Globalization is the latest buzzword to casually trip off everyone's tongue, often followed by the phrase "cultural sensitivity" as a descriptor of what one needs in order to successfully engage in a global business. Dig a little deeper, though, and the definitions begin to lose their power.
Is globalization anything more than working in multiple countries? Is cultural sensitivity anything more than knowing that one should be cautious with criticism, if not totally silent, when traveling in another country? And most importantly, what effect does globalization have on your company?
In the case of marketing research, a business discipline in which total strangers ask questions - sometimes very intimate questions - a much more comprehensive knowledge of globalization and its partner, cultural sensitivity, is crucial.
So what considerations need to be made before deciding what your global research strategy will be? How will partnering with a global research company ensure the success of your project?
It's safe to say that more and more people are beginning to realize that differences exist between domestic and global research. Beyond a surface agreement, however, most are hard-pressed to point out precisely what those differences might be.
While it is increasingly understood that it doesn't work to transplant a research study from the United States to most other countries - in some cases without any modifications - the reasons it doesn't work remain a puzzle for many. To go to the next step, companies need to come to the understanding that sometimes modifications aren't enough - a project might need to be totally restructured to meet differing global needs and capabilities.
Companies need to begin with the recognition that they are working in a global economy, that globalization is an essential business strategy that every multinational company must follow, and that knowledge of the global marketplace is critical.
Companies also need to understand the distinction between global studies and multi-country studies. Although both refer to studies conducted in multiple countries more or less simultaneously, the term "global research" is reserved for studies that have a single purpose and that will be analyzed in total to develop corporate strategies and tactics. Generally speaking, if the results are separately reported to each country manager but no individual "owns" the aggregate analysis, it is a multi-country study, not global. This article is primarily concerned with the latter.
Carrying out global research sometimes requires intricate and unusual project management skills. Companies must follow new research designs appropriate for the region, practice cultural sensitivity in all phases of a project and, above all, rely on partners' and consultants' local knowledge as they can be your company's greatest resource.
Let's look at the various research stages to determine precisely where global differences are most likely to be found, what those differences might mean to your project, and how to manage them so that you accomplish your goals without leaving an unpleasant trail.
Charting the landscape
A research project can be subdivided into roughly six areas. The areas in which differences exist - listed in descending order of the magnitude of these differences - are: planning, execution, design, quality control, analysis, and interpretation.
Planning
When planning a global study, the most important word to remember throughout the life of the project is timing. A request for proposal or a fielding bid sent from North America to Asia on Thursday afternoon won't even be seen until Monday morning. If the local contact responds immediately, which can't be guaranteed, a reply might come by the following Tuesday. If questions arise, and they always do, the process begins all over again.
Usable information might not be available until Thursday or Friday - not the standard 24- or 48-hour turnaround that those conducting research in the United States are accustomed to! That 12-hour difference on the clock is, in reality, much more than 12 hours. Therefore, it is wise to be cautious about making promises.
To minimize this problem, be very specific with your request and expect specificity in return. "Ballpark figures" generally are not a good idea because they contain too many assumptions, and assumptions often lead to serious misunderstandings in the global research arena.
If you don't know, ask. And impress on your local contacts that they should not assume. If they're not sure about something, they should also ask. If they have been told to do something inappropriate in their country or culture, they should tell you. Nothing is more dangerous than a foreign contact that does exactly what you tell them to do - or what they think you told them to do.
Also, everyone involved in the project must understand that any project-related problems, particularly those that have an impact on cost and/or timing, must be communicated immediately.
Basic guidelines to be agreed upon in advance are:
Stick to schedules, timing and budgets.
Solicit input from partners/suppliers.
Establish communications procedures, i.e., coordination with suppliers/clients.
When in doubt, ask questions.
Depending on the region of the world in which you are conducting business, it often is wise to correspond using multiple methods. For example, send an e-mail, back it up with a voicemail and, for extra insurance, consider sending a fax. Always ask for confirmation that the message has been received and make sure that you confirm everything in writing.
