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Global marketing research is very important to companies that want to enter international markets.
Global marketing researchers follow the same steps as domestic researchers, from defining the research problem and developing a research plan to interpret and report the results.
But global marketing research presents a number of different challenges compared to domestic research. Global markets present a much more diverse set of marketing factors.
To ensure the research is valid and reliable, data-gathering methods may have to be modified to allow for regional differences.
The absence of good secondary data in foreign countries increases the difficulties facing global marketing researchers.
Because of the scarcity of good secondary data, global researchers often must collect their own primary data. But sometimes, it can be difficult to develop good samples.
People in different countries also vary in their attitudes toward marketing research.
Translating a questionnaire from one language to another seems easy, but many idioms, phrases, and statements mean different things in different cultures.
Researchers can check the accuracy of questionnaire by translating the questionnaire that has already been translated into a foreign language back to the original language by an independent translator.
Global marketing research can be conducted by the firm itself, but not all firms are familiar with international data sources and may not be equipped to use them even if they are aware of them.
Local research companies are familiar with the local population and language. This knowledge can help eliminate many of the mistakes a company might make as it seeks to enter foreign markets.
Big data involves massive data files that can be obtained from both structured and unstructured databases.
Researchers can use big data to discover unique insights and make more knowledgeable marketing decisions.
The complexity of big data requires sophisticated software to store and analyze it.
It requires marketers to identify and understand how to use this data to develop stronger customer relationships.
Unlike other forms of marketing research, using big data can reveal specific details about consumers that would be hard to discover in other ways.
Despite the benefits of big data to marketing research, the challenge for researchers is to figure out how to use pieces of data to develop more targeted marketing strategies.
Big data is useless if an organization's marketers do not know how to use it.
Big data can still be subject to bias, projection error, and sampling issues.
Big data creates serious privacy issues, and brings up a major ethical issue.
Companies face the challenge of unearthing valuable but potentially sensitive customer data while also maintaining customer trust.
Failure to address privacy issues could result in angry, less cooperative interviewees and increased government intervention.
Consumer privacy has become a significant issue for the marketing research industry.
Data on customer interest and more personal matters allow companies to predict customer behavior more accurately but may also infringe upon consumer privacy.
It is essential that professional standards be established by which to judge the reliability of marketing research. Such standards are necessary because of the ethical and legal issues that develop in gathering marketing research data.
Researchers should ask only for the information they need.
If researchers provide value in exchange for information, customers will gladly provide it.
Researchers should avoid sharing information without the customer's permission.
To be effective, some guidelines must instruct marketing researchers on how to avoid misconduct.
中外案例对比
Case Study Comparison
中国中车，出路在海外
国内机车市场饱和，而国外正迎来一个黄金时期。中国中车看准时机，正发力海外市场，并有所收获。
2015年9月3日，中国中车在美国首个制造基地奠基，工厂位于马萨诸塞州斯普林菲尔德市。自此，中国铁路装备在美国实现了本土化制造和技术输出。
根据中国中车2015年8月29日晚间发布的半年报，中车上半年净利润46.99亿元，同比增长6.85%；其中来自中国内地的营收占主要比重同比增长不到1%，而中车在其他国家或地区的营收则同比增长60.95%。
与国内市场需求趋缓相比，海外市场正迎来一个黄金时期。银河证券预计，到2020年，世界铁路总投资额将超过15万亿元，平均每年投资金额将达2.5万亿元，中国企业每年获得的市场份额或将达3 750亿元。据德国SCI公司统计，目前全球铁路市场容量1 620亿欧元，未来有望以每年3.4%的速度增长，到2018年增长至1 900亿欧元，而当前中国中车仅占其15%左右，相较于国内市场的饱和，海外市场拓展空间巨大。
中国机车走向海外，并非一帆风顺，与日德等老牌高铁发达国家的竞争必将非常激烈。要在海外市场获取成绩，必需彰显独特的中国优势。
与国外相比，中国高速铁路总里程长，运营环境复杂，且连续高速运距长。通过引进消化吸收再创新，我国自主制造出不同型号的高速动车组，并历经了高寒高铁、抗大风沙高铁和沿海高铁等运营。
为适应中国高速铁路运营环境，以及统一维修服务，并推动中国机车走向海外，自2012年开始，在中国铁路总公司主导下，中国中车于2015年6月生产出一款中国标准动车组，具有完全自主知识产权，设计时速350公里。该车加载了防脱线装置、全车无线WiFi覆盖、车型设计流线使阻力减少5%。
