LECTURE 3
Global Marketing Research
1
Session objectives
● Explain the importance of having a carefully designed international information
system
● Link global marketing research to the decision-making process
● Discuss the key problems in gathering and using international market data
● Distinguish between different research approaches, data sources and data types
● Discuss opportunities and problems with qualitative market research methods
● Understand how online surveys are carried out
● Understand the relevance of the internet as an important data source in global
marketing research
● Understand the growing role of social networks and other online communities
(Web 2.0 as sources of information)
Why Global Marketing Research
Insufficient knowledge of the international
terrain could pose a major risk for firms
seeking to go international or global
What is Marketing Research
The term marketing research refers to gathering,
analyzing and presenting information related to a well-
defined problem. Hence the focus of marketing research
is a specific problem or project with a beginning and an
end.
Linking global marketing research to the
decision-making process
The two major sources of information:
primary data and secondary data.
• Primary data: information that is collected first-hand, generated by
original research tailor-made to answer specific current research
questions. The major advantage of primary data is that the
information is specific, relevant and up to date.
• The disadvantages of primary data, however, are the high costs and
amount of time associated with its collection.
Linking global marketing research to the
decision-making process
Secondary data: Information that has already been collected for
other purposes and is thus readily available.
• The major disadvantage is that the data is often more general and
coarse-grained in nature. Currency on issue could be doubtful
• The advantages of secondary data are the low costs and amount of
time associated with its collection.
Disadvantages of secondary research in foreign markets
• Non-availability of data
• Reliability of data
• Data classification
• Comparability of data
Internal data sources
• Sources of internal data include;
I. Total sales
II. Sales by country
III. Sales by product
IV. Sales volume by market segment
V. Sales volume by type of channel distribution
VI. Pricing information
VII. Communication mix information.
External data sources
• Public Libraries
• Internet
• Electronic Dashboards
Primary research
• Involves the use of quantitative and qualitative techniques.
• These can be distinguished by the fact that quantitative techniques
involve getting data from a large, representative group of
respondents.
• The objective of qualitative research techniques is to give a holistic
view of the research problem. Therefore these techniques must
have a large number of variables and few respondents.
Research design
• Research problem/objectives: The primary research process
should begin with a definition of the research problem and the
establishment of specific objectives. The major difficulty here
is translating the business problem into a research problem
with a set of specific researchable objectives.
• In this initial stage, researchers often embark on the research
process with only a vague grasp of the total problem.
Qualitative vs Quantitative
Qualitative vs Quantitative
Research approaches
Observation
• This approach to the generation of primary data is
based on watching and sometimes recording
market-related behavior.
• Observational techniques are more suited to
investigating what people do rather than why
they do it.
Experiments
• Experiments gather casual information. They
involve selecting matched groups of subjects,
giving them different treatments, controlling
unrelated factors and checking for differences
in group responses.
• Thus experimental research tries to explain
cause-and-effect relationships.
SURVEYS
• The survey research method is based on the questioning of
respondents and represents, in both volume and value terms,
perhaps the most important method of collecting data.
• Typically the questioning is structured: a formal questionnaire
is prepared and the questions are asked in a prearranged
order. The questions may be asked verbally, in writing or via a
computer.
Contact methods
• Mail
• Internet/e-mail surveys (online surveys)
• Telephone interviews
• Personal interviews
STRENGTHS OF VARIOUS CONTACT MENTHODS
Sampling plan
• The population can be defined in terms of elements
and sampling units.
• In practice is to contact a selected group of
consumers/customers to be representative of the
entire population. The total number of consumers who
could be interviewed is known as the ‘sample frame’,
while the number of people who are actually
interviewed is known as the ‘sample’.
Sampling procedure
• Probability sampling : Here it is possible to specify in
advance the chance that each element in the population will
have of being included in a sample, although there is not
necessarily an equal probability for each element.
• Non-probability sampling: Here it is not possible to
determine the above-mentioned probability or to estimate
the sampling error. These procedures rely on the personal
judgment of the researcher
Probability sampling
• Simple random sampling,
• Systematic sampling,
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
Non-probability sampling.
• Convenience sampling
• Quota sampling
• Snowball
• Sampling
Other types of marketing research
• Ad hoc research
• Custom-designed studies
• Multi-client studies
• Delphi studies
• Continuous research (longitudinal designs)
Marketing research based on Web 2.0
• Mobile data
• User-generated content and text mining
• Web browsing
• Social networks and online communities
• Customer decision-making data
• Consumer usage data
• Neuromarketing
