Global Marketing ch6

Information Technology & Management Information System 

• Information Technology (IT): an organization’s processes for creating, storing, exchanging, using, and managing information 

• First should always be gathering intelligence!

• Management Information System (MIS): a means for gathering, analyzing and reporting relevant data to provide managers and other decision-makers with a continuous flow of information about markets, customers, competitors, and company operations

  • MIS can be a competitive advantage for a firm 

IT Infrastructure

• Intranet: a private network that allows authorized copmanby personnel or outsiders to share information electronically in a secure way and without using paper 

  • This is not the same as the public internet- is it is internal 

  • Enables firms to be Real Time Enterprises (RTE) because the data is captured in real time on the intrant and is accessible in real-time 

  • RTE companies are GOogle, Amazon, FedEx and they leverage big data to their advantage

    • Big data is extremely large data sets 

• Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system allows a company’s business units to submit orders, issue invoices, and conduct business electronically with other company units as well as with outside companies 

  • EDI systems allows computer systems to speak the same language 

    • Walmart used to send orders via PCs on modem using 3rd party platforms. All three of these components led to vulnerabilities! At the other end, orders would have been entered into the vendor system. Another vulnerability! 

• Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) is a joint initiative of supply chain members to optimize the supply chain to benefit customers by having stock on hand. ECR utilizes the EPOS system data 

  • Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS or POS) data read on checkout scanners help firms identify sales patterns & geographical consumer preferences 

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is an important business tool that helps companies leverage the data they collect through ECR and EPOS

  • CRM is based on a philosophy that values two-way communication between the company & the customer

    • Inbound and outbound 

  • Touchpoints are any point of contact between the customer and the organization and is a chance to capture data 

    • Stored in data warehouses

  • 360° view of the customer to identify valuable customer and offer customized and timely service

    • But can be a challenge globally due to data privacy laws (GDPR in EU) and language shortcomings with commercial CRM packages 

Sources of Market Information

• What (else) goes into the Management Information System?

  • Environmental Scanning data

  • Information from personal sources

    • As much as ⅔ (66%) of corporate information comes from the people on the ground

      • Executives based abroad, company subsidiaries, affiliates, and branches communicate with distributors, consumers, customers, suppliers, and government officials 

    • Highlights a challenge that domestic companies may miss new opportunities and trends because they are not doing business in the global market 

  • Direct sensory perception means to have an experience- managers should walk about and observe 

    • Seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling, or tasting firsthand to find out what is going on in a country 

    • A form of ethnocentric research. Emic research (within) vs Etic Research (from the outside)

Formal Marketing Research

• Market Research is project-specific, systematic gathering of data

  • AMA definition says: Marketing Research is the activity that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information

  • Global Market Research is on a global scale 

1. Information Requirements

2. Problem Definition

3. Choosing the Unit of Analysis

4. Examining Data Availability

5. Assessing the Value of Research 

6. Research Design

7. Data Analysis

8. Interpretation and Presentation

Step 1: Information Requirement

• What information do I need? Why do I need this information?

Step 2: Problem Definition

• A problem well-defined, is a problem half solved

  • Problem definition can be very challenging 

• Be aware! The self-reference criterion is at work when a person’s home-country values and beliefs influence the assessment of another country 

  • Mattel execs thought Japanese girls would like Barbie just like American girls . They didn’t

  • Disney’s detailed code about personal appearance was an insult to French culture, individualism, and privacy when Disneyland Paris opened 

• When approaching global markets, it is best to have “eyes wide open.” Understand how SRC can impact research efforts 

Step 3: Choose a Unit of Analysis 

• Single country, region, global 

• In some instances, a city, state, or province may make more sense 

  • Just as a marketer may segment the Columbia Missouri market, a global marketer may select a city in another country as their target market 

Step 4: Examine Data Availability  

• Secondary vs Prima

  • Secondary data: published for some other reason. Secondary data is less expensive, plentiful, and fast-- but may not match the current need exactly. Is it good enough?

  • Primary data: gathered through original research for the particular problem identified. More expensive than secondary data, but also more specific to the problem at hand

Sources of Global Data

• US Government Resources

  • National Trade Base (dept. of Commerce)

  • Bureau of Economic Analysis 

  • Census Bureau

• MU Library resources (go to MU Library for access to these sources as some are behind paywalls). In the search line type “Global Markets” and you’ll get Library Guides with numerous sources already connected for you!

