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Ziment, a New York-based research firm, held its second annual international marketing research conference at its headquarters in New York. The theme: the need for international research to always involve local expertise. Latin America was selected as the featured reNon for the conference in response to the region’s growing importance in multinationals’ international marketing efforts."

The conference featured talks by representative from four of the Latin American partners in The Research Alliance: Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico/Central America. Ziment is the U.S. representative for the Alliance, a worldwide international network of strategic full-service marketing research consultancies.

In attendance were marketing and marketing research professionals from a number of multinational companies, including Revlon, Citibank, Merck & Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb, Advanta National Bank, Lucent Technologies, Hewlett-Packard and BellSouth.

The conference started off with an introductory presentation by Howard Ziment, managing director of Ziment, who spoke regarding the importance of using local expertise in conducting research in international markets. He referred to the five C’s of international research: careful design, control, consistent analysis, culture, and crave local expertise. He ended his talk by indicating the need for local expertise even in Latin American markets, because although close by, they are all very different from the U.S., with many of us holding misperceptions of the region.

Ziment was followed by Gustavo Mendez-Kuhn, president of Improdir, Mexico City. He indicated that although Mexico is still recovering from the peso crisis in December, 1994, it is now at a point where investment in Mexico would be advantageous to those firms who decide to do so. This is because President Zedillo has implemented economic reforms and plans that are proving to be effective in moving the economy forward. Economic growth of at least 5 percent per year is predicted between now and the year 2000.

Meanwhile, the consumer in Mexico is interested in the quality of U.S.-made products, and will seek out this quality as long as pricing is not prohibitive.

Juan Jose Lloret, managing director of Market Link, Buenos Aires presented the economic picture in Argentina. The per capita income in Argentina is far above (double) that found in other Latin American countries. However, the availability of products, especially in terms of the nearly infinite choices found in the U.S., is not prevalent in Argentina. Therefore, there actually can be said to be pent-up demand in Argentina for high quality products that can enhance Argentinean lifestyles.

Next, Liliana Baepa, vice president of International at Market Research de Colombia, spoke to the group on the characteristics of the Colombian people, their attitudes, media habits and goals in life. They are generally happy compared to measured levels in other Latin American countries, and consider the home and family to be of high priority in their lives. They are highly motivated in their work lives. In urban areas, they universally watch TV and listen to radio, and a high majority (over 80 percent) read newspapers/magazines.

Although violence and narco-terrorism is of concern to them, they are actively seeking to build better lives and to achieve higher education. Their main goal is to have success in their career and to have family and friends be proud of them.

She closed by speaking of important cultural nuances with respect to conducting research in her country. As an example, telephone surveys cannot be cannot be done in Colombia, unless they are very short and to the point. Otherwise, a face-to-face interview is called for.

The final speaker was Jose Edson Bacellar, managing director ofAnalise &: Sintese, Sao Paulo, who focused on Brazil’s growth. For instance, Brazil in 1994-5 added a group of people to its "economically active population’’ the size of the country of Portugal. This kind of growth has of course resulted in huge opportunities in Brazil for the marketing and sales of all products, including imports from the U.S. The main reason for the large opportunities currently in Brazil is the stabilization that has resulted from the Plano Real, which reduced inflafion from about 2,700 percent in 1993 to about 9 percent in 1996.

He added a cautionary note at the end of his speech, indicating that there may be increases in the current levels of import duties in Brazil, thus making it more and more important that U.S. companies establish themselves in Brazil without delay.
 
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