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Entering the Chinese market is a strategic priority for many brands. But like any market entry project, whilst the rewards are great, so are the risks. Success relies on conducting nuanced research so you’re able to develop a comprehensive Chinese market entry strategy. In this article, we’ll share our top tips for getting this right based on our experience helping brands across categories break into the Chinese market. You can also conduct our ultimate guide for market entry for further information.

The pros and cons of getting into China

Potential market entry benefits and barriers in China

Benefits to explore	Barriers to consider
There’s money to be made there. It’s a huge and growing economy.	China is incredibly competitive – with both domestic and foreign brands in play.
Consumer appetite is evolving all the time, creating openings for new brands, products and services.	It’s dangerous to make assumptions about the state of the market – and long-term planning can be tough.
Wealth is spreading, creating evolving demand and growth in most categories.	There are still huge differences between the top-tier cities and the rest; and between urban and rural markets.
Chinese consumers tend to like branded goods and seek out quality where they can.	Domestic Chinese brands have upped their game into premium spaces.
“If you can make it there…” Learn the lessons from breaking into China, and you’ll have valuable insights for other international expansion.	China has some unique attributes – including tough regulation of key industries and some long-standing consumer attitudes that might never shift.

All that being said, China is obviously a vast market, with 1,394,000,000 people. That means even capturing a small niche or focusing on one region or even city can result in big revenues.

China has more than 600 cities often broken down into four tiers. First-tier cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin and Chongqing are usually classified as having a GDP over $300bn (about the size of the entire South African economy). In these, and the tier-two cities, there is widespread demand for products and services that aren’t being catered for domestically.

And despite the fast development of homegrown brands, for many consumers, overseas brands retain an allure. So although the execution of any brand proposition needs to adjust to the needs of the market – and in a country as diverse as this, market research proves itself invaluable in this respect – a look at China must be a consideration for any growth-minded business.

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When to consider developing a China market entry strategy

We see a few different prompts for brands wanting to explore the Chinese market. One is where similar products or services are performing well there, with attributes that might be replicable. For example, we’ve seen strong demand for premium Korean cosmetics recently – it’s a sign similar propositions might fly. In niche areas such as luxury handbags and cars these is a persistent strong demand for foreign brands.

Those buying patterns are highly visible. But we can also pick up less obvious trends in consumer behavior that give clues as to potential in China. For example, we’ve seen a growing love among the Chinese middle classes for avocados. (It’s not just 2016-vintage millennial hipsters!) That suggests possibilities for brands that take the time to probe shifting attitudes.

In the first case, then, we’re looking for product features and brand offering. In the second, we’re exploring new consumer behaviors – although in each case we need to evaluate whether this is a fundamental change in consumer mindsets, or just a fad.

Underlying all that needs to be the economic rationale for entering the Chinese market. We might be able to detect strong potential demand. But will the costs of entering and sustaining this vast market – especially given its competitive nature – make sense? Remember that has a China has a number of regulations on commerce and media. We’ll come back to that later, but it has a bearing on the risks, and therefore the economics, of market entry.

Don’t be arrogant – success in China isn’t guaranteed

It should be obvious by now that one of the biggest opportunities is bringing in a premium, overseas brand to woo and wow the expanding Chinese middle class. But don’t be fooled by that stereotype – and don’t assume that you can just transplant existing brand approaches and expect to deliver results.

For a start, the way you deploy advertising and tailor packaging will be crucial. Chinese consumers will often be swayed by the way brands are presented, so understanding exactly how people are responding to the brand image and packaging can’t be ignored.

Then don’t assume just because you’re a foreign brand that you’ll attain a ‘premium’ differentiation. Fifteen years ago, there was almost an automatic patina of exoticism attached to non-domestic brands; they were more likely to be seen as classy and rare, helping maintain margins. Today, local brands in many categories are considered to be delivering a premium, too. And for many consumers, reliable quality and attractive features are the acid test, not the brand image.

Categories are not universal

Market research can reveal exactly how your brand might be received, and whether or not it’s going to attract any kind of premium. It’s also extremely useful at understanding which parts of any given category represent an opportunity in China – and which might be duds.

At a recent industry conference, we heard how a extremely well-known global drinks brand approached this problem. Ideally it would have rolled out its full slate of premium-branded alcoholic beverages, creating leverage around ad spend, logistics and exploiting halo effects. But while whisky is a strong segment in China, for example, wine is a much smaller niche.

At that point, another decision comes into play: research might show you which sub-categories are worth pursuing. But you also think how to enter these sub-categories. For that luxury drinks brand, for example, do they pitch the quality of the alcohol? Is it trying to project ‘conviviality’ for consumers? Is it the product heritage – seeking that ‘foreign premium’ angle? Or is it the look and feel of the products on the shelf?

The same rule applies the other way around. Yes, there are categories that are highly unlikely to be fertile ground for overseas brands – such as food, for example. It’s intensely competitive, demands a sensitivity to local tastes … but yet there might be openings in the right niche.

Or take transport. In electric vehicles, China is some way ahead of most non-Chinese manufacturers. But outside that sub-category, partnerships with local auto-makers and dealers could yield good results. Research can help uncover where these niches might be.

Learn from others – analyzing the China market entry strategy adopted by others can set you up for success

The Chinese market has been growing at pace for 40 years, so at this point there are few areas where someone else in your sector hasn’t had a go at joining the fray. Indeed, many big global businesses will have in-house experience of breaking China – and making sure the lessons from one brand, product, category or local market entry are learned for subsequent attempts is obviously crucial.

Then look at the history of the category – there will almost certainly be rival brands that have tried and failed to launch in China before you (and some that have succeeded). Analyzing what they did right and wrong can reveal all kinds of lessons.

Marrying those insights with up-to-date and well-briefed market research is a recipe for success. The phasing goes something like this:

Work out where the existing opportunities lie – what can we see from published market data, the level of competition, and products or services doing well in similar markets (especially in South East Asia – countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines are also fast-evolving, diverse, vibrant and digital)?
Evaluate local competition, emerging players, and regulatory and economic risks. These will include local rules on product specifications, or potential requirements to partner locally.
Work out why there’s a gap – and why you’re well placed to exploit it. Landscape studies should also highlight consumer appetites that will help or hinder progress.
Look at who’s failed doing something similar and why; and who’s made their inroads work, and why.
Research the evolution of the market – things change fast. Who’s up-and-coming? What are the evolving consumer habits? How will you stay on top of changes?

“Can my brand expand in China?”

Regardless of what you want to test, brand is a key issue in Chinese markets. Food, for instance, is a crowded market, so launching a new product to stretch the brand is always tricky. Research can tell you whether halo effects will work in China – and how to exploit (and not devalue) existing brand equity.

For example, we recently worked with a confectionery company on the possible launch of a newly acquired brand in China. We ran taste tests, but also explored what the new brand might mean to Chinese consumers versus how it would be perceived under the umbrella brand of the parent company.

China is a fairly mature market, and there were a similar products in the market. So was it worth bringing in the new brand? Should they use the parent company’s branding to muscle into the segment? A big issue was how the new product might alter the existing overarching brand story if that was the case. Should it be a standalone brand?

We focused on one tier one city to establish the opportunity. In tier three or four cities, responses might have called into question the brand strategy – but the top-tier cities where a particular strategy might work are a very sizeable market on their own. But it’s still worth developing insights to frame that brand strategy, not just tailor a product.

The product’s premium taste and lavish packaging made its core product a hit for gift-giving Chinese, even at premium prices. But this project showed there are important areas for research to test what powers a brand has in new spaces in a market as sophisticated as China.

