Emerging Countries Committee

If you are planning to do Market Research in these countries, what are the main

issues to be considered?

2013

2

Market Research in Emerging Countries

This report aims to give some perspective on what to consider when requesting

or conducting Market Research in those countries:

• Is a Continental country formed by immigration, with many regional differences!

• Vast territory with lack of secondary data

• Ancient country with diverse cultures blessed with a huge young demographic.

• No National Sample given the vastness of the country and differences between the region in habits and customs

• Vicious Circle and different profiles in the Capital, Cities and Countryside

4

China: A Vast Country

China is the world’s 4th largest country in geographical terms covering a total of 9,596,961 km²

Most populous in the world, with 1.34 billion of people (estimated

July 2012) from 56 ethnicities, living in 23 Provinces, 5 Self-

Administrative Zones, and 4 Municipalities.

Culture and climate differ from North to South, and from

East to West, leading to regional consumption differences

Masculine, rough, direct

Practical/pragmatic, refined, detail-oriented

Ancient, humble

Exotic, cultured,

warm

5

China’s Heterogeneity

We are UNABLE to conduct a nationwide research, for

the vastness and diversity of cultures and regions, making

it financially and logistically unfeasible.

There is no SEC classifications in China, data from the

government census are often regarded as inaccurate

Grey/unreported income situation serious, a 2010

estimate puts it at RMB 5,400 billion (about US$ 860b)

terr

itory

SEL

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Looking at Tiers

Since national sample is too costly, most marketers look at City

Tiers to allow a more focused understanding of the market

Most focus mainly on 1st Tier and 2nd Tier cities

1st Tier: Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen

2nd Tier: Provincial capitals and other municipalities

Considering costs and timing, most studies

are done with only selected key cities that

most concern marketers and reflecting their

products’ geographical coverage and focus.

Mostly along the coastal region.

8

Keep It Simple & Short (KISS)

Patient is never a virtue amongst Chinese consumers, the cost of hooking them on for more than 30 minutes goes up tremendously. If necessary, we advise clients to break long questionnaires in to two parts and only ask half of the sample each. Because street intercept face a high refusal rate if questionnaires were administered on the spot, CLT is the common practice, and incentivizing and CLT rental add to the cost. The longer the questionnaire, the most costly incentive and venue cost will be.

KISS your questionnaire!

9

Translating questionnaires and guides

Despite the varieties of ethnicities in China or their

different dialects, one single character system is used,

but often dialects used would be different depending

where the study is conducted

But please note that Hong Kong and Taiwan use Traditional

Chinese, and a slightly different ways of expression. Hong Kong

uses Cantonese writing and expression in their questionnaire

which needs rewriting of questionnaires， Chinese used in

Singapore and Malaysia, though in same character form, still

need adjustment in expressions.

Discussion Guide for FGDs can be kept in English, as

professionally trained moderators all come from

International agency background where English guide is

standard.

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Tips on Qualitative

Chinese is indirect culturally, any attempt to get them to express their own feelings directly or through self-centered projective techniques often did not come out as rich as in a more westernized culture.

Not all projective and enabling techniques

are feasible in China

1) Need careful adaptation in to local context

catering to local familiarity, e.g. converting

brand party to simply popularity contest

2) Some techniques can be easily

administered, e.g. personification; others

would meet with understanding problem,

e.g. obituary, time-capsule

3) Interpretation of qualitative findings need

extensive cultural understanding

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Anything that has the possibility of reflecting badly on the country and its ruling party

Politically oriented questions, anything that could be remotely

related to the conduct of the country or party, or its officials are NO

NO

14

Some IP addresses are blocked, and data speed to

overseas servers is extremely unstable and

sometimes extremely slow

ALL DATA Filtered

Starting point

Online surveys better be hosted in sites within China to avoid slow loading speed or data

interruption (or even access issues)

Questions related to GLOBAL SNS and Youtube are irrelevant as they are mostly blocked

16

Quantitative Research Methods

F2F CATI Online

F2F is probably the most important

method: easier to reach every

target!

Often done using CLT for ordinary sample

with high penetration, but pre-recruit for lower penetration

samples

CATI faces difficulty due to lack of high refusal caused by

SPAMs.

Trust in providing information over

telephone is extremely low,

leading to low quality data

Online is increasingly popular with the

increased in Internet usage.

Often the main

method but limited to key cities.

Lower-tier and age beyond 45 samples

are not recommended

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Qualitative Research is Always Hot!

Traditional Focus Group, In-Depth-Interviews, Ethnography, and Concept Labs are the most requested methods.

BUT

Better to use Online FGD with Teens

Using languages, images, icons and

expressions they are most accustomed to

An environment which they are most

familiar with, and often their key

communication platform even with their

friends, this allows a richer and deeper

emotional expression than in person

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Some difficulties on Qualitative Research can be pointed…

Difficulty on answering exactly what was asked,

which prevents too structured scripts.

Abstract and conceptual thinking is not encouraged

throughout the education system, often answers

will be pinpointed at specific issues, or need

concrete framing.

Inability to follow exact instruction can sometimes

be a problem, as rules and instructions in China are

often up to individual interpretations, respect for

guideline is weak

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Costs

Cost of fieldwork is expensive

Translations, recruitment, central

location, incentives, are quite expensive.

Cost of Qualified Researchers are

VERY EXPENSIVE

US$40K+ for good manager level

US$90K+ for Director level

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As it happens around the world, in China…

Global companies need to have consistent approach

and quality for their measurement of KPIs via

tracking studies, they often would opt for global

research firm such as Ipsos, TNS, Millward Brown…

Due to: Global technics that guarantee uniform

process and result comparison with global norms

database!

Increasing number of small research firms after

the mergers of IPSOS and Synovate, and TNS with

RI in the past few years, and after Added-Value had

increased its control over its acquired Oracle

Research (which was a major player in China).

Headed and run by senior directors who left the

global firm, increasingly more competitive in

research offerings

Thank you