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Archive for the ‘Market Entry’ Category
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
Following yesterdays post on ‘Market Research In A Recession’ is today’s post detailing the seven steps to minimize the impact of reduced market research spending. These steps from John Quelch (a professor at Harvard Business School) confirm a lot of what we have learnt in business to business markets over the last few months:
- Stay focused. Savvy marketers focus their research on the products, brands, and markets that are key to their marketing strategy. In a recession, it’s essential to get a clear read on existing core customers, including those who are most loyal to the brand and those who are most profitable, rather than fritter away research resources on potential or peripheral customers. When times are good, there is budget available for increased research on secondary products or customers. Now, nice-to-knows that are not essential will have to wait.
- Enlist trusted research partners. Marketers and research suppliers who trust each other and have established long-term relationships can jointly plan how to extract more insights and make better decisions based on fewer expenditures. For example, combining data sets may reveal new leading indicators of changes in customer behavior. Tracking studies may have an edge over one-off projects. CMOs who trim costs by consolidating their budgets with an integrated research supplier should insist that the supplier aggressively explore synergies across its various component agencies as well as eliminate research redundancies.
- Value experience and judgment. CMOs should tap the knowledge and intuitions of managers and researchers who’ve lived through previous recessions. In setting prices, for example, such insight can help calibrate the optimal level of price promotion offers. Experience also reveals proxies: in tough times, some marketers use research results from Sweden as a proxy for Scandinavia, rather than conducting the same research in all Scandinavian countries.
- Seize opportunities overseas. Some large multinational marketers, such as Unilever, are shifting market research expenditures away from Western Europe and toward emerging markets in Asia and Latin America. Relative to the developed economies, the costs of research in emerging economies are less and the payoff from incremental insight can often be greater. Brand preferences and consumption levels in emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil tend to be more fluid. Customer research is therefore critical to aid marketers trying to cement brand preferences early on as these economies develop.
- Use online market research with a dash of skepticism. Online research is cheap, fast, and the wave of the future. Tools like SurveyMonkey allow non-expert users to create custom surveys in minutes. As an alternative to offline focus groups, custom online panels can be formed for qualitative research on new product ideas or new ads. Taking the do-it-yourself approach rather than outsourcing to a market research firm is attractive in a cost-cutting era, but you risk getting no more than what you pay for. The opinions of convenience sample of an enthusiastic online brand community may not represent all users.
- Don’t cut market research across the board. Just as important as knowing where to cut research is knowing where not to cut. When marketers are creating fewer new ads and introducing fewer new products, it is doubly important to use rigorous pretesting to select the strongest alternatives. In categories where the bases for customers’ value judgments are changing, modest expenditures on copy research can prevent blowing much more money on ineffective messaging. Adding a few questions to standard tracking studies is a low-cost way to shed light on changes in customer attitudes and purchase behavior. For key products, running conjoint studies to check on shifts in price elasticities of demand and price-attribute tradeoffs can usefully improve the profitability of pricing decisions at a time when cash is king.
- Keep an eye on the new customer. No one has a perfect record of predicting the future, and the recession is making it harder for customers to envision or articulate their needs. Even so, and despite budget pressures, smart marketers devote a portion of their market research to getting a handle on future changes in customer behavior. Are customers of your brand going to revert to previous consumption patterns when the recession ends? Or are they developing coping mechanisms that will endure, especially if the recession is lengthy? What new products and services will customers be open to embracing? If, as in the financial services category, customer confidence and trust in brands have been seriously eroded, how long and what steps will it take to regain them? Eventually, the recession will end, and future success depends on being well-positioned, based on sound research, when it does.
To view the latest marketing strategies of large multi-national corporates in a recession, click here.
Original article viewed at http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/
Posted in
Economic Downturn, International Market Research, Market Entry, Market Intelligence, Market Research, Recession |
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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
Matthew Harrison, B2B International’s Director of International Operations, was featured in Marketing’s recent special issue on emerging markets.
Drawing upon his time spent working in our China office and using his extensive experience gained through managing research projects in such far-reaching geographies as Russia, Sri Lanka and Tanzania, Matthew offers invaluable advice to Western companies looking to establish or build a presence in any emerging B2B market. The full published article is as follows:
Some years ago, the chief justification for Western companies entering emerging markets was to establish low-cost manufacturing operations.
However, in the past five years there has been a revolution in strategy as the purchasing power of emerging economies has grown and these companies have now shifted their focus from supply to demand.
The casual observer watching a Muscovite sip a Starbucks cappuccino could be forgiven for thinking that customers in developing markets want Western products in Western packaging, promoted in a Western style at Western prices.
