Marketing Research – Marketing Communication Information

Market research challenges and marketing decision making in Indochina

 

Word limit:     1500 (excluding the reference list)

 

Assignment description

Indochina, referred to in the past as French Indochina, is a region of Southeast Asia made up of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. These countries provide big growth opportunities for international businesses. However, decision making in such markets is fraught with potential risk – much of this risk stems from poor quality information upon which decisions are made. Enhancing the quality of such market information is therefore of paramount importance to the marketing manager.

Conducting market research in emerging markets like Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos poses significant challenges for companies. This assignment requires you to select three of these generic market research challenges and discuss them in relation to Indochina. For each you must describe the challenge and consider the risk it poses to reliable market research and effective marketing decision making.

 

For this assignment you must focus specifically upon challenges for international marketing research and decision making, i.e., not general international marketing considerations. You may concentrate on one of these countries or treat them as one region.

 

Choose one: VIETNAM, MYANNMAR, CAMBODIA or INDONESIA

 

Purpose

The assignment will:

 

• Get you thinking about a contemporary and growing concern for marketing managers in a major emerging Asia Pacific market – Indochina.

 

• Develop your understanding of decision making risks and the potential barriers to reliable market research.

 

• Require you to critically evaluate the implications of these barriers

 

• Help develop skills in desk research (library and Internet search), collating, presenting and interpreting information, as well as the ESSENTIAL SKILL of accurate referencing.

 

• Develop your skill in writing concisely and to the point.

 

 

Assignment tasks

International marketing research presents the international marketing manager with many potential barriers to obtaining reliable and accurate market information. These include aspects such as:

• Availability and reliability of research resources and suppliers
• Selecting appropriate data collection methodologies
• Research costs variations

 

Not to mention a host of related macro and environmental differences relating to:

• Political and legislative issues
• Basic infrastructure
• Cultural differences
• Social and market structure differences
• Communication and technology difficulties
• Accessibility

 

In this assignment you must first choose three potential pitfalls of conducting research in emerging markets. For each, you should describe the challenge and then consider the risk it poses to effective decision making.

 

Structure of the Report:

• Introduction – Write about 150 words on the increasing significance of emerging markets and international marketing research, as well as introduce your paper.
• Pitfalls / risks of research in emerging markets – Write about 400 words on each of three
• Conclusion – Write about 150 words summing up the importance of overcoming the pitfalls of emerging market research and reducing associated decision making risks.
• References – Harvard referencing style (6 to 8 references)

 

 

 

% allocation of marks for this assignment is as follows:

Introduction – relate the significance of emerging markets and international marketing research, outline the report structure	10
Critical analysis and discussion – three barriers to reliable emerging market research – description of each; with consideration of the implications for reliable results and effective decision making.	60
Conclusion – appropriate overview of the topic, summing up the importance of understanding and overcoming the barriers to reliable emerging market research	10
Report structure / presentation – Following the instructions set out in ‘How to structure your writing’; clarity of expression; accuracy of grammar and spelling (please use your spell-checker, set to UK English)	10
Referencing – use of relevant resources; accurate use of author/date referencing conventions.	10
Total	100