When a firm wants to go international, analyzing and properly choosing candidate markets is a very important step. Market research involves understanding the consumer and the cultural issues, income levels, and other factors that influence their decisions. There is a four step process that outlines International Market(ing) Research. The first step is the problem definition and development of research objectives. The second step is determination of sources information. The third step is the collection of data using both primary and secondary methods. Primary data is defined as information compiled from scratch from direct information such as governmental sources, experts, visits, managerial personnel and buying from reliable public/private organizations. Secondary data is information that has already been collected. Finally the fourth step in the collection process is the analysis of data and presentation of the results. Several analyzing techniques include looking at the cost of the product in terms of (elasticity and cross elasticity), analyzing economic data using (funnel, theory, and demand models), the use of multiple factor indexes which are uses of proxies to estimate demand if one can not directly compute the product’s market potential.
One of the most critical elements in planning an international market entry strategy is matching the product and the target market. Product and market research must be conducted in order to find the best fit. There are four basic questions that one should ask in the intercorporate research and analysis of product selection. Which products shall be marketed abroad? Which markets or countries shall the products be taken? What methods of entry and entry strategy should be followed? Finally what methods of finance shall be used? ...