商务英语综合教程下册课件房玉靖主编 ISBN9787810789707Unit 13 International Marketing Research and Steps.ppt

Unit Thirteen Introduction Marketing plays a very important role in business. With the economy globalization, international marketing is necessary to any business that aims at entering the world market. Text 1 International marketing research is the vehicle through which the firm gathers and processes relevant information on foreign markets. Its purpose is to help the firm improve the quality of its marketing decisions, to apply the correct marketing mix and adopt the correct marketing strategies in each of the countries in which it does business. As a management tool international marketing research can assist the firm to reduce risk, avoid errors, identify opportunities and match the firm’s capabilities with foreign companies. 7 Step1: Identifying the research problem. The research problem often involves assessing the nature of the market opportunity. This, in turn, depends in part on whether the market that is the focus of the research effort can be classified as existing or potential. Existing markets are those in which customer needs are already being served by one or more companies. In many countries, data about the size of existing markets are readily available. In countries where such data are not available, a company focusing on existing markets must first estimate the market size, the level of demand, or the rate of product purchase or consumption. Research may be able to pinpoint a weakness in the competitor’s product or identify an unserved market segment. Potential markets can be further subdivided into latent and incipient markets. A latent market is, in essence, an undiscovered segment. In a latent market, demand is zero before the product is offered. An incipient market is one that will emerge if a particular economic, political, or sociocultural trend continues. If a company offers a product in an incipient market before the trends have taken root, it will have little market response. After the tre