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Marketing Research in The Asia-Pacific
Marketing Research in The Asia-Pacific
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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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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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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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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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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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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