Marketing Research in the AsiaPacific

1
Marketing Research in the Asia-Pacific
2
Introduction

• Globalization, growing consumer affluence, and
  other factors conducive to business have prompted
  an increasing number of MNCs to expand into the
  markets of Asia-Pacific countries.
• Marketing managers of these companies need
  reliable data to make their decisions and plans
  to achieve competitive advantage. Consequently,
  over the last two decades, marketing research has
  steadily expanded in this region.
• Some experts believe that the research
  expenditure potential in the region is enormous.
• Japan has the highest research volume (in US
  terms) followed by Australia.
• Next in line are countries such as India, Hong
  Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and
  Malaysia and China.
• Then come Taiwan, The Philippines, Indonesia,
  Pakistan, Bangladesh and Vietnam.

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Some Truths about Research

• Marketing research provides decision makers with
  an image of the actual and potential market,
  consumer behavior, market trend, and competition.
• Marketing decision makers do not use exactly the
  same information for a similar decision process.
• Culture influences the scope and nature of
  research information and the results in the
  process of marketing decision making.

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Some Truths about Asia-Pacific I

• Collectivistic societies Asia- Pacific nations
  are predominantly collectivistic whereas Western
  nations are more individualistic.
• Consumers in collectivistic societies tend to be
  more loyal on average than they are in
  individualistic societies.
• More reliance on reference groups and on group
  consensus
• People mind arrogance and the showing of extreme
  self confidence.
• Authoritarian pluralism Many countries in this
  region practice Authoritarian Pluralism
• Image of managers Asian people see managers as
  experts, Westerners see them as problem solvers.

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Some Truths about Asia-Pacific II

• Temporal orientation Asians are typically past
  oriented.
• Different symbolism In different Asian cultures,
  things, numbers, color, etc. mean different
  things.
• Black is not the colour of mourning in many Asian
  Countries
• Four (4) is a bad number for the Chinese, not for
  other Asians.
• Red suggests good fortune in China, not in India
• Differences in verbal and non-verbal
  communication styles
• Many languages very different from English in
  terms of structure, meaning, interpretation etc.
  which is the most used language in marketing
  research.
• Different meanings of gestures.

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Problems of Research in the Asia-Pacific I

• Various issues discussed earlier affect data
  obtained by the marketing researchers. For
  example
• The Japanese look for information from the actual
  buyers rather than the potential buyers
• In countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh,
  national income estimates do not reflect
  under-reported or unreported income.
• Traditional values often prompt people in many
  countries to give socially desirable responses
  rather than true responses.
• Because of the above, the style and procedure of
  market research and the type of data sought may
  be different from the traditional marketing
  research approach described in text books.

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Problems of Research in the Asia-Pacific II

• Lack of understanding of importance of marketing,
  absence of research culture and poor state of
  research industries in many countries in the
  region.
• Lack of qualified researchers and interviewers
• Lack of adequate infrastructure, social and
  educational development. For example, in many of
  the less developed Asia-Pacific countries -
• Postal system and telephone system are unreliable
  and rate of literacy is rather low. These make
  mail survey and telephone survey, respectively,
  difficult.
• There is high crime rates. Respondents are often
  reluctant to allow interviewers to conduct
  in-home interview.

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Problems of Research in the Asia-Pacific III

• In most economically less developed countries in
  the region, there is a general lack of databases.
  Secondary data
• is nonexistent, unreliable or too expensive to
  obtain.
• Rate of change is high and fast data quickly
  becomes outdated
• Primary data is also difficult and expensive to
  collect.
• Survey research suffers from sampling problems
  including non-availability of reliable sampling
  frames respondents unfamiliarity with research
  and lack of trust in the interviewers resulting
  in refusals or less than truthful responses.
• Culture-specific connotations
• In many Asian nations high price is equated with
  high quality.
• A supermarket in Bangladesh or Pakistan is
  different from that in Singapore.

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Problems of Cross-cultural Research I

• Cross-culture research involving comparison
  between countries
• different from pure domestic research
• more problematic and expensive
• Market research measurement instruments adapted
  to each national culture (known as the emic
  approach) offer more reliability and offer data
  with greater internal validity than tests
  applicable to many cultures (the etic- or
  culture-free approach) which lack external
  validity and cross-national comparability.

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Problems of Cross-cultural Research II

• Formulation of research objective in differing
  cultures cannot be the same since cultural
  context is very important in marketing research.
• An understanding of the cross-cultural
  environment is a prerequisite for formulating
  research objectives.
• The researcher must establish the quality of
  research instruments, the consistency of
  behavioral/attitudinal constructs, and the
  equivalence of samples.
• Establishing cross-cultural equivalence is
  important if the etic approach is adopted.

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Problems of Cross-cultural Research III

• There are several areas of equivalence
• 1. Conceptual equivalence Concepts (e.g.,
  quality, sex-appeal, loyalty, image etc.) may
  have different meanings and connotations in
  different countries. There are recognized
  procedures to assess conceptual equivalence
• 2. Functional equivalenceSimilar products may
  perform different functions in different
  societies. To establish functional equivalence,
  one should examine the social setting in which
  the product is consumed.
• 3. Sample equivalence Involves choice of
  respondents, representativeness and comparability
  of samples.

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Problems of Cross-cultural Research IV

• 4. Translation equivalence Due to special
  characteristics of a language, culture and
  communication, a translated instrument may fail
  to generate comparable data. This problem may be
  overcome by using, back-translation technique
  one translator translates the instrument from the
  source language to a target language. Another
  translator translates it back to the source
  language and compares the two.
• 5. Measure equivalence Refers to variation in
  the reliability of research instruments.
  Statistical methods are available to assess
  reliability of measures.
• 6. Data collection equivalence Involves issues
  such as secrecy or unwillingness to answer,
  response biases and response style.
• All the above make cross-cultural research
  difficult and costly.

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Overcoming Research Problems I

• Treat each country differently and refrain from
  developing one marketing research for all of
  Asia-Pacific region.
• Sampling should be done carefully. In countries
  with high rate of change, samples should be based
  on future demographic profiles to account for the
  rapid change.
• It is preferable to work with larger sample
  sizes.
• Sources of secondary data must be carefully
  scrutinized before use.
• A sequence of piloting, adaptation and rollout
  would help.

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Overcoming Research Problems II

• If interviewers are used, they should be given
  rigorous training. Stringent measures should be
  in place to ensure data accuracy and reduction of
  interviewer cheating.
• When conducting cross-cultural research
• Care should be exercised in establishing various
  equivalence.
• External validation among data sources is highly
  desirable
• Standardized question structure, back translation
  and logic check questions should be used.