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International Marketing MKT630

Lesson # 8

INTERNATIONAL MARKETING INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS

Categories for Information Requirements

Importance of identifying the problem:

Managers are seldom criticized on the grounds that they cannot solve the problems.

This they can do most of the times.

But they solve the wrong problem.

The managers are often better at finding the right answers than asking themselves the right questions.

The real problem in management is that executives are likely to come up with right answer to wrong

problem.

To improve decision making managers need to focus to first understand the environment and issues

properly. If their understanding of the issues is correct and comprehensive then they are much more

likely to be able to make correct decisions with respect to the issues.

Difficulties in rational decision making:

· Managers' capacity for information processing is significantly limited.

· Managers tend to follow what is called the law of small numbers, whereby even small samples are

viewed as representative of the population from which they are drawn, and they are likely to

underestimate the errors and unreliability inherent in such small samples.

· They are also subject to the availability fallacy, whereby they are led to draw conclusions on the

evidence that they have because it is available rather than because it is relevant.

· There is abundant evidence that managers overestimate their own abilities and suffer from illusions

of control.

· A common way managers obtain confidence about a decision is by structuring thesis.

Marketing intelligence must drive marketing research because in ever- changing competitive market

place more emphasis will be on determining where to move the business? and why?, and less on how to

get there.

Categories for global marketing information requirements:

Managers need a vast variety of information for successfully operating in international markets. In the

following are described seven categories in which managers need timely and comprehensive

information to make appropriate business decisions.

· Marketing Mix: to add, delete, change products, stage of product life cycle, marketing/sales

campaign, distribution channel selection, price/demand and profitability analysis.

· Competitor information: corporate, business, functional strategies, market share.

· Foreign exchange info: interest rates, exchange rates, balance of payment, attractiveness of a

country's currency, and expectations of analysts.

· Market potential: demand estimates, consumer behavior, review of products, channels,

communication media, and market performance.

· Prescriptive info: laws, regulations, rulings concerning taxes, earnings, dividends in both home &

host countries.

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International Marketing MKT630

· Resource info: availability of human, financial, information, physical resources.

· General conditions: overall review of socio-cultural, political, technological environments.