Research – set a baseline, monitor change

China’s rapid evolution means ‘the future’ is much nearer than many people think, however. We can assess the probable changes over the short term; the plausible over the medium term; and the possible in the long term. But when we research Chinese markets and opportunities, it’s extremely wise to keep an eye on what looks ‘long term’ because it can arrive quicker than in many other markets.

That’s one reason for entering the market with as detailed an understanding as possible is important: yes, it might change quickly – but you need a solid framework for local conditions and consumer attitudes to ensure you can monitor what’s changing, how fast and in which direction.

The good news is that Chinese consumers, very broadly, tend to be very tech-savvy. (The WeChat platform, for example, is more widespread than Facebook – with about a billion active monthly users, it’s near-universal – and has many more practical applications.) This tech-savviness is particularly useful for conducting online research, allowing for fast-turnaround methodologies and investigating consumers outside the big tier one cities. In short, it’s ideal to capture rapid changes from the baseline. And unlike some Western markets, China’s older population seems determined to be digital, narrowing the gap we see in some other countries’ research approaches.

But we would rarely suggest only conducting research online. In the huge markets of the big cities, face-to-face research is still the best way to test behavioral and experiential aspects of consumers’ lives and tailor your approach to their unique expectations and requirements.

Top tips for market research in China

Be open about what you want to achieve in China and be realistic about who the product or service might appeal to. China is huge and diverse, so pace yourself and target realistically.
Calibrate your results. It can feel daunting competing in a crowded marketplace with strong domestic rivals. But it’s a long game: what look like tiny positives from research compared to other markets can be valuable toe-holds, establishing your brand for more serious revenue growth later; or guiding your focus on high-potential niches.
Tailor your questions. You can’t be too assumptive about what people might be prepared to pay for a product or service and asking standard questions in surveys and focus groups might not help. Get your research team to develop a China-specific (and even city-specific) research plan to get into the nuances.
If it’s online, think mobile first. Not everyone has a laptop but due to encountering a “technological leapfrog” most people have a smartphone. You can conduct extensive studies very flexibly with mobile methodologies.
Test the tech. China does have more controls on internet activity than most. Test that the research platform functions properly, especially if running a study from outside its borders.
Work with local experts. Research teams with local knowledge and experience will be invaluable. These tips come as second nature and on-the-ground teams or those in the region with an intimate knowledge of China. They will provide essential depth to research – and frame insights more meaningfully.
Think about the media. Consumers love to use their phones to research brands and products, and especially influencers and social media users. Willingness to try brands often stems from these forms of media.

In most other markets – that are less fast-moving or exciting as China – your traditional strategies can secure your traditional wins. In China, research can tell you how and where you might chip away at competitors to help you target your offering more effectively – winning a slice of this lucrative market. It can also help you create a China strategy where the wins look entirely different – and deliver results that make a real difference.

If you’re considering entering the Chinese market, get in touch to discuss how we might be able to help you to build your China market entry strategy.

Market research is hugely valuable to any organization. But understanding how consumers and decision-makers think and behave is rarely more important than when you’re trying to understand non-native markets. International business is big business – but it’s also a big investment. There are a host of issues to consider when you’re conducting international market research (for more, read our article on the topic). But getting the language right is perhaps the most obvious hurdle.

So how is international market research affected by language differences?

Language is defined as a system of communication used by a community or country. In some countries, there are many different languages in use. For example; Indonesia is second in the world with 710 different living languages used within the country. To make languages even more complicated, there are also dialects, regionalized versions of a language spoken within a region.

Understanding the common language used, including colloquialisms and dialects, can make research finding more accurate and profound. It lessens the likelihood of misunderstanding what the research is trying to convey and learn. It also minimizes “survey abandonment”, when a survey participant reads a survey that does not translate locally they may consider the survey flawed, or worse unprofessional, and decline to participate.

Imagine you’re running a brand tracker to understand how your organization is perceived across the world. You’ll need to localize the research in dozens of markets and yet still be able to draw broad, universal conclusions. For this, you’ll need to translate the survey into many different languages, while maintaining consistency of meaning and controlling for different emotive weights in the various dialects. Fail to do this, and the results you’ll get back could be misleading.

Even in countries where the language commonly spoken is English, you may need to create surveys into American English, British English, Canadian English and Australian English.

Why language matters

It’s not just language, of course. According to research from Columbia Business School, there are: “important cross-cultural differences in the processing, evaluation, and judgment of brand and product information. Much of this work suggests that cultural differences stem from pervasive socio-cultural … factors. For example, a good deal of research demonstrates that people have broad, culture-specific cognitive dispositions … which can guide consumer behaviour.”

But the same paper also stresses that language is a huge factor: “in recent work conducted in a consumer behaviour marketing context, we have found that structural aspects of a language can in fact critically affect one of the most basic aspects of consumer behaviour – categorization of products. Grammar, phonology and semantics are fundamental building blocks to a linguistic system and should therefore have an impact on consumer behaviour.”

It’s not just what you say, then – but also how you say it, and to whom. All of which adds up to language, localization, translation and interpretation as crucial building blocks of any international research project. Getting it wrong can be disastrous …

When language goes wrong

Many brands have learned the dangers of ignoring local idioms when they move into new markets. When Coca Cola first entered the Chinese market signs for ‘ko-ka-ko-la’ (the closest phonetic translation) were understood by locals as ‘bite the wax tadpole’ or ‘female horse fastened with wax’ depending on the tone.

This real-life example highlights important language considerations, both in terms of asking the right questions and understanding the meaning of the answers when you’re working abroad.

Speaking their language

But hang on a second: isn’t all this slightly moot in the age of instant machine translation? Google Translate can handle dozens of languages, and even Microsoft Word now has a built-in translation function. While machine translation is improving in quality, it lacks subtlety, it struggles with idioms, and it misses the emotional salience that’s important to both qualitative and even quantitative research.

That’s even more important now that AI-type systems are being deployed to pull out topics, themes and even sentiments from research results. With systems like these, the meaning of local dialect or cultural implications could be missed. From a semiotic perspective, then, there are huge challenges with using AI for translation and analysis.

Another option could be to hire a language graduate to translate your surveys and responses. It’s true this is a step-up from the automated approach. But even if you can find a translator you trust, ensuring they understand the subtleties of local dialects and cultural nuances (see below) and the technical aspect of market research language is much harder. That’s where market research agencies like Kadence – with international offices across the globe and native speakers in-house – come in handy. Having team members who instinctively understand the need to localize language and know how to do it is a major plus. After all, language and meaning evolve even over short time spans so keeping up to date with trends and sayings is massively valuable. In Germany, for instance, 1200 new words and counting have come into being over the course of the pandemic.

The devil in the detail

The reason why all this is important is that just as culture varies widely between and within international markets, language has local subtleties. Even within English, there are layers of meaning that illustrate this point. Take the word ‘love’. He loves popping down to the store with his buddies on Saturday afternoon. She loves it when Leeds United score. They love their mom. She makes love to her sweetheart. They bask in God’s love. These are all very nuanced – and to a competent English speaker, their varied meanings are obvious.

Then lots of countries have multiple languages – China, Malaysia, Belgium, Switzerland… there’s a very long list of places with minority language groups that a research project approached in the wrong way could marginalize. (Wikipedia has your back.)

Even when the language is clear, the nuances might not be. In Canada, for example, you need translators who know Quebecois, not just French. If you’re running field research in Mexico, you could stick to Spanish; try to ensure the Spanish translation is appropriately localized for Mexican idioms, or even think about the indigenous languages that are still spoken by a minority of the population.

In the Philippines, Filipino and English are designated official languages. But Spanish is commonly spoken (a legacy of its own colonial role), as well as Tagalog, Minna and even Arabic.