While many Western brands have developed a cachet across the developing world, the real picture is more complex, particularly in B2B markets. There are six factors that must distinguish B2B marketing in emerging markets.
The first is the importance of conveying higher product quality. In developing markets, companies’ product requirements often place less emphasis on product durability and quality of materials than in Western countries, putting greater importance on a lower cost. This is a huge challenge to Western companies seeking to enter the market, as they may find it hard to convey the value of the technical superiority of their product.
Second, when it comes to the services associated with a product offering, buyers in emerging markets are frequently as demanding, if not more so, than Westerners. For example, branches of Subway in China often take telephone orders for their sandwiches, and deliver these free of charge to customers’ homes or workplaces. A service such as this would be seen as extravagant in the West, but is often a basic requirement in Beijing and Shanghai, and no economic value is attached to it.
The third factor is the importance of local presence. Western companies entering developing markets often assume that the prestige of their brand excuses them from establishing a local presence. This is not the case. While customers in developing countries may be willing to pay more for the quality, prestige and technical know-how of an established Western company, all these advantages must be in addition to, not instead of, the basic requirements of spare-parts availability, access to technical support and face-to-face contact with local-language speakers.
Then there is promotion. If a Western brand can deliver on its promises, its name and values can prove a huge advantage and allow extremely large margins to be achieved. This is particularly true in consumer markets, where products such as luxury clothing and perfume brands frequently collect higher premiums than they do in the West.
In B2B markets, Western brands carry a particular weight if they can boast international accreditations such as ISO or a prestigious client list. These demonstrations of a company’s aptitude are often vital.
Fifth, relationships are key. As developing markets open up, buyers are only gradually becoming comfortable with dealing with people and companies they don’t know. Relationships are widely used as a substitute for brand when it comes to verifying provenance. Most B2B offerings also involve repeat purchases or after-sales support, and this makes attendance at events, face-to-face contact and local language capability essential.
Lastly, market research is vital. This is commonplace among Western companies, and the necessity of obtaining independent information is even more critical when it comes to operating in foreign markets. Not only do many Western companies lack insight into the developing markets, but cultural barriers and a lack of familiarity between managers in different locations can often mean that the exchange of information within international companies is wanting.
The most successful multinationals conduct frequent research across geographies, challenging their own thinking as well as the flow of information within their companies.
More of Matthew’s white papers on developing markets are available on our website:
Posted in
BRIC, Emerging Markets, Market Assesment, Market Entry, Market Intelligence, Marketing, Matt Harrison, White Papers |
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Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
AdAgeChina is adamant that China remains one of the few bright spots for multinational marketers at the present time. After all, with some 300 million urban and upwardly mobile consumers, China can boast the world’s largest numbers of internet and mobile-phone users, as well as the biggest global market for cars, beer and cigarettes.
But it can still be a tough market to crack, and a new white paper from Ad Age – Winning Consumers in China – can help those, particularly in consumer markets, looking to grow their brands in China.
Some top tips from the paper, many of which also apply to b-to-b markets, include:
- Don’t think of China as a single country. According to AdAgeChina, an unbelievable 273 of its cities are each home to more than one million inhabitants, giving you some idea of the tremendous scale of this country.
- Don’t misinterpret the popularity of some Western brands as a desire among Chinese to become Westernized. China is advancing apace and is embracing many Western products and ideas, but it also has a strong identity, a proud history and many unique traditions of its own, all of which must be acknowledged and respected.
- Underestimate local brands at your peril.
- Beware mass media in China. One of the most effective ways to reach consumers in the world’s most populous country can actually be through one-to-one marketing.
The full white paper can be purchased from adagechina.com.
B2B International, with research experts on the ground in its Beijing office, offers some similar tips to business-to-business marketers interested in the potential of this huge country. Our white paper, Marketing and Selling to Chinese Businesses, explores the reasons behind both successful and unsuccessful marketing and sales approaches in China, and can be downloaded here for free. Alternatively, email beijing@b2binternational.com if you would like to find out more from our team in China.
Posted in
Branding, China, Market Assesment, Market Entry, Market Intelligence, Market Research China |
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Friday, May 15th, 2009
In his latest Thursday Night Insight, Alaric Fairbanks gives us a glimpse into his life conducting market research in China.
Our permanent Beijing office has been up and running for about two and a half years now, and over this period I have been asked by both colleagues and clients outside the country about how working in market research here in China is different from in the west, and how it is similar. On a high level, there are obvious similarities: we have to win and design projects, identify respondents and sources of information, collect data and analyse data…the same as my colleagues elsewhere. This is pretty much as you may expect anywhere.
