Marketing Research Methodologies, Essay Example

XYZ, Inc. is a successful food and beverage producer and wholesaler operating within the United States and Canada. The company has recently established its exceptionally innovative product to be sold on the current markets – new hydration water. Over the last year this product has incredibly boosted the sales, thus becoming the company’s top selling item. The board of XYZ, Inc. has been thinking about entering European food and beverage market, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in particular. They have chosen to United Arabian Emirates as their starting point for extensive Middle East market research and analysis. In this paper I will discuss the major market research methodologies that appear to be efficient when gathering the necessary data for a report. I would suggest implementing following methodologies: survey, participant observation, and ethnographic study.

In order to better comprehend the process of implementation of chosen market research methodologies we have first examine the overall UAE infrastructure and economical potential. The United Arab Emirates has eventually become a diverse and rapidly growing market for food and beverage industry. The population of the country is almost 4 million people, and only 20 percent from all of them are UAE Nationals. (Feldman & Shapir, 2004) The overall grows of UAE economy during the year 2008 appeared to be about 20 percent, which is due to increasing global oil prices. It appears that oil wealth is funding extensive development in the country’s infrastructure, thus attracting global business investments and establishing domestic industries and sectors in order to proof the post-oil economy in the future. UAE imports 90 percent of its food and beverage products, thus being and attractive market because of its growth profile.(Feldman & Shapir, 2004) So, UAE food and beverage market has an extensively high potential, which has not yet been realized.

I think the implementation of cross-functional surveys will be one of the efficient ways to obtain accurate market information. These surveys are used for gathering information on a population at a single point in time. The survey itself will be provided in the form of a written questionnaire, with predominantly open-ended and multiple response questions in it. In fact, concise and straightforward questionnaires will help the XYZ, Inc. to analyze the sample group that represents the target market, for it is completely different from what appears to be in the U.S. I would suggest targeting about 80 percent of the questionnaires towards non-residential population, including tourists and people coming for work to UAE, because the number of this audience actually adds up to 80-85 percent of the whole UAE population. “The volume of activity at Dubai international airport is staggering: in 2006; the airport served nearly 29 million passengers, with 113 airlines flying to the airport for 194 destinations. In 2008 it looks to enter the ranks of the top 30 busiest airports worldwide.”(Rehman, 2007) Therefore, we can observe a continuously increasing flow of people in and out of the country and questionnaire survey would be the fastest and most effective way for analyzing this audience.

Another efficient research methodology to use for analyzing UAE market would be participant observation. Participant observation is one of the qualitative research methods when the researcher is involved into the action or process being observed, but his/her role as a researcher is not obvious. Due to cultural differences and distinct buying habits of U.S. and UAE consumers, this method will give the company a more accurate picture of customers’ usage and buying habits, as well as shopping patterns. UAE is located in the Middle East region and most part of the trade is focused and centered on market places, for the country is rapidly developing. Eventually it will change and UAE will become a developed country, but for now XYZ, Inc. definitely would like to consider these cultural and trading differences between two market environments and nothing would be as effective as direct participation and observation. Participative observation is very similar to ethnographic study in its essence; however, these are defined as two different methodologies. This systematic collection of data is obtained from direct observation of the everyday life of a particular culture, subculture, group or society, thus involving researcher’s immersion in this particular environment in an interactive manner. This method will give XYZ, Inc. the opportunity to gather practical insights into social practices that are usually ‘hidden’ from the public gaze on a first glance.

UAE is a country with rapid economical development, which has a great market potential. Eventually, more and more foreign businesses begin get involved into its economical environment, thus establishing trade channels with the country and making extensive investments. Food and beverage market appears to be competitive in terms of foreign import, for 90 percent of all the food and beverage products are being imported. However, XYZ, Inc. has pretty high chances of succeeding in their campaign if they make a right and through market research and consumer analysis. Using surveys, participant observation, and ethnographical study may be not the only possible options, but definitely very effective ones.

References

Feldman, S., & Shapir, Y. (2004). The Middle East strategic balance. Sussex Academic Press.

Cateora, P. R., & Graham, J. L. (2007). International marketing. McGraw-Hill Companies.

Kotabe, M., & Helsen, K. (2008). Global Marketing Management. John Wiley & Sons.

Rehman, A. A. (2007). Dubai & Co.: Global strategies for doing business in the Gulf states. McGraw-Hill Professional.