That poses interesting questions about how your sample might be affected by language choice. Remember: you might only be interested in affluent consumers in a given market, say, and that means choosing the dominant language is no problem. But for a genuine look across a country – regionally and socially – a different approach might be needed.

Tone and culture – how these differences can affect international market research

Then tone has to be calibrated, too. Understanding why emotions are triggered in different cultures or regions is really important. In eastern Germany, for example, the long history of the Stasi secret police means that even though the country reunified 30 years ago, suspicion about intrusive questions lingers. That means a deftness in your translations will be important.

In France, questions about sexuality or religion are usually considered unacceptable unless you carefully rephrase the survey to yield the information you need. It’s true even in English: what’s the difference between ‘a hobby’, ‘a pastime’ and a ‘personal skill’? How might asking about those different categories affect the kind of responses you’d get?

Cultural salience is also a stumbling block. Someone in a focus group might quote a nursery rhyme to evoke a particular emotion or assumption. A native might pick up a lot of meaning; a foreign translator might understand the context, but a machine translation is just going to give a verbatim that lacks any appropriate meaning.

Practical considerations when it comes to language differences in international market research

When it comes to qualitative research, a lot of the nuance you need comes from non-verbal cues, and those are much harder to evaluate. Here, it’s not even a question of your translation services, you need ‘boots on the ground’.

From a quant perspective, there are practical considerations around research-specific translations. Some text will appear much longer when translated. For example:

ا هي المدة منذ زيارتك الأخيرة للطبيب؟
自您上次看医生以来有多长时间？
Wie lange ist Ihr letzter Arztbesuch her?
How long since your last visit to the doctor?
Berapa lama sejak kunjungan terakhir Anda ke dokter?
Gaano katagal mula noong huli mong pagbisita sa doktor?
¿Cuánto tiempo ha pasado desde su última visita al médico?
Combien de temps depuis votre dernière visite chez le médecin?
நீங்கள் கடைசியாக மருத்துவரிடம் சென்றதிலிருந்து எவ்வளவு காலம்?

That might mean the translation of survey questions has to be tweaked to be more practical or accessible to users depending on the format or technology being used in the field. It’s another reminder that having a single, integrated agency working on the project – handling the research design as well as the fieldwork and analysis – will bring many benefits.

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Beyond language – thinking about local context in international market research

We’re always mindful that when a global brand puts forward a research hypothesis, not only do we need to translate the language, but we need to be able to contextualize that hypothesis for individual markets. Equally, you also have to be able to take local outputs and fit them into a balanced global interpretation. A lot of that depends on the purpose of the research. Are we looking to assess uniform global products? Work out which markets to target? Tailor products or positioning for a local audience? That will shape how we make insights actionable for a brand.

This is where brands and their research agencies need deeper levels of understanding. Exposure to local culture, language, attitudes and even research norms make a big difference to the value a project can deliver.

Ultimately, research projects need to be localized, not just translated. Miles in the US and UK; kilometres mostly everywhere else. That applies in a host of areas, not just weight and measures. Most people outside America are familiar with the frustrations of ‘US Letter’ being the default paper size in many software products! Ask a French sample how many pounds they would like to lose on their next diet, and you might get some confused responses.

Aiming for transcreation

With so many factors on top of the raw translation, many brands choose to ‘transcreate’ their research projects for new counties, not just translate them.

What is transcreation in translation?

Transcreation is “the process of adapting a message from one language to another while maintaining its intent, style, tone, and context. A successfully transcreated message evokes the same emotions and carries the same implications in the target language as it does in the source language.” (Thanks again, Wikipedia.) This makes it the go-to approach for the many research projects that seek to reveal consumer attitudes or emotions to particular brands, products or categories.

In research terms, it means identifying the purposes of the research – looking at the brief and how the insights will be used within the organization – and asking how best those requirements can be met within different countries or regions.

Clearly, many of the outputs may need to be standardized. But if the local research team understands the brief and the outputs, if they can parse the emotional intent of the research, they can recreate the desired level of investigation and effectiveness in another language. That might mean changing the actual content well beyond simply translating.

But it does also mean that the intent of the research project is translated, not just the words of a survey. Ultimately, marketers will get more value from their international research if they work with an agency that can deliver against the broad brief and desired outputs from a project using people with a deep understanding of different markets.

Looking for support with international market research?

At Kadence, we have offices in 10 countries across the world. We’re proud of the diversity within our offices too – with project teams spanning colleagues from Sweden to Taiwan. To understand how we can help you navigate the challenges of international marketing research, take a look at our international market research capabilities or get in touch to discuss a project.

Conducting market research on an international scale is an increasingly common requirement. Global markets are more important than ever, offering growth to businesses facing domestic stagnation or saturation. But international market research can be challenging to get right. In this article, we explain the top 5 challenges in international marketing research together with our top tips for overcoming these.

What are the top challenges in international marketing research?

1. International markets are incredibly diverse

Some business fail to appreciate the diversity within a region or indeed a country. Only by rooting out the nuances of different geographical areas, cultures and consumers, can you get an accurate picture of what people value and whether your products and services might succeed.

2. There can be a temptation to go too broad

Linked to this, sometimes when companies set out on international marketing research projects, they make the mistake of going too broad and trying to understand a region as a whole. Another error we see is firms commissioning research to target one market and then using this as a jumping off point into others with “similar” attributes. This inevitably leads in costly mistakes as brands map their assumptions about one market onto another.

To avoid this, be clear on the emphasis of your research. Where are you looking to focus? Why? Looking too broadly across a region of different markets, or exploring how an entire product range might perform, can cloud the picture.

3. Finding the right research partner

The next big question is whether you have the research capabilities to conduct meaningful projects internationally. Most brands and their research partners can run domestic research projects with ease. But if you’re in the UK, say, even going as far afield as France or Germany requires different sensibilities and capabilities. The more international you get, the harder you need to look for that kind of experience and expertise.

4. Bringing together local and global expertise

This is one of the biggest challenges in international marketing research and there has to be a collaborative effort and a shared understanding of the mission, the methodology and the insights to overcome this. A research team at HQ might working with a local marketing team to understand how to position a product for success in an emerging market. But if the teams are siloed and don’t have a consistent understanding of the brief, their approach to researching the market and their findings might not actually help deliver on the challenge at hand.

5. Ensuring that the project is realistic from the outset

This is where all the other challenges in international marketing research come together: which markets, what purpose, the capabilities available, and the effectiveness of the output – all within a budget that makes sense. There are always going to be limits to what’s practical – and the last thing any client needs is to be spending large sums testing international markets to no effect.

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Meeting the challenges in international marketing research – tips and tricks from our experience in the field

1. Get the brief and the scope right

The more you can nail down exactly what you need to know, and about which markets, the better your international marketing research will be. The key here is to dismiss the idea that lessons from one market can be overlaid onto other markets. Your approach might not even work in the same region, much less globally. So ensuring the brief isn’t burdened with too many assumptions, and is very clear on objectives, is key.

For research into one new international market, the brief can be clear cut. You’ve picked one new place to trade, and you probably have some specific questions? Will the branding work? Do we need to alter the packaging, are there specific features we need to tweak? But as soon as you broaden the scope – to, say, three new markets covering a region – the nuances become more important in the brief.

One solution is to ask questions at every stage. Why these three markets? What are they like? What do we need to know about purchaser sentiment there? How will a research project change what we decide to do in each markets? Companies that are open with their agencies on operational and marketing strategies – rather than prescribing research about the areas they know matter in their existing markets – will see more effective results.

2. Understand the cultural nuances you’ll face

Everyone knows instinctively that cultural differences are both a factor in conducting meaningful research internationally – and a major reason for doing that research in the first place. ‘Market immersion’ is a key concept, and that’s all about getting to grips with the cultural context. But local nuances within new markets can catch people out. In South Africa, for example, there are multiple cultural groups. Having local knowledge of how to tease those out is vital to breaking in South Africa.

