The basic objective of the market research function is providing
management with information for more accurate decision making.
This objective is the same for domestic and international marketing.
In foreign marketing research, however, achieving that objective
presents some problems not encountered on the domestic front.
Customer attitudes about providing information to a researcher
are culturally conditioned. Foreign market information surveys
must be carefully designed to elicit the desired data and at the
same time not offend the respondent's sense of privacy. Besides the
cultural and managerial constraints involved in gathering information
for primary data, many foreign markets have inadequate or
unreliable bases of secondary information. Such challenges suggest
three keys to successful international marketing research:
(1) the inclusion of natives of the foreign culture on research
teams; (2) the use of multiple methods and triangulation; and
(3) the inclusion of decision makers, even top executives, who
must on occasion talk directly to or directly observe customers in
foreign markets.
