Page 121 - International Marketing

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BRILLIANT'S Managing International Market 123

1. Definition of objectives: The first step in the research process is
a clear definition for the objectives for which research is being undertaken,
such as understanding the basis of preferences of customers, the nature,
extent and source of competition, etc. Unless the objectives are clearly
defined, it will be rather difficult to identify the nature and sources of infor-
mation and data or select the right technique of information collection.
2. Determining information requirements: The second step is to
decide about the type of information and data to be collected in the light of
the objectives laid down in the first step. Since, the company would like to
avoid wastage of scarce resources in collecting information that may not
be considered relevant subsequently, it is highly important that there is a
clear idea in the beginning stages about the type of information collected.
3. Selection of methodologies: Once it is clear as to what type of
data and information is to be collected, the next step is to determine the
methodology to collect the required information. Some informations may
be collected through desk research and some others may be collected
through survey research.
Types of International Marketing Research
(a) Desk research
Desk research basically involves collection of information from docu-
mentary sources or other published and unpublished sources. Through
desk research, the sources of such data are searched and relevant docu-
ments, publications, etc. are collected. This stage of searching for sources
of published or secondary data is also referred to as bibliography research
or library research. The preliminary part of desk research is search for the
sources of secondary data or the collection of documents. The actual
desk research involves compilation, processing and analysis of second-
ary data in accordance with the research objectives.
In international marketing, desk research plays a very important role. In
respect of most of the countries, a good amount of general economic, politi-
cal and market information is available from secondary sources. Informa-
tion on the countries’ industrial and economic profile, government policies
and regulations, size, composition and destination of foreign trade and host
of other general information is often available for desk research. Desk re-
search may serve the purpose only when the limited and general types of
information are required. It also provides background information for selec-
tion of the most promising foreign markets for in-depth investigation.
Desk research, therefore, could be used for general and limited infor-
mation on foreign markets as well as the preliminary step for effective
planning and conduct of survey research in foreign countries.