That means one of our jobs as global research partners is challenging clients at the briefing stage to ensure these considerations are baked into the research approach and the analysis and interpretation of the results. The good news is that when you have research experts living and working in these markets, like we do, cultural nuances are easier to plan around. We use this inside knowledge about how people live to help understand opinions, habits and behaviors.

3. Don’t think language is just about translation

Companies are often wise to the importance of understanding ‘culture’ and as a result, adopt a cautious approach. But one mistake people make in international market research is to assume that ‘language’ is easier – it’s just a question of running a survey or its results through Google Translate, right? But that’s never a good idea. It requires a much more nuanced approach, as described in this article from Research Live.

Language isn’t just what we say, but how we say it. And local variations within international markets – think Swiss German or Quebecois French, but the list is endless – further complicate the issue. It’s fascinating stuff – which is why we’re writing a separate blog post on language. What this space…

4. You’ll need the nuance: go regional

Understanding local culture and language are important in their own right. They’re also the gateway to getting out of the big cities and understanding the whole market. Tokyo is a true megacity – but it doesn’t reflect all of Japan. Paris is iconic – but its citizens have very different values to those in Marseilles, let alone rural France.

Here’s where you need to understand geography and supply chains. If you’re moving into a new international market in a limited way – or if distribution is going to impractical outside conurbations, say – then researching inside big city bubbles might work just fine. But for national penetration, and in markets where businesses or consumers are more evenly distributed, understanding attitudes and behaviors across the country is a must.

For brands with an existing presence, existing assets on the ground are a hugely valuable resource for understanding these nuances. That could be local-office marketers or salespeople. Distributors and major customers can also offer insights. We love to work with chief marketing officers (CMOs) who have a helicopter view of a region and are clear about strategic objectives. But triangulating between them, their local marketing teams and our local research teams in the field tends to generate better results.

5. Decide on the most effective methodology

Another big benefit of having local teams in place like ours is that they have expertise in the best methodologies to use in different markets. This is sometimes a subset of culture, but in other markets it’s driven by the levels of technology adoption, geography or working practices. Some examples:

In Indonesia, face-to-face research is considered the norm; telephone depth interviews tend not to deliver a good hit rate.
In Japan, groups respond better to moderators of the same gender; and people are more likely to undertake qual work at the weekends.
It’s not acceptable in Saudi Arabia for researchers to interview women in the home one-on-one. And across the Middle East – and many other regions – mixed-sex focus groups tend to be a no-no.

You can read about others in our guide to conducting online market research in Asia.

This is also why more open briefing processes can be valuable in international research. It’s all too easy to apply a blanket methodology across a whole region and end up struggling to execute the research. Better to frame the key questions the organization needs to answer and tailor the research in each key market.

6. Calibrate your responses

Cultural and language shape the way you ask questions, then and they’re huge factors in interpreting the results of any research, too. A keyword search on a crude translation of responses could mean missing crucial insights – or, worse, coming to incorrect conclusions.

And don’t think this just applies to qualitative, descriptive research where local idiom, slang or cultural references might catch you out. International quantitative research also has to be calibrated by analysts with an appreciation for local nuance.

Respondents in some markets are more likely to agree with statements than others. For instance, you’re more likely to see people in agreeing with statements in India than you are in Japan. Even the way you phrase questions – not just translate them, but the nuance in the question itself – will affect the level of consistency in scores you can achieve between different cultures.

That’s particularly important for big global brands with a very set idea about how they do their brand equity or NPD studies. The alternative is to develop a more organic approach, so that the questions set allow you to reflect local nuance. It might be as simple as using a four-point rather than a five-point scale in markets where respondents are most likely to sit on the fence.

7. Use market research as a tactical, not just strategic, lever

It can be tempting to seek very broad answers from international market research: “will this product work in this market?” Or: “how should we tweak the service offering to meet this country’s needs?” These will help brands decide on strategic issues. But the more nuanced the approach, the more likely it is that the research will feed into local tactics for a brand, making its international investments work even harder.

That’s actually a common theme in research: properly granular insights ought to help on a number of decisions. It’s not just a ‘go/no-go’ binary but research should inform everything from pricing to choice of distribution channel; support for local sales operations, to targeted advertising.

A new era for international research

We’ve certainly moved on from an earlier era when global brands assumed continent-scale uniformity. Even if a business sees an opportunity in ‘Latin America’, has an ‘Asian strategy’ or issues financial reports for ‘EMEA’, serious decision-makers know they need to go, at the very least, to the country level for insights that will help their plans succeed. And they understand that it can be counter-productive to seek out ‘apples to apples’ comparisons between markets when a little nuance can go a long way.

One factor that’s complicated the picture more recently is the global Covid-19 pandemic. Because so much commercial activity is now managed remotely, there’s a temptation to run multi-market studies with a uniform online methodology. If everyone in the world is attending focus groups via the same videoconferencing app, what’s the difference?

The risk here is that the huge advantages of technological solutions are watered down in the hunt for low-cost, ‘big picture’ regional results. Online research can be conducted quickly and flexibly. And clients can immerse themselves in research projects more easily, gaining their own insights into consumer reactions on the other side of the world.

But research that is tailored, for example, to local respondents’ cultural norms will yield much better results. You can quickly adapt a methodology to a market when you have local research expertise and a clear idea of the brand’s mission. For instance, recognizing that in India you’ll need to avoid any methodologies that rely on lengthy video inputs, and instead combining text, image-based and short video tasks, will get you the insights you need.

The most successful companies understand that an international project isn’t as simple as handing a research agency a questionnaire and generating perfectly uniform results across every territory.

You know your product or service better than anyone; we know the right questions and methodologies that will get you where you need go; our local teams understand the cultural norms; and good translations – culturally and linguistically – can bring it all together. Find out about the regions where we can conduct international market research or get in touch to speak to us about an international project.

In discussing market research and new product development, a famous story often comes up about Steve Jobs dismissing consumer market research as a tool for shaping new Apple products. The driving force behind the Mac, the iPod, and the iPhone famously said in a 1985 Playboy interview, “We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren’t going to go out and do market research.”

It is, of course, one of the most widely debunked stories in business. Apple does conduct consumer market research – and is, arguably, in its pre-eminent position precisely because it innovates using insights generated by analyzing in incredible detail its consumers’ behaviors and the market appetite for its products. (There’s video of a young Jobs extolling the virtues of market research for these purposes – it’s 90 seconds well spent.)

In the world of new product development, market research often reveals that most new offerings are iterations of existing products. For every genre-busting innovation, there are tens of thousands of new iterations of existing ideas, tweaks to brands, and updates to proven sellers. In most cases, some kind of market research will have shaped the new iteration and how it was conceptualized; helped stand up the business case for it; framed the marketing; and guided its introduction to consumers. So how does market research help businesses design and launch successful new products?

Integrating Market Research in New Product Development: Each Stage of the Innovation Funnel

There are lots of different ways to describe the innovation process, broadly broken down into three phases: ideas, concepts and creation. It’s not a science with a standard formula, however, but there are some common steps. For example, some experts recommend breaking the process into 5Cs:

Capture intelligence about market gaps and organizational potential.
Connect opportunities to capabilities.
Convert ideas and available resources into concepts for products.
Confirm these products are viable in the market.
Conclude by executing a market entry plan for them.

Another way of thinking about it is a series of questions that need to be asked at each stage of the product development process. Market research can help answer them all.

1: What’s the opportunity?

Desk research, analysis of existing customer data and some qualitative investigation can help frame likely areas for innovation. In many cases, an organization will face an internal problem – overcapacity, falling margins, consumer appetites shifting away from existing products – that also frame the need for new products. The output here is an extrapolation of big trends to identify emerging needs, changing behaviors and whitespace for innovation.

