Yugoslavia nowadays has a powerful textile and garments industry which is relatively evenly spread throughout her territory and which unites more than a hundred years of experience on the one hand, and energy and initiative of a young industry on the other. Recent developments in this industry have been in the function of domestic demand and exports. Domestic demand, in its turn, is determined primarily by the standard of living and structural changes in personal consumption.
Two of the export organizations, each acting on its own responsibility, commissioned a wide scale survey in 1982. The purpose of this survey was to establish which bottlenecks are encounted by exporting small and medium-size companies in their export activities, as well as their contacts with export organizations, in order to find ways of contributing to solutions. The research scheme consisted of one survey among smaller exporting companies and another among export organizations. This paper shows that this type of research in which one is attempting to influence policy at Government level by confronting policymakers with research results, conclusions, and recommendations, is a correct and desirable intermediate phase in a research project.
Several case studies of Japanese and foreign companies will be discussed in an attempt to answer these questions. The case studies are simplified for the purpose of pinpointing specific marketing elements. They do not necessarily give overall picture of marketing activities of individual companies.
The EXPORIENT data bank became operational in 1979 within the International Trade Centre UNCTAD/GATT with a view to collecting and processing rapidly and systematically foreign trade data on a large number of countries and to facilitating the selection of target markets for further intensive desk and field investigations. Export promotion organizations in numerous developing countries are currently using the services of this data bank by receiving regularly comprehensive series of tabulations on microfiche (ITS) or by requesting tailor-made printouts. Various computer programs provide detailed analyses of the export performance of individual developing countries (Profilimport tables and graphs) as well as their competitors (Market Analysis tables) for any given SITC product. In the changing context of international trade, such a quantitative approach, complemented by the experience drawn from recent marketing activities, is necessary to build efficient export promotion strategies. Subsequently, it provides an evaluation of the results of past marketing efforts with a view to revising the orientation of trade diversification policies by products and markets.
Overseas market research gradually came into being as a result of the need felt by export companies to obtain the kind of accurate information about their existing markets that was vital if they were to formulate any serious marketing policy. The problem which arises is that of the specificity of the methodology to be applied in the case of overseas market research. Experience gained from various types of studies carried out in different markets and countries has shown that where shortcomings or mistakes occur in the implementation of the work and in the exploitation of the results they are probably caused not so much by the limitations of the methodology used as by a lack of imagination, a kind of explorative sterility that prevents such methods from being successfully applied to previously under-explored fields or subjects.
Overseas market research gradually came into being as a result of the need felt by export companies to obtain the kind of accurate information about their existing markets that was vital if they were to formulate any serious marketing policy. The problem which arises is that of the specificity of the methodology to be applied in the case of overseas market research. Experience gained from various types of studies carried out in different markets and countries has shown that where shortcomings or mistakes occur in the implementation of the work and in the exploitation of the results they are probably caused not so much by the limitations of the methodology used as by a lack of imagination, a kind of explorative sterility that prevents such methods from being successfully applied to previously under-explored fields or subjects.
The paper takes the view that increasing affluence in Europe will produce greater opportunities for developing export markets in consumer goods and that those will be attractive to smaller as well as large exporting organisations. It discusses some of the special problems of conducting export market research for smaller companies. It contains a critique of the traditional approach to appraising export markets and contends that this approach is orientated too heavily towards providing a broad general overview of a market and too little towards considering the practical needs of prospective exporters. It takes the view that export market research for smaller organisations must pay a great deal of attention to organisation for production and marketing, since it is these factors that bear heavily upon the feasibility of developing export markets.
Some important results for assessing marketing chances in different countries can be won by research in national stereo-types, especially those on qualities of goods produced in and by foreign countries.
At this stage it is important to realise that in international trade attitude and motivation research should not be confined to the country or countries which are the export targets but should include similar research within the exporting country preferably extended to the exporting company. Attitude research within the exporting company, even in its most simple form, will pin-point areas of incompatibility which would doom to failure a particular export venture unless recognised and acted upon by management. Incredible as it may seem, virtually no company ever undertakes such a precautionary internal study to assist management in its decision making process.