Things get slightly different, however, on the type of projects: For the first two years, the majority of projects were market analysis and market development, with less interest in more quantitative research projects like customer satisfaction. There is, though, more and more customer sat work happening, as clients become more established, and of course we become more established with existing companies. In our experience, market analysis demand tends to focus on both the factual (i.e. size, structure and trends) and the analytical (i.e. what this means for developing sales). These projects tend to feature more qualitative investigative techniques and, in some ways, are more akin to a jigsaw where you first have to find the pieces.
Clients have, in the main, been larger foreign companies and multinationals who already have a presence in China, but the projects are often commissioned abroad. Often this is because the market research function or strategic decision making unit is located in corporate headquarters, although we are seeing a lot more work commissioned from within China itself. Another reason for foreign-based commissions is the need for third party verification (or otherwise) of information coming from their China-based operations. On a practical level, having a large proportion of clients based in Europe and North America means that face-to-face meetings for commissioning and presentations are not so common, and telephone conferences and web presentations form a larger part of communications. This also means that interesting hours are often worked at commissioning and presentation meetings!
As I already mentioned, an increasing number of clients are from within China and other parts of Asia. Again, the overlying characteristics of working with them remain the same i.e. understanding their needs, proposing a suitable methodology, negotiating timescales and price, etc. Where differences occur, however, are in lead times (longer) and very often in the brief itself. We have seen an increase in the number of specific written briefs, but these are still very much in the minority. Another interesting characteristic is how these clients prefer to communicate. After initial contact, many prefer to rely on instant messaging over the internet, mainly qq or similar services, for day-to-day communication, rather than telephone or e-mail. This is also having an impact on research methodologies.
Methodologies for data collection here include all the usual suspects and, language aside, would be largely familiar to clients and colleagues in other countries. There are, though, some differences in application, for example focus groups tend to work better in smaller numbers, 6 to 8 being optimum. It is often argued that, especially in business, face-to-face interviews are necessary here. Very often this isn’t the case. We recently had a project looking at the market in the ‘biosolids’ industry, meaning we had to talk to respondents in Chinese sewerage works. Initially this seemed quite daunting, until it became clear that these people were extremely receptive; no pushy sales people come and call (for perhaps obvious reasons), and they are seldom asked about the intricacies of their work. Recruitment was aided by the incredible take-up of social networking and bulletin boards among Chinese professionals. As a country undergoing rapid change, it is perhaps no surprise that methodologies and attitudes to them are changing too. From a ‘consensus’ of f2f being the only acceptable technique just a few years ago, telephone and indeed online have increased in importance incredibly quickly, with instant messaging even being used for in-depth qualitative work. Whilst respondents are often very keen to work with different approaches, the market outside China and occasionally inside sometimes sticks to believing outdated truisms.
In this short space available, it is clear that although many principles and approaches are of course similar, there are nuances affecting all aspects of the process. Where this may be more complicated or even contentious is around how this is manifested in everyday work, for example the amount of time required on quality checks, and HR issues and administration. I’ll try to cover these in my next post.
To learn more about our work and our team in China, visit www.b2binternational.com/China
Posted in
Alaric Fairbanks, China, Global Research, International Market Research, Market Entry, Market Research China, New Markets, Research Design, Thursday Night Insight |
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Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
A recent article in BtoB Marketing – Thinking global may help U.S. marketers – argues that many emerging international markets still offer rich opportunities for domestic marketers, even in spite of the global economic downturn.
China in particular, is suggested as a market still offering excellent opportunities for U.S. companies. It is useful to note that the country’s premier, Wen Jiabao, last month predicted an 8% growth in China’s GDP this year, which, while not as large as last year’s growth, is still better than that of many countries.
One potential opening highlighted is for U.S. companies that put an emphasis on customer service. They may be able to take advantage of overseas opportunities, as it is suggested that companies in a number of other countries are much less tolerant of poor customer service.
In China, for example, 55% of companies have switched vendors in the past year because of perceived unfulfilled customer service expectations. Sweden (46%), India (44%), Italy (44%), Finland (43%) and companies in Asian countries other than China (36%) all have a tendency to switch vendors more than their US counterparts (22%).
With emerging markets such as China and India having increasing service expectations, there is the assumption that they may not be loyal to particular brands, suppliers, etc. Resultantly, they may be willing to make the potentially lucrative move from their existing domestic partners to foreign counterparts, as long as these new companies can offer them what they are looking for.
To find out how we can help you to grasp the opportunities presented by China and other Asian markets, visit www.b2binternational.com/China
Posted in
China, Global Research, International Market Research, Market Assesment, Market Entry, Market Research China, Market Research USA, USA |
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