2: What ideas might thrive there?

In some organizations, internal R&D will have a ready supply of potential innovations that might be applied to the opportunity. More likely, R&D and marketing teams will benefit from a brief developed from the ‘opportunity’ phase to direct R&D in more concrete areas. This process might include brainstorming inside the organization or more formal ideation sessions with an external research agency. At this point surveys can be harnessed to give more shape to the ideation process. In the search for an iterative new product (rather than a genuine technological innovation) there might be 30 broad ideas that can be tested in quantitative surveys to thin down the field.

3: What concepts deliver on those ideas?

In the next stage, focus groups and market analysis can clarify which concepts ought to progress further by exploring the strengths and weaknesses of each idea. This is also where the innovation and R&D efforts of the business are properly moulded around consumer and market insights – and some iteration takes place to align the two. Note that research here isn’t just among consumers in the core market. Channel partners, consumers and suppliers in adjacent industries are all valuable sources of insight and inspiration. For example, when Kadence worked with an airline to develop new first and business class seats, we looked to bedding experts, audiophiles and high-end restaurant maîtres d’hôtel to shape the concepts.

4: How might those concepts perform in the market?

By this point, an organization should have narrowed its ideas down to a small number of solid concepts. At this stage, a large-scale quantitative survey can be used to identify the concept with most potential to take forward, as well as the size of the potential customer base.

5: What’s the investment case for launch?

The insights gained from market and concept testing will allow numbers to be attached to the product at this point. What might revenues be? What’s the cost to produce the product or service? With research around pricing, what’s the margin likely to be? Does this justify retooling a factory or investment in marketing? This is the “go/no go” point for a new product.

6: What should the final product look like?

Using the research on market potential and consumer attitudes to the new idea, a business can shape decisions on final feature set, ancillary products or services (again, both quant and qual market research will illustrate the need or potential for these), packaging, marketing and pricing.

7: How do we get it out to market?

Research can also highlight optimum product launch strategies, including distribution, adverting and partnerships to make the most of both existing markets and potential follow-ons – whether that’s mass-market adoption for a product designed initially for a niche or early adopters; new demographic segments; or launch into different international markets.

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The known unknowns for new products

There are broadly two types of business keen to answer these questions. First there’s the radical innovators, the people who come up with brand new ideas and product concepts and want to understand whether they stand a chance in the market. This group are interested in ‘unknown unknowns’, the broader trends in consumer behavior that might hint at acceptance of a brand new idea. We’ll come on to these Steve Jobs types later.

The second, much larger, group understands the innovation funnel in more detail and seeks data to optimize a pipeline of new products. They are interested in ‘known unknowns’ and using the answers to justify, shape and execute a launch.

For this group, the challenge is modelling the potential performance of a new product against a number of variables already visible in the market. These organizations often have a sophisticated process in place to test new ideas and are keen to benchmark any new product in order to validate investment. They will have an algorithm for product development. The more variables they can pin down using market research, the higher the confidence in making those investments.

‘Benchmarking’ in this case might be looking at the performance of products within the target market; or evaluating consumer attitudes to particular features or benefits. This makes it a largely quantitative methodology.

This kind of quantitative approach is often applied with good reason. Standardized questionnaires and clear, consistent methodologies can help ensure that the market research process is more reliable and easier to interpret. And for many larger organizations with a wide portfolio of potential innovations, a fixed investment budget and the need for reliable returns, this rigour can be highly valuable.

But beyond simply looking at the “go / no go” result, it’s important to dig into the reasons why products didn’t pass this hurdle. This can provide valuable insights to inform future development.

Competitor analysis can also reveal opportunities for developing successful product iterations. Research might include:

Rivals’ marketing strategies – what’s their targeting and messaging; what are they missing?
Customer satisfaction with competitor products– where are there discontents that might be satisfied by your product?
Other gaps in the market – such as different price points or localized versions for international consumers.
Other competitor strengths and weaknesses – consider brand halo effects or financial status.
Early-adopter behaviors – in similar markets or using new technologies that might be adapted to your own target markets.

Learning from History: New Coke as a Case Study in New Product Development Market Research

But it’s not always done right. There’s no shortage of case studies of new product launches that didn’t go well. And often that’s not because an organization didn’t do any market research. It’s because they didn’t use it deftly enough.

New Coke is a great example. Coca Cola is an innovative business and wields one of the greatest brands in history. In the 1980s, management decided to rebuild its dominant position with a new formula. Clearly this was a huge decision, and as a market research powerhouse, it took no risks. It spent $4m on development and conducted over 200,000 taste tests across the US to research how consumers would score the new flavor against rival Pepsi. And based on those tests, New Coke was going to be a hit.

But management made a series of errors. In a classic case of confirmation bias, they tended to put more weight behind positive views expressed in focus groups, ignoring those who warned a change would turn them off the brand. They discounted emotional feedback on their brand. And they over-focused on differentiation with Pepsi, which had long marketed itself as the sweeter product.

One big mistake was conducting sip tests instead of researching how consumers would feel drinking a whole can of the sweeter formulation. But narrowing down their research focus – ignoring the context for consumption – they ended up launching a product that turned consumers off the brand altogether.

The error, then, was not failure to conduct market research. It was failure to treat research objectively and apply appropriate methodologies. Management sought justification for their decision – not confidence that it was the right one.

The impact of market research on new product development – giving you the confidence to guide a product launch

The key word here is ‘confidence’. Even iterating an existing product entails risks. Using market research for product development helps reveal and manage that risk – and allows decision-makers to test rigorously against hypotheses for new products, rather than head off down potentially blind alleys.

Note that qualitative research plays a crucial role in helping product developers fine-tune their approach and create innovations more suited to particular audiences. And as the New Coke example shows, qual research can capture the emotional components of product change much better than quantitative analysis might. Every new product launch is a balance between gains and losses for the consumer and understanding that balance is vital.

When it comes to qualitative research, organizations shouldn’t just ask themselves whether to conduct it, but how to conduct it. Whilst central location testing for instance, allows you to ensure the product is experienced in a consistent way during the testing process pandemic lockdowns have obviously accelerated this shift towards at-home testing. New technologies are helping. Augmented reality (AR), for example, is an ideal way to help consumers visualize new products even at the concept stage. Using their mobile phones, they can ‘see’ products in their own home or a work setting, providing valuable depth to qualitative studies at even earlier stages. This is something we’ve piloted with Asahi to test their London Pride packaging and are seeing a number of benefits, such as respondents using AR organically noticing and commenting on small visual details that aren’t picked up by other respondents assessing a 2D concept.

Using market research to guide blue-sky thinking

Our market research for new product development includes testing against quantitative benchmarks to validate each phase of product innovation. Additionally, our qualitative studies in new product development market research focus on testing the emotional reaction to new products, shaping their evolution for market success. A third aspect of market research in new product development is ideation – generating new ideas at the outset.

This is often called ‘ideation’ and it’s an area where market research has played a key role since the birth of the industry – regardless of what Steve Jobs said. He was right that consumers are typically quite poor at predicting what might define or satisfy meet their own future needs. But understanding how R&D and human appetites come together is core to the market research offering.

Take a dairy business, as an example, that’s facing a slow decline in consumption. One solution would be to increase the appeal of organic products. How might they craft a brief to their own product development team?

Working with Kadence, the company use a structured approach to frame where this innovation might gain some traction in the market. Using proven research techniques, they also explored possible options for further innovation. These can be tweaked and repositioned using further research.

