IndexInformation It ProvidesThe Global Market Research ProcessSecondary ResearchPrimary ResearchIssues with Primary DataConclusionAccording to our studies last year, the term "market research" refers to the collection, recording, analysis and presentation of information focused on a previously defined problem and is closely linked to the enterprise's decision-making processes regarding new product launches, diversification, advertising and so on. Kotler gives the following definition: “Marketing research is the function that connects the consumer, customer and audience to the marketer through information – information used: to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and to improve understanding of the marketing process”. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay International market research is, on the other hand, a more comprehensive and complex area, as it requires the in-depth study of market potential in foreign markets which involves the investigation of cultural, political, legal and macroeconomic. International competition must also be taken into account and, instead of simply analyzing the competitive situation of each (single) market, a multinational approach is more sufficient and suitable. Information it provides The first question to consider when expanding a business is whether to go fully international or remain in the home market. To answer this question, information is needed not only about future opportunities and the local or national competitiveness of the enterprise, but about global market demand and the possible share of enterprises in it. Furthermore, management's commitment to internationalization must also be respected. Once it has been decided that a company will enter foreign markets, there still remains the question of which country(s) or specific market(s) to target. To select the most desirable market, it is necessary to rank markets “based on market potential, local competition and political situation”. The next step in the decision-making process is to work out the different ways of entering the market – exporting or licensing, etc. This requires analysis of the size of the market and its segments, the nature of the product, the country's existing trade barriers. country, government regulations and laws and the whole attitude towards imports, the political situation as well as competition and local industry. Designing the overall marketing program is also an essential part of the decision-making process and requires data regarding buyer behavior, competitive practice, and observation of the distribution, media, and promotional channels already available. To successfully implement and monitor the program, you need to gather information regarding differences in cultures' negotiation styles and marketing expenditures by market. Richard Holton suggests three questions to answer related to segmentation and foreign market entry: “Who are the actors – competitors, customers, suppliers, government officials and others – who can influence our business?”, “What alternatives or actions strategies is each actor likely to consider?”, “What are the probabilities related to each alternative strategy?” In addition to these aspects, conventional marketing questions, such as product and pricing decisions, purchasing behavior, channels distribution or simply “how to market to target markets?”we also need to investigate. Without the relevant data and information collected through market research, the company's decision-making process would be unimaginable. According to Terpstra, the tasks of global market research can be divided into five categories: the first is the collection of information about the marketing environment in a specific country, the second is the competition in the country in question, the third is the analysis of the product itself, then the investigation of the marketing mix and finally the collection of company-specific data. Research on the marketing environment involves two key areas, namely the political and economic dimensions. (Chisnall uses the term political-cultural factors and provides further information on the importance of cultural differences.) The former includes a detailed overview of a particular country's political structure, ideology, and national goals, while the latter focuses on the factors economic, such as productivity, market potential based on gross national product per capita, marketing infrastructure, labor costs, inflation rates, etc. Evaluating foreign competitors is a more complicated matter, since data and statistics on their goals, future plans or influential relationships can hardly be collected. In this case it is necessary to formulate hypotheses and evaluate possible strategies. The third group of tasks, namely collecting product information, investigates buyer behavior, the effects of cultural differences on users, differences between customers based on age, gender, income levels, etc. Decisions on the market mix are also influenced by the choice of the marketing mix in the reference market. The findings regarding distribution channels, comparative pricing strategies, advertising, promotion, service quality and logistics of network capabilities in the particular country greatly influence the company's decisions, for example to standardize the marketing mix of the own product on the target country market. Last but not least, company-specific data, such as sales history by product, by customer, etc., is also valuable. It does not matter whether primary, secondary, internal or external data is considered, there are four criteria depending on their quality and acceptability are measured and judged. One is timelessness or being up to date; the second is accuracy, which requires clear and unambiguous definitions of the terms investigated; the third is comparability, which can be achieved for example by using standardized reporting procedures; and finally the relevance of the data. The cost of data is an essential factor in the company's decision-making process and is closely linked to the relevance of the data needed. The Global Marketing Research ProcessAs the first step of any research, the research problems must be defined and formulated carefully and precisely, otherwise the results can be misleading and the procedure extremely expensive. So, the information must be determined by the company's management. Based on the data required, the methods and methods for collecting them must be developed – in other words: the research design. Only at this point can data collection begin, first the secondary data (information already available), then the primary data (information collected first hand). The next step is to analyze and interpret the results, then report them and present them to the company's management. Secondary researchThe order of data collection in case of international market research is no different from the domestic method: secondary research (or desk research as Chisnall calls it) is done first, and only then is the primary data collected. While secondary research has its benefits,such as lower costs and objectivity, which arise from the fact that it can be conducted from baseline, there are also several problems with the method. A key difficulty is when data simply does not exist or is not available, as is often the case in developing countries with weak economies and poor statistical services. Trade associations usually provide relevant information relating to particular sectors, but in some countries they do not exist, and in others they do not have reliable or complete data. The reliability of the data may also be questionable, due to political reasons or misrepresentation of facts by the personnel who collected it. Classification of data can cause further difficulties, especially in terms of comparability, as “in many countries the reported data are classified too broadly to be used at the micro level”. Differences in the definition of “youth market” are mentioned by Terpstra as an example. As a result, market researchers must evaluate the validity and reliability of secondary data. Valuable information can be obtained from the company's own database. The company more than likely tracks total sales, sales statistics by country, sales by product or product group, sales volume by market segment and by distribution channel type, price adjustments, communication mix (advertising, sponsorship, etc.), sales representative relationships. Furthermore, international business information can also be found in libraries or on the Internet, which are both external data sources. Hollensen provides a list of sources – websites – including research sites at universities, www addresses of organizations, pages of the United Nations, OECD, WTO, addresses of the World Bank and numerous external data sources grouped geographically. (Data for Western Europe, Eastern Europe including Russia, North America, South America, Africa and the Middle East, Asia-Pacific.)Primary researchIf the questions that were formulated at the beginning of the market research process were not adequately or adequately to the secondary research response, additional information can be obtained by conducting primary research. There are two techniques from which the researcher can choose, one is quantitative research which provides information on a large number of consumers and which is "characterised by a certain degree of distance as the construction of the questionnaire, the retrieval and analysis of data occur in separate phases" and the other is qualitative research, which measures a small sample of consumers and which is "characterised by proximity to the source of the data, where the retrieval and analysis of the data are carried out by the same person: to say the interviewer”. Problems with primary dataHowever, the researcher has the opportunity to decide which research approach, contact method or research instrument to use and has the freedom to develop the sampling plan, but there is one thing that does not can be changed: all information is collected from people. "This reliance on human subjects as the primary source of marketing intelligence gives rise to what we might call 'human problems'." Obtaining information from consumers in the international market requires understanding the differences of cultures and the entire environment. Cultural and national or regional differences influence the results of the research instruments used and make the data less reliable, simply due to the fact that the differences can hardly be measured and the data collected cannot be compared. Language problems in foreign market research may arise early in the process, affecting effective communication. “The design and specifications