Abstract
For any enterprise, venturing into the foreign markets has always proven to be a hard nut to crack. The dynamics and logistics involved may see the company fail if proper arrangements are not made concerning the entry. Therefore, the international market entry requires preliminary processes like market research. Market research is a definitive term for any integrated attempt to garner information about the projected markets, or customers for an enterprise seeking to venture outside of its home market. Market research forms the most fundamental part of business strategy which subsequently determines the level of success of the business in the new market. Precisely, market research assists an enterprise to gain and maintain a competitive edge over the existing competitors. Essentially, the research proffers vital critical information to find, analyse, and satisfy the needs of the specific market as well as those of the business environment. In some cases, the research takes into consideration the social and opinion research. Such market research entails the systematic collection and analysis of the information about the organizations as well as the individuals with an aim of making informed decisions. Market research involves both qualitative and quantitative techniques. It is important to note that market research is not only mandatory for international but also local market entry. Depending on the specific type of entry, a market research should follow a definite process. The following review aims at describing how the market research should be conducted concerning the international market entry. In that respect, the various market research divisions and the techniques to be used will be examined in detail. The last part will expatiate on the application of the market research vis-à-vis the crafting of an entry mode strategy.
Divisions of Marketing Research
Before embarking on the actual research, a variety of issues must be considered. The issues include promotion and advertising research, distribution, product, marketing environment, market or customer, and sales research (Proctor, 2005). Therese issues are pertinent are pertinent to the market research process as they assist in easing the gathering of the information and the subsequent drafting of the report. The preliminaries of a market research may begin with the customer research. The study is the source of the required quantitative factual representations of the specific market segments. For instance, how big the market in the sense of value and unit sales. Similarly, the it gives a range of vital facts about the customers. The customer research reveals the location of the customers, their patterns of spending and creditworthiness as well as their approximate range of income. The importance of this research also stem from the fact that it explains the customer brand preferences and their probable range of prices for any particular brand. Concerning the entry, successful completion of this research ensures the enterprise has sufficient information regarding the summative market share of all the firms in that market or segment. Aside from the market and customer research, the actual market research must also study the advertising and promotion particulars of the intended market. Gary and Philip (2007) explains that this division deals with quantification of the success of advertisement efforts in comparison with their set objectives. Furthermore, the advertising research plays a core role in the determination of the most suitable medium for conducting the research on the target audience for an advertisement campaign. Besides, it reveals the particular messages that may be more appealing to a particular group of the target audience given the fact that the target audience may have varied preferences.