This approach can be further optimized if like us, the research agency has an in-house creative team that can quickly visualize concepts based on consumer feedback. We worked with a global beverage brands wanting to relaunch its range to make this happen. Based on focus groups, we were able to redesign the packaging in a matter of hours in a way that capitalized on insights from the research.

One other process to consider: the ideation sprint. Rather than gradually piecing together some R&D, market analysis and internal feedback before gradually building out a new product for consumer testing, this involves getting all the stakeholders into a project group together to develop new ideas within a short timeframe.

Kadence has conducted these sprints with food manufacturers – where that combination of chefs, technicians, marketing experts, salespeople and researchers working in concentrated bursts over a couple of days can see a menu of ideas created, tested with consumers and refined incredibly quickly. And because these sprints are cross-departmental, buy-in for the new product internally is much greater.

Concluding thoughts

Product development is risky even when you’re not launching a category-busting innovation or changing the world. New flavors, revived branding, tweaked feature-sets or version updates can upset existing product performance or result in costly investment in ideas that might not fly.

Far from stifling product development, market research can deliver reassurance and confidence at every stage, helping inform the choice of new products to pursue, their key attributes, how they might be marketed and what contribution they make to a business operationally and financially.

This is an area where Kadence has extensive expertise. Find out more about our product development research services or contact us to discuss how our market research can optimize your new product development brief.

Many global economies are defined by stagnant growth, falling populations and saturated markets, making growth for brands a tricky proposition. In many ‘emerging markets’ there are still big opportunities grow… if you keep your eyes open.

Many businesses are looking to fast-growth, high-energy markets outside the so-called ‘developed’ economies to fuel their expansion. Unlike congested and sometimes shrinking economies in ‘the west’, many parts of the world are seeing rapid population growth, fast-rising incomes and are adopting transformative technologies without the burden of legacy investments. The result? Vibrant new opportunities for businesses.

But while entering any new market is a challenge for brands, moving into these more dynamic economies – often with very different cultures, business practices and consumer expectations – can be particularly tricky. Berlin isn’t the same as Birmingham, but many of the norms in both markets are recognizably similar. Head to Beijing or Bamako, and the assumptions you make about brand, product and business practices will be challenged.

Take a phased approach to understanding the opportunity afforded by new markets

The best way to understand your opportunity in different markets is to take the traditional phased approach to research. This involves the following considerations.

Which markets might we look at? Consider the number of consumers, the country’s income levels and the stability of its economic and political structures. You can also examine the maturity of business practices and think about geographic location, transport links and accessibility in-market.
What’s the macro environment like in a market we want to enter? Revisit all the above, in more detail. Focus on specifics – such as the transport and tech infrastructure; and business support networks (such as accounting firms or legal protections on IP) – and how the trends are evolving in those areas.
How does the competitive landscape affect its attractiveness? Pay attention to other outsider brands and how they’re doing; but also domestic rivals and potential competitors poised to move into adjacent markets.
What are the practical issues for market entry? In new markets further afield, transport links, language barriers, different cultural norms and local regulations can throw up roadblocks.
How do we adjust our product, service or messaging to optimize our offer there? As above, but remember that very different cultures and climates can challenge even the most basic assumptions about how a product will perform.

Step away from the generalizations

It’s vital to acknowledge that ‘emerging markets’ aren’t as uniform as the term suggests. Far from it. There are so many variations by region or category that talking about common features of ‘emerging markets’ is a dangerous over-simplification. And there are as many differences within countries as between them. This particularly true in countries where rapid urbanization has seen a break with traditional cultures outside cities.

(That’s true for any generalization, of course. Alcohol brands, for example, can’t even treat the US and Canada the same. North of the border, there are drinking-age laws set province-by-province, massively complicating online alcohol sales. They might look the same in terms of development and even geography and demographics. But they’re not.)

That’s not to say there are no rules that apply to entering markets that share particular attributes. The pace of economic or population growth, or the expansion of middle-class consumers with disposable income, might always be a feature of your selection process for target markets.

But in many categories, consumption is growing so quickly that only the real beneficiary of a ‘toe in the water’ market entry is likely to be knock-off brands and domestic substitutes able to adjust output more responsively to local conditions, especially where legal protections for intellectual property are less secure for global players.

All these caveats mean that in-depth research into new-market consumer appetites, infrastructure and competition is just as important in growth areas as it is in more mature markets.

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Assessing new markets – 5 key considerations

All that being said, knowing the likely biggest points of difference when entering markets with strikingly different fundamentals is still important. Five things to consider:

1. Affordability

In many emerging markets, disposable income may be much lower for large parts of the population. For global products, that means understanding the more affluent segments better and targeting marketing appropriately. For localized or commodity products, the question is cost. Can you use local manufacturing, logistics and even branding to deliver your product to a mass market?

2. Distribution

Getting product to consumers might be more challenging. For brands that rely on developed economy logistics partners, understanding infrastructure constraints, developing local contacts and ensuring quality of service is crucial. When Haagen-Dazs first entered China, it set up its own warehouse and delivery network to ensure the product reached consumers correctly.

3. Localized branding and marketing

What works well in Boston, may not succeed in Beijing. Cultural understanding is key to ensuring that your marketing and branding hit the spot further afield. Caveat: remember the urban/rural split. Many urban consumers are ‘world citizens’ and expect to be treated as such.

4. Watch for local rivals

The cachet of being a global brand can help enter emerging markets. But cost, customization and the risk of ‘brand colonialism’ can make more assumptive Western brands seem out of touch and vulnerable to local alternatives.

5. Native teams

As a global market research agency, we benefit from having local teams in the markets we evaluate for clients. This means we understand the cultural context, consumer trends and broader macro situation. It is possible to enter emerging markets at arms’ length. But having local people in decision-making positions is the surest way to avoid clumsy cultural or operational missteps.

Look for leapfrog opportunities

There are plenty of upsides to emerging markets, too, beyond simply vast numbers of new customers. In some cases, our research will throw up opportunities that just aren’t available in mature markets at all.

Look at the way different platforms have developed to cater to the nuances of local markets, for example. In many fast-developing economies, traditional channels have been leap-frogged by the adoption of newer technologies. This often happens where older tech infrastructure has attained much less penetration, allowing a newer tech to fill a void.

In many African countries, for example, low population density and long distances between conurbations means traditional copper or fiber telecoms can be limited. But mobile telecoms are more practical and affordable. They offer a plethora of additional over-the-top services that have led to an e-finance and e-commerce boom. Entering those markets will require different thinking about distribution – as well as marketing and payments using creative local solutions.

Remember, e-commerce is not the same everywhere

The Philippines is another good example. In other countries, Facebook might be just part of your online marketing toolbox. But there, Facebook has attained an absolutely dominant position in e-commerce – for one simple reason. With lower average incomes, Facebook and local mobile companies realized their penetration was constrained by the cost of network data. So almost every plan has free Facebook data regardless of contract status. For market entry success in the Philippines, Facebook is going to play a big role.

But we need to distinguish between being available on those platforms on the one hand; and entering a market on the other – which involves boots on the ground. Yes, that’s more investment. But you’re also surrendering less of your margin to platform owners and logistics providers.

A staged approach to entering less well-understood markets, starting with the more popular local social networks or e-commerce platforms, allows you to refine the consumer profile. Companies also get time to get to grips with the legal and financial frameworks that might shape future involvement; and see how local fulfilment clarifies their operational options.

Don’t assume that tried and tested e-commerce strategies from the US and Europe will work everywhere in the world, however. Amazon, for example, simply doesn’t have a presence in some markets. In others, consumers can use the site, but limitations on distribution and other logistics mean delivery times, cost and availability are prohibitive. Local research about the best platforms for reach and fulfilment is a must.