  • US Department of State

  • globalEDGE

  • World Factbook

  • IBIS World

•  Countries may have websites- do online research

• The Statistical Yearbook of the United Nations 

Test Yourself

• Primary source or Secondary source?

  • Bureau of Economic Analysis reports

  • World Factbook data

  • Gathering 6-10 customers or stakeholders for a discussion

  • Data available in the sales records of the firm 

  • Canada.ca website (official website of the Government of Canada)

  • Pressure mats to gain foot traffic data

  • Reviewing new sites or X for global news and trends 

• Primary source or Secondary source?

  • Bureau of Economic Analysis reports (Secondary)

  • World Factbook data (Secondary)

  • Gathering 6-10 customers or stakeholders for a discussion (Primary)

  • Data available in the sales records of the firm (Secondary)

  • Canada.ca website (official website of the Government of Canada) (Secondary)

  • Pressure mats to gain foot traffic data (Primary)

  • Reviewing new sites or X for global news and trends (Secondary)

Step 5: Assess Value of Research 

• If secondary data are not available, managers may conduct further studies of the area

  • Primary research is more expensive. Assess the cost of research vs what the information is worth 

• Consider this, would/should the company enter the market without spending big money on research?

  • Small markets may justify only small research expense 

Step 6: Research Design

• Primary Data: Gather when secondary data not available

  • Provides accurate data which give exact answers to a given research problem 

  • Possible problems: cost, difficulties in gaining the data, and more time-consuming 

• For a complete “picture” do the following:

  • Use more than one source. Triangulation

  • Leverage previous experience in global markets

  • Get context

  • Observation over opinion. Customers don’t always know what they want 

• Mix techniques. Use qualitative and quantitative research

  • Qualitative research is good for exploring to understand the customer, including their situation and consumer behavior and how they really feel about the brand by getting “under the skin” of the brand

    • Uses open-ended techniques to draw out the consumer’s feelings and thoughts 

  • Quantitative research provides the numbers. Ex: expected sales revenue by customer or average age

    • It describes the something using numbers 

Issues in Data Collection

• Is there an existing market to study?

  • Existing markets are already being served

  • Potential markets may be emerging:

    • Latent Market: an undiscovered segment but demand would materialize if an appropriate product were made available

    • Incipient Market: a market will emerge if an economic, demographic, political, or sociocultural trend continues

      • As per capita income rises in a country, the demand for automobiles will also rise

Research Methodologies

• Tools for collecting primary data include: 

  • Survey Research: can be qualitative or quantitative

    • Back-translation: survey is translated into target language, then translated back into original language 

    • Parallel translation: two versions by different translators are used in conjunction with back-translation

  • Consumer Panel: respondents’ behavior tracked over time; Nielsen Media tracks television audience measurement 

  • Observation: trained observers or a mechanical device (video camera) watch & record actual or potential consumers

  • Focus Groups: moderator leads 6-10 person discussion

  • Interviews 

Sampling

• When collecting data, researchers generally cannot administer a survey to every possible person in the designated group 

• Population vs Sample: use a sample or subset of the population to represent the entire population

  • Probability vs non-probability samples such as a convenience sample (might be good enough) 

    • Probability samples where each member of the population has an equal chance of being surveyed, can be statistically analyzed

Step 7: Data Analysis and Step 8: Interpretation and Presentation

• Data must be cleaned & tabulated

• The report should clearly link to the problem or opportunity identified in Step 1

• Use language with which managers are comfortable 

• Simplify complex quantitative analysis  

Recall

1. Firms gather and store a continuous flow of information in their: 

   1. Rolodex

   2. Data interchange

   3. Internet database

   4. Management information system

   5. Customer files

2. When a customer provides their email to be included on a firm’s mailing list, this is a ___

   1. Touchpoint

   2. Customer flag

   3. Mistake

   4. Consumer behavior indicator

   5. Global anomaly

3. If a researcher studies the culture of a country, from the outside, this is ____ analysis

   1. Outsider

   2. Etymology

   3. Etic

   4. Cultural sensitivity

   5. Emic

4. We talked about self-reference criterion in chapter 4. Explain how SRC can affect Marketing Research. 3-5 sentences

5. Secondary data is all the following EXCEPT:

   1. Quick to collect

   2. Already published

   3. Cheap

   4. Always reliable

   5. Plentiful

6. A subset of the population useful for marketing research is called a ______

   1. Population indicator

   2. Portion

   3. Population pulse

   4. Focal group

   5. Sample