Solicit input from local contacts during the planning phase because it will save valuable time later. Check on vacation periods and holidays that fall within the fieldwork period and remember that the importance of holidays is not always obvious.
One example is Mother's Day in Mexico. The holiday always occurs on May 10, not the second Sunday in May, as in the United States. Although not formally the case, all companies in Mexico close around noon on Mother's Day to allow employees to spend the day with their mothers. It turns out to be the busiest traffic day of the year in Mexico - more so than Christmas or Easter. If you haven't been in Mexico on Mother's Day, or no one has told you about it, you could conceivably lose a valuable day of fieldwork.
Every country has similar "semi-official" holidays. Think about the day after Thanksgiving in the United States, which, for most companies, is an unofficial day off.
Many people know that conducting research in Europe, particularly southern Europe, is problematic during the summer months, but they generally don't know why. The comment frequently heard is, "Surely they don't close down the entire company in the summer."
Well, yes, they often do. Europeans are accustomed to much longer vacations than Americans, and it is sometimes more efficient for a company to close completely than to operate with a skeleton staff. Even when companies do remain open by staggering their staffs with half-on and half-off at any given time, it is important to decide whether you really want to conduct your studies during those periods.
Some guidelines:
With a skeleton crew, everything takes longer and efficiency suffers.
Response rates decline significantly, simply because fewer potential respondents are available.
Respondent behavior is different during holiday times.
The best staff members are most likely not available. The top moderators/interviewers/field staff usually get their choice of vacation times and will take the prime periods.
Execution
The execution stage, if careful planning and a proper design have been put into place, can be relatively problem-free. However, issues might arise that often could have been resolved at the outset. Some points to consider:
What are the local nuances in respondent availability, sample, lists, maps, field execution, and quality control?
How do you control quality when you can't be there?
What are the translation (language) issues?
In many countries, it is becoming more and more difficult to recruit respondents who are professionals or managers. It is wise to seek out the best recruitment method with the help of those with local knowledge. Gathering the appropriate sample is very different outside of the United States. American companies are accustomed to being able to find very finely tuned samples, e.g., Hispanic women between age 30 and 45 who go to Weight Watchers and have more than one child. Such micro sampling is rare outside of the United States.
Simply being able to identify women with children might be difficult in some countries. By the same token, lists often do not exist or government regulations prohibit the use of lists. Maps are frequently useless or include large areas that are unmapped. Once again, it is critical to work as a team with local contacts since those contacts have worked with these obstacles and can help find the best sources of information.
Field execution often involves the unexpected. Many countries - especially former Communist-controlled countries - have a hard time with the concept of brand preference since - until very recently - the public simply bought whatever was available. There was no choice, nor was there always even a single brand. For example, cans of evaporated milk were simply labeled "evaporated milk."
A similar misstep is to ask (as one of many options), "Do you buy it when it is on sale?" This is a very common term in the United States, but the concept of marking prices down is unknown in many countries. A common interpretation is that "on sale" simply means that it is available; in other words, it is for sale at the corner store.
It is also valuable to remember that scaling is interpreted differently. Using a 10-point scale on a questionnaire can lead, in some countries, to most responses coming in at the extremes. However, the exact same scale in another country can lead to most responses clustering around 5 or 6 - when no real differences exist between the two populations. Knowing the culture is invaluable in interpreting differences.
There are many country or regional fieldwork differences. For example, in Arab countries, men interview men and women interview women - always. In Brazil, it is considered rude to cut short the "get acquainted" period of a focus group and the groups tend to be very social. A normal two-hour focus group elsewhere tends to go on for three hours or more in Brazil and, at the conclusion, participants often exchange telephone numbers and make arrangements to meet for lunch. In India, observers should be prepared to visit a private home and sit on a bed to watch focus groups on closed-circuit television in a bedroom next to the room where the groups are taking place.