Lazada, Shopee, Zalora and Carousel, are some of the top e-commerce sites in South East Asia. These names may not be familiar to firms outside the region. But they can play a crucial role for testing in these markets. Again, it’s worth working with people who understand how to optimize those platforms, as well as interpret the effectiveness of marketing on them; and what the results say about the potential for deeper market entry.

Understand the technicalities of new markets

Even online entry into a very unfamiliar market can be daunting. Moving in for formal distribution, licensing or agent agreements or even setting up locally or buying into a native business brings with it additional issues that need to be researched.

European companies with experience of entering new markets in the EU can find the regulatory and legal considerations in countries farther afield a challenge. Even in the US there are federal laws and individual state regulations over companies and property to contend with. This can make establishing a new business relatively tough. And that’s considered a ‘developed’ market.

In parts of South East Asia, many European companies report lengthy delays in registering businesses. Others discover that in some markets domestic firms have particular benefits. This could be a form of protected status, or reserved access to certain kinds of contract. This is worth exploring in due diligence especially if you plan to sell to government agencies that are often required to ‘buy local’.

Don’t make any assumptions

Most of the key factors for market entry will depend on exactly which market you’re looking to enter. There are very few hard and fast rules that apply across the generalization ‘emerging markets’.

But there is a common theme from this guide that should frame your thinking: these markets change – fast. Before committing to entering any market – and especially ones evolving so rapidly – it really pays to research the opportunity fully. This is something that Kadence has helped many clients with, allowing companies to succeed in lucrative emerging markets. Find out more about our market entry services, or get in touch to discuss a project.

Last updated: 05/01/21

Our live tracker shows you where you can conduct face-to-face research, as well as the considerations you need to bear in mind.

For those markets where face-to-face research is not possible just yet, online research is an effective alternative. This is an area where we have extensive experience. To help clients embrace these methods, we’ve produced a guide with our top tips for approaching online research in APAC.

UK

Face-to-face research is not currently possible

As the UK is currently under national lockdown, face-to-face research is not possible at this time.

Online research is an effective alternative

We have extensive experience of recruiting respondents and conducting research digitally. For many years, we’ve been harnessing online methodologies to support clients with everything from customer understanding right through to product development research in the UK and beyond.

Get in touch with our UK office to find out more

USA

Face-to-face is possible in some states

Restrictions in the US vary by state. Face-to-face research is now possible in some areas as long as the relevant state and federal guidelines on social distancing and interstate travel are observed, and in Boston, our East Coast base, focus groups are now booking. We are actively monitoring the regulations in each state through the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and state and territorial health department websites to advise our clients on what’s possible across the US.

Online research is an effective alternative

We can recruit respondents and conduct research digitally. This is an area where we’re experts. We’ve been harnessing online methodologies to support clients in the US with everything from customer understanding right through to product development research for many years.

Get in touch with our US offices for more detailed information and to discuss the best approach for your research needs.

China

Face-to-face research and online research are both possible

In line with the situation easing in China, we can provide all methodologies in this market, including focus groups and face-to-face interviews. We have developed a comprehensive safety protocol to safeguard our respondents, our team and our partners including a screening process to ensure respondents haven’t returned from another country in the last 14 days, temperature checks and the provision of masks and alcohol gel.

Online research can also be used to great effect in China, one of the most digitally savvy markets in the world. This is an area in which we have significant expertise.

Get in touch with our China office to find the best way of approaching your project.

Singapore

Face-to-face research is now possible

We are now able to offer face-to-face research in Singapore including 8 person focus groups in line with easing restrictions. We have a number of protocols in place to ensure the safety of our team and our respondents.

CATI and online research are effective alternatives

We are experts at conducting online research, and have particular expertise within Asia, recently producing a guide to help clients approach this with confidence. Our CATI capabilities are also an effective way of conducting research at this time.

Get in touch with our Singapore office to find the best approach for your project.

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India

Face-to-face is possible in most areas

We’re able to offer face-to-face research in all major cities that have been designated COVID-free zones by the government. We observe stringent protocols to ensure the safety of our respondents and our team.

We also offer CATI and online research in India

Our state-of-the-art telephonic interviewing (CATI) center and a huge repository of customer databases can address your quantitative research needs, whilst online focus groups, digital depth interviews and digital ethnography can help gain qualitative insights into the rapidly changing consumer landscape.

Get in touch with our India office to discuss how to best approach your research needs.

Indonesia

Face-to-face research is considered on a case by case basis

Restrictions in Indonesia mean that options for face-to-face research are currently limited. As a result, it is considered on a case-by- case. To discuss further, please get in touch with our team.

Online research is an effective alternative

We are experts at conducting online research in Asia, and in Indonesia we have our own online panel, enabling us to conduct research across the country.

Get in touch with our Indonesia office to discuss how to approach your project online.

Philippines

Face-to-face research is not currently possible

F2F research is now feasible in the Philippines. We have already conducted intercepts and D2D interviews with no issues. However, we do not recommend face-to-face for focus groups and IDIs because we are still required to wear face masks and face shields even indoors. Focus groups and IDIs can be carried out online instead at this time.

Online research is an effective alternative

In the social media capital of the world, online methodologies can provide new ways of engaging respondents in research.

Get in touch with our Philippines office to discuss a project in the country.

Thailand

Face-to-face research and online research is possible across Thailand

We are now able to carry out face-to-face interviews and focus groups in Thailand. We have stringent safety protocols in place to protect our respondents, our team and our partners including COVID-19 screening questions, temperature checks and the provision of alcohol gel and masks.

In Thailand, we’re also able to provide a broad range of online methodologies to reach consumers and B2B respondents.

To talk about conducting research in Thailand, get in touch with our team.

Vietnam

Face-to-face research and online research is possible across Vietnam

Face-to-face research in the country can be conducted as normal – there are no restrictions in terms of service provision.

We also have rich experience in conducting online research in the country. We have the biggest direct panel in Vietnam – with 500,000 consumers – and conduct over 100 studies each year.

To discuss a market research project in Vietnam, please get in touch with our team.

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Who do you listen to when it comes to responding to a global pandemic? Doctors? Virologists? Economists? Eccentric Billionaires who operate a ‘space taxi’? Politicians? Surely not politicians!?!

The term expert has been losing its social credibility for years – as it has become politicized – and ‘alternative facts’ have risen in social media. It used to be that an expert had been there, done that, and could advise on what type of t-shirt you really should be buying. That has changed, so that anyone with time to spare to go down the rabbit hole of YouTube can suddenly become an ‘expert’ in vaccines or the shape of the Earth. There is a school of thought widely circulated that if you spend 10,000 hours practicing something – you will have mastered it. Even if you did spend 10,000 hours on You Tube (which is probably doable in a lockdown!) then are you an expert in world affairs? Perhaps playing the guitar…or martial arts. But is 5 years’ experience really enough to become an expert in your industry or on what do to as we emerge from this global pandemic?

The short answer, is no. Not at all. The world (and your industry) is changing so fast that your expertise may not be relevant. Playing the guitar is fundamentally the same now as it was 100 years ago. Automotive, telco and food and beverage industries are not! 5 years ago – Uber in the US or Gojek in Indonesia were tiny entities. WeChat in China has become the dominant force for all news, social interaction and even payments. 5 years in the future, will we need mechanics to fix our cars or just a software engineer to adjust the GPS sensor in our self-driving Tesla?

And now for COVID-19. A global pandemic requires multiple people, with multiple points of view to come together. A serious virus outbreak can never just be a classed a ‘health issue’ – because economics, logistics, government policy and commerce all get impacted. A global pandemic means this is even more the case with global supply chains. From a consumer perspective, all the past norms, assumptions and consumer behavior have been upended! Where they purchase products, their purchase journey are obvious changes. However, the mindset shifts and the self reflection on what is important and what brands play a role in their lives are also changing in ways that we have not seen before. The point of this post is that expertise is needed but there can be no experts that KNOW what brand strategy post COVID looks like!

