International Market Research

International marketing research plays an important role in the identification and development of a company#s strategies for internationalization. It enables a business to identify, evaluate and compare potential foreign market opportunities and develop a marketing plan. Research also provides a company with foreign market intelligence to help it anticipate events, take appropriate action, and prepare for global changes.

PURPOSES:

To obtain data which is not readily available from a direct authority.

To get a general idea of how a specific industry/market works.

To develop a relationship with interviewee for future reference and contacts.

To gain an insider's insight; to obtain an expert's opinion.

Market size, distribution channels, competitive analysis, price analysis, environmental.

To access 'inside information' (business protocol, company policy, etc.)

Qualititative Market Research Process

To conduct market research, organisations may decide to undertake the project themselves (some through a marketing research department) or they might choose to commission it via a market research agency or consultancy. Whichever, before undertaking any research project, it is crucial to define the research objectives i.e. what are you trying to achieve from the research? and what do you need to know?

After considering the objectives, Market Researchers can utilise many types of research techniques and methodologies to capture the data that they require. All of the available methodologies either collect quantitative or qualitative information. The use of each very much depends on the research objectives but many believe that results are most useful when the two methods are combined.

Quantitative Research

Quantitative research is numerically oriented, requires significant attention to the measurement of market phenomena and often involves statistical analysis. For example, a bank might ask its customers to rate its overall service as either excellent, good, poor or very poor. This will provide quantitative information that can be analysed statistically. The main rule with quantitative research is that every respondent is asked the same series of questions. The approach is very structured and normally involves large numbers of interviews/questionnaires.

Perhaps the most common quantitative technique is the 'market research survey'. These are basically projects that involve the collection of data from multiple cases - such as consumers or a set of products. Quantitative surveys can be conducted by using post (self-completion), face-to-face (in-street or

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