Language issues can be narrowed to two major areas; both tied to translations. The first point to remember is that literal translations are generally not a good idea since language takes on different meanings, or perhaps has no meaning, in a foreign context. Decide what it is that you want to know and use a functional equivalent, e.g., the earlier "on sale" example should be reworded to get across the idea of whether the respondent buys the product only when it is available at a reduced price.
The second language point is to decide precisely how translations are handled. Using someone in the office who is fluent in the language or even a native of the country can save money but provide poor translations. Language is dynamic and someone who has been away from her native country for a long period of time is unlikely to be up-to-date on the language. After the initial translation takes place, a second translation should be carried out, preferably by a professional translation service.
Design
The design stage is another area in which substantial differences can be found between domestic and international research projects. Some basic questions to consider:
Is the design appropriate for the country/region?
Is the methodology appropriate?
Is the country choice appropriate for the client's needs?
Once again, seek local expertise to determine whether your design is appropriate. For example, a telephone survey is not appropriate in countries in which telephone penetration is very low; and in some countries it is considered rude if an interview is too long.
Determining the accepted length of a telephone interview in a given country also is important. Studies conducted for a credit card company likely will not be highly successful in Japan, which is a cash-based economy. Mail surveys are not successful in some countries in which mail delivery is relatively unreliable. An alternative in some countries might be to use a courier service.
In some countries, a national survey is not possible for a variety of reasons, including unsafe areas, transportation or communications difficulties, or simply the fact that 80-90 percent of the population lives in the major urban areas and the additional information will not add enough information to your database to offset the tremendous additional cost.
Following are some other up-front questions that will help avoid missteps and embarrassment:
Is it wise to mix males and females in focus groups?
Where will focus groups be held? In some countries, women are free to participate in groups, but only in private homes.
What about incentives? They vary a great deal according to local norms.
Is cash expected, is it offensive, or are incentives even legal?
Quality control
Quality control always is a major concern. Unfortunately, corruption - sometimes blatant, but usually camouflaged - occasionally presents a problem. Locals might subcontract for one price and charge back at a highly inflated rate; might subcontract to an unqualified company owned by a relative; or might actually fabricate entire portions of the study.
The most important decision you will make involves who your local supplier will be. There is no substitute for experience. This is where a global research company's knowledge of local suppliers can really pay off. Regardless of who chooses the local supplier, make sure you are comfortable with them - someone you know and trust. Continue to monitor them and don't be afraid to pull out if you discover serious problems.
Since company representatives can't always be "on the ground," immense care is needed to obtain the right information. This can be done through excellent project management, absolute attention to detail, and a willingness to question at the first sign of trouble. It is necessary to create an enforceable system that can be communicated, monitored, and will lead to constant improvement.
Analysis and interpretation
Analysis and interpretation are the areas within international research that are most similar to U.S. models; but even here it is important to be on the lookout for anomalies. Interpretations are generally made from a cultural perspective and can be tricky when they are exported to other regions. Once again, this is a time to confer with your consultant and to understand any cultural explanation for the interpretation.
It is particularly risky to blindly accept cross-national differences in a multi-country study. For example, in comparing scores between countries, 86 percent of the customers in Germany might give a top box rating, compared to 40 percent in Portugal. It may very well indicate a cultural difference and does not necessarily mean that the Portuguese managing director should be fired.
Cultural sensitivity
So, we come back to cultural sensitivity. It is a leitmotif that runs throughout the course of a study, although there are specific norms and customs to always keep in mind.
Public behavior, clothing and criticism are those areas most likely to engender negative opinions when foreigners flout local norms about which they may be ignorant. A female interviewer who works in a micro-miniskirt might be acceptable in France but not in more traditional societies. A male who openly shows his appreciation of women is taboo in some societies. Mixed male/female teams are frowned upon in many places. Taking photographs, a harmless activity in most countries, is a serious breach of etiquette in others.
International research might be coordinated though the use of one supplier that manages all of the local country contacts, or by using multiple suppliers to manage individual country contacts. In any scenario, these local contacts are your guides, and your greatest resource. Rely on their knowledge.