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People can always learn more. There can always be something new that they discover. These are the sort of people who are modest in their claims of expertise. They talk of experience. They have anecdotes and examples. But they never proclaim to know it all. They read blogs, they start conversations, they debate accepted norms – and they look to push boundaries. More importantly, they look to other people and industries. Even the biggest consultants are pooling their knowledge of expertise to provide ideas and thoughts on the future (check out McKinsey’s collection of virus points of view.) Relying on a single source, or single individual has always been dangerous – but today – with so much uncertainty – no one person can be a guru ‘for change’ anymore. Instead, we should be looking at a range of EXPERTISE.

At Kadence, this is how we operate. We are experts in market research of course, but only because we apply our EXPERTISE and keep an eye on the latest trends. We embrace new technology and methods and refresh the way that we ask questions to remain as up to date as possible. When a client brief comes along, we bring together a number of ‘experts’ to make sure we have covered off as many angles as possible. Industry experts or specialists are brought into a wider team. We read around the subject, we look outside of the target market and industry for new ideas and constantly look to push ourselves to deliver new thinking and a new perspective to our clients.

So now, more than ever, do not seek out an expert. Seek out a range of EXPERTISE and a range of sources to make sure you have looked at a problem from every angle. Now, more than ever, market research can become the industry to collect and organize a range of opinions and ideas and help brands navigate this ‘next normal’.

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How to conduct online research in Asia – best practice guide

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Harnessing online research methodologies – best practice guide

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Online research has taken off at a faster rate in China compared to other Asian countries. Network coverage across the country is good and as one of the first markets to facilitate social media commerce, Chinese consumers tend to be digitally savvy. This, combined with their familiarity with multi-functional apps like WeChat, means there’s real scope to use more complex digital platforms for research in the country. Even older consumers can be reached through these means. Relative to other markets, there is a better chance of getting respondents aged 55+ years to participate in online research, due to their steadfast refusal to be left behind by the ‘digital divide’.

The impact of COVID-19 has further accelerated the adoption of online methodologies. As a result of the introduction of social distancing measures, companies have had to embrace alternative ways of doing research, which have brought with it a number of benefits.

Firstly, China is vast. We have 660 cities, including 36 first-tier cities and 237 second-tier cities. Whereas offline research can only be conducted in 2 – 3 cities, the geographical scope of an online project can be much broader, allowing for greater representation of the different areas within China, that extends beyond advanced urban centers. This can be incredible valuable, given the fast pace of eco-nomic development in Tier 3 cities and more rural areas.

What’s more online research has the benefit of being anonymous, allowing respondents to talk more freely than they might in a face-to-face situation. This makes online particularly good for exploring topics that a respondent may not want to discuss in public, but it’s also a great tool for product or concept testing. Because of the Chinese habit to moderate answers and avoid causing offence, doing this in group settings can be tricky. In contrast, exploring views one-on-one as part of an online community will help you understand what Chinese consumers really think about products or ads.

When, it comes to designing your approach, there are a number of things to bear in mind to make sure you get the most out of online research. Firstly, do ensure the platform that you are using is mobile-first. China as a market experienced the technological ‘leap frog’, so be wary of assuming that everyone has a personal computer or laptop. Also be mindful of the fact that the firewall can make implementing any form of online research a little trickier than usual, especially if you’re launching it from outside of China. Don’t forget to keep testing the viability / stability of your platform. This will ensure that you end up spending more time on the insights, rather than troubleshooting.

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It is undeniable that the China today is a stark difference from the China of recent decades. The rapid pace of change means that research methodologies need to evolve to ensure ways of harvesting insights continue to stay relevant, up to date, and effective. That said for brands, and for market researchers, offline research does continue to provide ways into the cities and allows for the experiential aspect of research to really come to life, particularly if it is ethnographic in nature. ‘Lived experiences’ of consumers are best expressed and understood when offline research is applied. But at the same time, the digital dominance in China presents a real opportunity to leverage this medium as means to communicate and reach the hearts of where consumers are today by speaking their language and connecting with them where they are – their digital world.

How to conduct online market research in Asia: The Go-To Guide
Interested in understanding how to approach online research across other Asian countries? Download the guide here

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How to conduct online research in Asia – best practice guide

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Harnessing online research methodologies – best practice guide

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According the Bellwether report, market research has taken the biggest hit of all marketing disciplines, as companies look to cut budgets in the face of COVID-19. But arguably market research is precisely the area in which companies need to be investing right now, as they grapple with a radically different business landscape and changing consumer needs and expectations. But against a backdrop of shrinking budgets, how should you approach market research to deliver maximum value in this period?

It comes down to the impact COVID-19 has had on your business. We tend to see that companies are experiencing one of two sales curves, and this will influence where to focus your market research spend.

1. Companies with a sales curve shaped like a ʌ

These are the companies that have experienced rapid growth as a result of COVID-19. As needs have rapidly changed, these companies have been the beneficiaries – think streaming providers, recipe box providers, digital platforms for health or education. For these companies, COVID-19 has brought about shifts in behavior which had been thought to take years, and as a result, sales have soared. Disney Plus, for instance, now has 50 million subscribers, in touching distance of its 2024 target, after just 5 months. But there’s a risk that as measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 are relaxed, sales and subscriptions will decline.

Where to focus your research budget:

Your core focus will naturally be on maintaining the levels of sales you’ve seen in this period and avoiding a big drop off as we adapt to a new normal. To achieve this, invest your spend in customer satisfaction research to understand where your product or service is really resonating and what role your business can play in the ‘new normal’. This will help guide your marketing messaging to appeal to both new and current customers. Customer satisfaction research can also be a useful input for product development. By understanding where your product or service falls short, you’ll be able to make the changes needed retain customers when you go from being a necessity to a nice to have.

2. A sales curve like a V

There are the companies that have had to cease operations as a result of lockdown measures and have seen a steep downturn in sales. As they’re able to begin operating again, they expect and hope to see business gradually return to pre-crisis levels. Restaurants, clothing brands, entertainment businesses all fall into this category. There’s a temptation to assume that for these companies, it’s simply a case of returning to normal but this vastly underestimates the radical shifts we’re seeing not just in consumer behavior but in expectations of brands.

Where to focus your research budget:

There are a number of types of research to consider when you’re planning your research spend. The first is customer and market understanding research. In the past two months, consumers have been forced move purchases online, to adopt new habits and hobbies and to try new brands. But which of these changes are here to stay? And what does this mean for the path to purchase? Understanding this will be critical as you look to develop an effective post-pandemic strategy.

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Brand and advertising research is also of crucial importance for companies experiencing this sales curve. As some brands step up their game, pivoting their product lines from alcohol to hand sanitizer, luxury fashion labels to scrubs, views of companies are changing. And expectations of marketing are too. We’ve seen magazine covers shot on smartphones, chat shows hosted from people’s living rooms and celebrities coming under fire, as they tell us that we’re all in this together from the comfort of their mansions. All of this will have a huge impact on the type of marketing that will resonate with consumers. We expect to see style taking a back seat to substance and authenticity coming to the fore. Those that plough on with pre-COVID campaigns risk appearing tone-deaf to this change so ad testing will be vital in helping brands to get it right.

Far from being an area to cut back on, market research is an essential investment, crucial for helping brands to navigate a new normal, and enabling them to establish a position of strength.

To find out how we can support you with any of the areas mentioned in this blog post, please get in touch with your local Kadence office.

You might also be interested in

How to conduct online research in Asia – best practice guide

Find out more

Harnessing online research methodologies – best practice guide

Find out more