. Defining the problem and
establishing research objectives
2. Failure to establish problem limits board
enough to include all the relevant variables.
Information should consider cultural factors Ex:
hot drinks
8. Determining the source of
information
Secondary data: Data generally available by local
government and external official sources
Problems of secondary data:
1. Availability of data:
The quality and quantity of a marketing related
data are not accurate in underdeveloped
countries.
Data in each country is available with the country’s
native language (hire native speaker to help
the researcher)
9. Problems of secondary data
2. Reliability of data
Some questions should be asked to effectively
judge the reliability of secondary data
• Who collected the data?
• For what purpose were the data collected?
• How were the data collected?
3. Validity of data
Validity of data can be measured by checking the
consistency of one set of data with other related
data. Ex: forecasting demand of baby products by
checking birth rates.
10. Determining the source of
information
Primary data: data that is collected specifically for
the particular research in hand
This can be through two basic types (quantitative
and qualitative research)
Quantitative research method: quantitative
research provides the marketers with responses
that can be presented with precise estimations
such as percentage, average or other statistics.
Ex: 76% of the respondents prefer product A.
11. Determining the source of
information
Qualitative research: questions in qualitative
research are almost open-ended or in depth, and
or unstructured responses that reflect the
person’s thoughts, feelings and impressions. Ex:
Tesco sent team to live with American families to
observe their shopping behaviour.
Qualitative research is used to formulate, define
problem more clearly and to stimulate ideas
rather than quantifying relevant aspects
12. Problems of primary data
1. Ability to communicate opinions: The ability
to express attitudes and opinion about a product
depend on the respondent's ability to recognize
the usefulness and value of the product.
It is difficult for a person to formulate needs,
attitudes and opinion about a specific product
whose use may not be common or understood in
a specific community
13. Problems of primary data
2. Willingness to response:
Respondents may be unwilling to response due to
cultural differences Ex: Women in some countries
may be unwilling to be interviewed by a stranger
man.
3. Sampling in field survey:
The lack of adequate demographic data and
available lists from which to draw a meaningful
sample
14. Problems of primary data
Sampling become more complex and unreliable
because details about population characteristics
being studied are not available, therefore sample
can not be drawn effectively. Ex: poor postal
service can be a problem for a researchers who
use mail to conduct their research
15. Problems of primary data
4. Language: Language barrier is the main
problem of research is foreign countries, where it
is difficult to interpret, translate desired inform to
respondents.
Translation does not always mean an adequate
interpretation of the information
16. Problems of primary data
Problems of translation can be solved using
different techniques such as:
Back translation:
Questions is translated from one language to
another, and then a second party translates it
back into the original language and two version
are compared to avoid any misinterpretation
before it reach respondents Ex: soft drink ad.
themes “baby, its cold inside”- “small mosquito,
on the inside it is very cold”
17. Problems of primary data
Parallel translation: to ensure an accurate
translation more than one translators are used for
back translation and the appropriate translation is
selected
18. Problems of primary data
Decentering: a group of back translation “ a
process of translation and retranslation until
achieving adequate version” Ex: An English
version is translated into French and then
translated back into English by different
translators and then different versions are
compared and if there is any differences, the
original English version is modified and then
process is repeated
