International Marketing
15th edition
Philip R. Cateora, Mary C. Gilly, and John L. Graham
The Research Process
•
8
Research process steps
1. Define the research problem and establish research
objectives
2. Determine the sources of information to fulfill the research
objectives
3. Consider the costs and benefits of the research effort
4. Gather relevant data from secondary or primary sources, or
both
5. Analyze, interpret, and summarize the results
6. Effectively communicate the results to decision makers
•
Research steps are similar for all countries
– Variations and problems can occur in implementation
• Differences in cultural and economic development
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Defining the Problem
8
and Establishing Research Objectives
• The major difficulty is converting a series of
often ambiguous business problems into tightly
drawn and achievable research objectives
• The first, most crucial step in research is more
critical in foreign markets because an unfamiliar
environment tends to could problems definition
• Other difficulties in foreign research stem from
failures to establish problem limits broad
enough to include all relevant variables
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Problems of Availability
and Use of Secondary Data
8
• U.S. government provides comprehensive
statistics for United States
• Marketing data not matched in other countries
– Quality
– Quantity
– Exceptions are Japan and several European
countries
• Continuing efforts to improve data collection
– United Nations
– Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD)
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Availability
and Reliability of Data
8
• Most countries simply do not have governmental
agencies that collect on a regular basis the kinds of
secondary data readily available in the U.S.
• Researchers’ language skills impede access to
information
– Requires native speaker of language
• Official statistics are sometimes too optimistic, reflecting
national pride rather than practical reality, while tax
structures and fear of the tax collector often adversely
affect data
– Less-developed countries prone to optimism
– Willful errors
– “Adjusted reporting”
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Comparability of Data
8
• Issues with data (especially in less developed,
countries)
– Data can be many years out of date
– Data collected on an infrequent and
unpredictable schedule
• Too frequently, data are reported in different
categories or in categories much too broad to be
of specific value
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Validating Secondary Data
8
• Questions to judge the reliability of secondary data sources
– Who collected the data?
– Would there be any reason for purposely misrepresenting the
facts?
– For what purposes was the data collected?
– How was the data collected?
– Are the data internally consistent and logical in light of
known data sources or market factors?
• Checking the consistency of one set of secondary data with
other data of known validity
– An effective and often-used way of judging validity
• The availability and accuracy of recorded secondary data
increase with level of economic development
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Gathering Primary Data –
Quantitative and Qualitative Research
(1 of 2)
8
• Primary data
– Data collected specifically for the particular research
project
• Quantitative research
– Usually a large number of respondents
– Respondents answer structured oral or written questions
using a specific response format (such as yes/no) or to
select a response from a set of choices
– Responses can be summarized in percentages, averages, or
other statistics
• Toto – a Japanese firm with the premiers quantitative
research on bathroom and toilet technology
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Gathering Primary Data –
Quantitative and Qualitative Research
(2 of 2)
8
• Qualitative research
– If questions are asked, they are almost always
open-ended or in-depth
– Seeks unstructured responses that reflect the
person’s thoughts and feelings on the subject
• Qualitative research interprets people in the
sample
• Qualitative research is helpful in revealing the
impact of sociocultural factors on behavior
patterns and in developing research hypotheses
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Problems
8
of Gathering Primary Data
• Hinges on the ability of the researcher to get
correct and truthful information that addresses
research objectives
• Problems in international marketing research
– Stem from differences among countries
– Range from inability or unwillingness of
respondents to communicate their opinions
– Inadequacies in questionnaire translation
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Ability to
Communicate Opinions
8
• Formulating opinions about a product or concept
– Depends on the respondent’s ability to recognize the
usefulness of such a product of concept
– Product or concept must be understood and used in
community
• The more complex the concept, the more difficult it
is to design research that will help the respondent
communicate meaningful opinions and reactions
– Gerber has more experience in trying to understand
consumers with limitations
• Babies can neither answer questions or fill out
questionnaires
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Willingness to Respond
8
• Cultural differences provide best explanation for
unwillingness or inability of many to respond to
research surveys
• The role of the male, the suitability of personal
gender-based inquiries, and other genderrelated issues can affect willingness to respond
• Less direct measurement techniques and
nontraditional data analysis methods may also
be more appropriate
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Sampling in Field surveys
8
• Problems in sampling stem from the lack of
adequate demographic data and available lists
from which to draw meaningful samples
• Affected by a lack of detailed social and
economic information
– No officially recognized census information
– No other listings that can serve as sampling
frames
– Incomplete and out-of-date telephone directories
– No accurate maps of population centers
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Language and
Comprehension
8
• The most universal survey research problem in
foreign countries is the language barrier
• Literacy poses yet another problem
• Marketers use three different techniques to help
ferret out translation errors ahead of time
– Back translation
– Parallel translation
– Decentering
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Estimating Market Demand
8
• Two methods of forecasting demand
– Expert opinion
• The key in using expert opinion to help in
forecasting demand is triangulation
– Analogy
• Assumes that demand for a product
develops in much the same way in all
countries as comparable economic
development occurs in each country
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