During the discussion periods the Group was concerned partly with questions and issues arising out of individual papers, partly with more general issues relating to the problems of international research and ESOMAR activities in this connection. These notes concentrate on the latter. There is clearly some difficulties in defining exactly what are the problems and issues which arise in international research and which are peculiar to it. Some of the discussion in the Seminar - and particularly some of the case history material - was to a large extent dealing with points which are equally relevant in national surveys. In following through from this Seminar to other possible ESOMAR activities we ought to focus more closely on specifically international issues. Considerable time was spent during the sessions in discussing the problems of how to organise and coordinate international market research projects.
At the end of the first day, considerable discussion took place on the advantages and disadvantages of using chains of organisations. It was thought that the papers of Whitley, Haines, Berent and Jarvis nicely presented the arguments for: Central control of analysis and report but local autonomy of fieldwork (Whitley). Decentralisation of analysis and to a large extent, interpretation (Haines). International supervision and control using various local agencies (Berent). Specialized international department and tight control where local marketing staff is weak (Jarvis).
The logic of marketing which launched the decision makers to be conscious of the entire environment of their areas of operation., is now encouraging companies to surpass the boundaries of these areas and become international,- inter-sectorial, etc. To what extent does this development demand that the research worker prepare new research structures and tools ? And of what type ? These are the main questions which are worth contemplating, keeping in mind that developments in a series of markets make it more difficult than before for managements to interpret: and control what is actually happening in these new circumstances. The researcher is asked to play an active role by immediately adapting his own methodological and organisational tools to the subjects under review and to the operational demands of who is responsible for choosing the subject of the research. The international dimension is identified the moment the company starts to operate on a comprehensive basis in a particular segment of demand, so that all the markets are included in this single segment. To say that the various national markets can be considered of the same standard as those of regional areas in a given country is certainly a simplified statement, even although the regional differences are in many cases equivalent to national ones.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss briefly the organisation of the international research functions within the agency. International market researchers often discuss the problems of planning and executing individual multi-national surveys but, I think, comparatively little attention has been paid, at least in public, to the basic problems of organising international research itself within the agency. And of course the proper organisation of the international research function as a whole is a necessary precondition to the proper conduct of individual surveys.
Two sets of basic questions are typically faced by all manufacturing companies which want to sell their products abroad: 1a. to sell the same products that are sold on the domestic market also on the foreign markets without any particular adaptation, or 1b. to have different product policies for each country or area; 2a. to apply the same marketing communication and price strategies at home and abroad, or 2b. to adapt such strategies to the local (i.e. different) conditions.
Producing chemicals in Europe means traditionally an international approach to marketing and, accordingly, to market research. The reason why the activities of European chemical companies extend beyond national borders is because, on the one hand, chemical industries developed first in only a few countries of Europe. A new element has been added since 1945, when chemical market research as a whole became much more consumer-orientated. From that time onwards newly developed polymers in the form of plastic materials, textile fibres, elastomers and poromeric leather have been put on the market each year. In most cases the new synthetic chemicals appeared as branded materials, which distinguished them by property and performance from old established natural raw materials. Advertising campaigns and promotion programmes made the consumer aware of these new products in the introductory phase. At this stage, with new plastics and new synthetic fibres being offered on the market, the chemical companies got deeply involved in multi-country research of two types, industrial and consumer orientated research.
I have referred to comparability in a very limited sense, namely the exact replication of research methods across a number of countries. I have done so because comparability is so often discussed in these terms, or because it is felt - whether implicitly or explicitly - that comparability in the sense of comparability of results involves or depends on comparability of techniques. I should, therefore, like to make a very clear distinction between: 1. Comparability at the data-collection stage; 2. Comparability at the interpretation stage.
In 1969 the European Editions of The Reader's Digest conducted a multi-country survey in 16 countries of Western Europe. I propose to tell you something of how we did it: the problems we met, the actions we took and what we think we learned. Hopefully it will be of interest to those of you who might learn from our mistakes - and perhaps of wry amusement to those who have already made the same mistakes for themselves.
This paper is not intended to be a technical contribution, although we will comment on some techniques and methods that we use. Rather, our purpose today is to focus upon the development, implementation and administration of a global multi-country programme that we think is rather unique in the marketing research field. One of the cornerstones of our marketing planning throughout the world is a general consumer survey that we call a Soft Drink Barometer. The Barometer is a continuing programme of consumer research designed for application in any one of the 130 or more countries served by The Coca-Cola Export Corporation. The major function of this programme is to provide a picture of the status, direction, and extent of change in a range of important marketing variables over the years between countries and on an individual trading area basis within countries.
The multi-country marketing research function deals by its very nature largely with quantitative information. Making qualitative analyses across borders from a point thousands of miles away is a difficult task and one that is fraught with potential danger, speaking psychologically as well as in practical terms. Therefore, Headquarters studies are largely, but not exclusively, overviews of the world market as opposed to in-depth analyses.
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.