International Marketing and

Communications

Mini Lecture 7: Secondary Research in International

Markets (part 2)

Zaryab Sheikh
Challenges
• Kumar (2000) identifies five main challenges in planning
international marketing research. These include:
• Understanding similarities across nations so as to define a target
market;
• A lack of accurate secondary information;
• The high cost of conducting research, especially when primary data
is desired;
• Coordinating research efforts across nations, which involves
loosing control of not only the research process but translations as
well;
• Establishing comparability and equivalence in marketing research
instruments;
• Unavailable data: in many developing countries, quality secondary
data is often unavailable.
• Outdated data: some companies will provide country reports for
different countries which look very similar as they are based on the
same document but have been adapted for each country and can be
out of date by the time they are edited and published.
• Reliability of the data: before using quantitative data it is
important to know about the data collection methodology, the
purpose of the collection of the data, the consistency of the data
collection and the company responsible for collecting the data.
Government data can be ‘tampered with’ to show a more positive
view of a country, companies providing ad hoc quantitative market
data on your market segment will need to be clearly briefed to
provide reliable data.
• Different definitions: industry and product data classifications
need to be clearly understood as some country or research
companies have broader definitions which then make the data
unusable.
Challenges

These challenges, if ignored, can damage the credibility of your

market research, leaving you unable to act on the results.
Use and evaluation of Secondary Data
Sources
• Purpose: Since most secondary data are collected for purposes
other than the one at hand, the data must be carefully evaluated on
how they relate to the current research objective.
• Accuracy: When assessing secondary data, researchers need to
keep in mind whether the study that generated secondary data was
designed properly.
• Consistency: A good strategy is to seek a multiple sources of the
same data to assure consistency.
• Credibility: Technical competence, methodology employed,
reputation of the sources of data, etc.
• Bias: Try to determine the underlying motivation or hidden agenda,
if any, behind secondary data. It is not uncommon to find secondary
data sources published to advance the interests of commercial,
political, or other special interest groups.
(Shiu et.al, 2009)
Identify Priority Markets

Population Risk Rating GDP per GDP

capita Growth

Germany

France

USA

UK
Before embarking on Research, consider….

To find out what support is “There is a basic

difference between
available to you as a UK
information ideally
exporter or investor, get in needed and that
touch with the which is collectable
British Embassy or High Commi and/or usable. …
ssion Some [firms] have
in your chosen market, your neither the
appreciation for
local information nor
Department for International Tr adequate time or
ade (DIT) money for the
or implementation of
British Chambers of Commerce. research” (Ghauri &
www.great.gov.uk
Cateora, 2014:117)
CIA World Factbook….
Worldbank Databank….
United Nations

• UN comtrade analytics

• Resource Trade Earth

• Center for International Development at Harvard University

Resource Trade Earth
Forbes ranking
Legatum Prosperity
 A guide for UK businesses
See also interested in selling goods and
services in the US
 Doing business
in Hungry

Exporting to India
Secondary Research in International Markets

Benefits Drawbacks

Quick end easy to collect Data may not be reliable or up-to-

date

A wide range of credible Data may not be totally relevant

secondary data is available

Inexpensive Data may not be in a form that is

easily interpreted and compared
To conclude

“An international marketer should initiate research by

searching first for any relevant secondary data.
Typically a great deal of information is already available,
and the researcher needs to know how to identify and
locate the international sources of secondary data.

(Hollensen, 2016: 211)

Any Questions?