此外，中国机车性价比也具有一定优势。“中国高铁的造价是日本的2/3，平均速度是最快的，同时拥有货运、客运、高速、普通速度、高原、高寒等不同品类的车辆，兼容性强。这是中国高铁的竞争力。”同济大学铁道与城市轨道交通研究院孙章教授说。
基于国内和国外市场空间的鲜明对比，中国中车股份有限公司正欲集中发力海外市场，以应对日益饱和的国内轨道车辆市场空间，继续扩大盈利空间。
（资料来源：节选自中国中车，出路在海外．环球网，http://finance.huanqiu.com/roll/2015-09/7426935.html，2015.9.7）
Bikers Go“Hog”Wild
In 2013, Harley-Davidson (H-D) celebrated its 110th anniversary. The company has grown impressively during its first 100-plus years of operation; as the second decade of the twenty-first century got underway, H-D posted revenues of $4.1 billion. Savvy export marketing enabled H-D to dramatically increase worldwide sales of its heavyweight motorcycles. From Australia to Germany and to Mexico City, H-D enthusiasts were paying the equivalent of up to $25, 000 to own an American-built classic. In many countries, dealers put would-be buyers on a 6-month waiting list because of high demand.
H-D's international success came after years of neglecting overseas markets. The company was also slow to react to a growing threat from Japanese manufacturers. Early on, the company used an export-selling approach, symbolized by its underdeveloped dealer network. By the late 1980s, after recruiting dealers in the important Japanese and European markets, company executives discovered a basic principle of global marketing.“As the saying goes, we need to think global but act local,”said Jerry G. Wilke, vice president for worldwide marketing during that time. Managers began to adapt the company's international marketing to make it more responsive to local conditions.
In Japan, for example, H-D's rugged image and high quality helped make it the best-selling imported motorcycle. After learning that riders in Tokyo considered fashion and customized bikes to be essential, H-D opened stores specializing in clothing and bike accessories. Recently H-D has begun catering to Japanese women who enjoy riding. Today, Japan generates 5.6 percent of company revenues for motorcycles, parts, accessories, and merchandise.
In Europe, H-D discovered that an“evening out”meant something different than it did in America. The company sponsored a rally in France, where beer and live rock music were available until midnight. Recalls Wilke said,“People asked us why we were ending the rally just as the evening was starting. So I had to go persuade the band to keep playing and reopen the bar until 3 or 4 a.m.”
Today, the company has a clear picture of its core European customers; as Klaus Stobel, European affairs director for Harley-Davidson Europe, explained,“The people who buy Harleys in Europe are like the people who buy BMWs in the U.S. They are dentists and lawyers.”H-D currently ranks second in overall market share for the European heavyweight motorcycle segment; in 2010, Europe accounted for 16.7 percent of global revenues.
The global economic crisis cut into worldwide sales. The reason was straightforward: credit was tight and, for many people, a motorcycle is a discretionary purchase, not a necessity. In 2010, the company shipped 210, 494 motorcycles, down from about 350, 000 units in 2006. Despite the slump in demand, in some years there are not enough bikes to go around. This is a situation that seems to suit company executives just fine. As former H-D President James H. Paterson once noted,“Enough motorcycles is too many motorcycles.”
(Source: Warren Keegan and Mark Green.Global Marketing (8th edition), Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2015, p. 200)
Case Implications:
Globalization has become an inevitable tendency in the world.The traditional brands from developing countries and new brands from emerging markets are seeking opportunities in the globalization to enlarge their market shares. However, as mentioned in the case, before going abroad, CRRC and H-D conducted sufficient marketing research, and used adequate data and information to give great supports to the final decisions. In global marketing research, the companies adjust their research processes to each target to obtain necessary information, including redefining research problems, improving the research plan, and modifying data-gathering methods, etc. Researchers often face various problems in global marketing research, and research results always vary in different countries and are different from domestic market. Therefore, it entails a lot of hard work and needs marketers to careful design and execute research plans.