In the ever changing business environment of emerging markets such as China, the advantages of being a first mover are immense. While the importance of market research in new product development is unquestioned, all too often it is resisted for being an extremely time consuming exercise which can delay the launch of new brands. This paper will illustrate - using a case study based on the framework of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" - how market research played an instrumental role in the successful launch, by Pepsi, of a new brand targeted at children in China.
The unprecedented economic boom in China has resulted in a high demand for local managerial talent, as most multi-nationals have recognised that in order to sustain their business growth, they need to localise fairly rapidly. Consequently, the young, educated Chinese seeking employment today, have opportunities that even a decade ago were unthinkable. This has led to a situation where recruiting local talent is a big management challenge. This paper examines, via a case study involving conjoint analysis technique, how this very valuable and sought after target group makes decisions regarding which job to choose, and the trade-offs that they are willing to make. Further, it examines the application of the conjoint analysis technique to market segmentation. The findings suggest that the potential managerial pool in the PRC is more likely to choose a job that offers instant gratification (such as a quick promotion) over one that is likely to provide a more long term career or personal growth prospects. However, there are segments (albeit in the minority) of the student population who are give greater emphasis on issues such as training and job content - and therefore are likely to be a better long term bet for prospective employers.
The economy in China is growing at an unprecedented rate. It is forecast that its GDP will overtake the USA by the year 2030. While agricultural output is threatened by mass migration to the cities, the industrial, retail and financial sectors are booming. In this paper, we look at the situation in the retail sector and the way that market research is both responding to - and driving - its development. In 1992 SRG China established retail audits and distribution checks for multinational clients in the largest cities - Shanghai, Beijing and Guangdong. By late 1993 the choice lay between expanding this to more and more cities, which would still not provide total market estimates, or going for a truly national measurement. The latter path was chosen and so began the first national market research programme in China and some of the largest country surveys anywhere in the world. A national retail audit required national retail universe information. Some official statistics on the size and geographical distribution of the retail sector were available, but were neither complete nor up-to-date, and did not identify the profile in terms of the different distribution channels and shop types. A retail census was the only answer. Since it was believed that at that time China had more than ten million shops, it would not be possible to visit them all. We designed a sample census covering a quarter of the 500 cities in China and a further sample of towns. Probability sampling was adhered to as being the only way of ensuring unbiassedness and target levels of sampling error were set in advance. Fieldwork was carried out by a force of 4 university students from 50 universities, supervised by their professors and lecturers, both groups being personally trained by SRG staff. This was augmented by a number of fieldwork agencies. There was a rigorous programme of back-checking and back- checking on the back-checking (all of which proved vital). More than a million shops 251 were visited during the summer of 1994. The projections were good and met the target levels of precision. In the paper we outline the difficulties faced both in designing the sample and in fieldwork execution - which included regional dialects, earthquakes, typhoons, floods and occasional downright hostility.
This paper attempts to posit a general theory of cultural differences and their implications to you as the international qualitative research practitioner. The model developed should, we believe, be used as a thought-provoker at the earliest stages of the planning of cross-cultural qualitative research. We believe it can be extremely useful in improving on: - group recruitment quality - the effectiveness of the topic guide - moderating techniques and the response quality All of which make for a "good group". It can also be useful in understanding: - why certain approaches can or cannot be used - why local resources may indicate certain approaches cannot be used when occasionally they actually could, and ought to be tried.