International marketing research

                                        Information needed

Deciding whether to internationalize







Deciding which market

to enter







Designing how to enter

foreign market

Assessment of global market opporutnities

(demand) for the firm´s product

Competitiveness of the firm compared

to local and international competitors



Market potential – ranking of countries

Trade barriers

Political risks

Cultural (psychic) distance



Nature of the product

Size of market/segments

Behaviour of potential intermediaries

Transport costs…

                  Categorization of the data for assessment of a market potential

                                     Secondary data - research

u   + less expensive

u   +less time consuming

u   +quick

u   +important data

u   - non-availability of data

u   - ?reliability of data( accuracy?)

u   - ?data classification (too broad?)

u   -?comparability of data (national definitions of statistical phenomena)





u
http://www.fdi.net/opportunities/infm_resource.cfm?infid=20&srcpg=6&countrynum=1&subjectnum=13
World Bank Group

u   http://www.imf.org/external/index.htm    International Monetary Fund

u   http://www.pwc.com/  PriceWaterhouseCoopers

u   http://www.aseansec.org/

     ASEAN

u   http://www.asiarisk.com/

     Political and Economical Risk Consulting Ltd. (PERC)

u   http://www.wto.org/

     World Trade Organization

u   http://www.fita.org/

    The Federation of International Trade Association













                                     Primary data  - research

    QUALITATIVE   - depth

u   holistic view of the research problem – understanding – reasons and motives

u   Exploratory

u   Small sample size

u   Key informants

u   Subjective, interpretative data analysis

u   Low/no  replicability with the same result

u   Special skills of interviewer

u  QUANTITATIVE    -breadth

u   generalize the results – general view

u   Descriptive and/or casual

u   Large sample size

u   Representatives of the population

u   Statistical summary

u   high replicability with the same result

u   Design phase – formulations and questions must be correct – high time consumption

u   Low time consumption during analysis phase

                             Research design – primary data collection

                      Problems with primary research in international market

u   Sampling – lack of adequate demographic data and lists + no officially recognized census of
population, no accurate maps, incomplete and out-of date telephone directories…

u   Non-response (not being available, refusal to respond – privacy?, too personal? Doesn´t
know?...)

u   Language barrier

u   Strict privacy laws in Europe

u   Gender…



                             Equivalence of international MKT research
                                           - categories

u  1. conceptual  - similar meaning of concept?

      beauty, sex-appeal, health, wealth, youth, household…

Example: RISK construct – social, physical, financial – BUYING A CAR

u  2. functional – different functions of similar activities/products?

    preparing a meal, bicycle, hot-milk based chocolate drinks,

    fountain pen, wine, beer…

u  3. translation – lexical, idiomatic, grammatical-syntactical (wors order, sentence construction,
experiential

u  4. measure equivalence – perceptual (colours, smells…), metric (scale depth and breadth -
terms), calibration (monetary units, basic units…), temporal (dates and time periods)





u  5. sample – differences in categories (age, income brackets, professions…., sampling unit
(characteristics of respondents)

u  6. data collection – respondents co-operation – willingness to answer, context equivalence of
data collection, response-style („yes-saying patterns or „nay-saying patterns, item non-response
pattern – income, age…, extreme response style- positive, negative?)