Importance of Language, Culture and Techniques in Market Research: A Case Study of Asia Insight Pte Limited

This study analyzes the importance of language, culture and techniques in market research, with a case study of Asia Insight Pte Limited. It also examines the viability of these elements and whether a New Zealand based company can perform market research in Southeast Asia. The study uses both qualitative and quantitative research methods to collect and analyze data, and the data is collected from primary and secondary sources. The study finds that language, culture and techniques are important elements in market research, and that a foreign company needs to focus on these elements to succeed in conducting research in Southeast Asia.

MARKET RESEARCH

Table of contents
Page 2 of 18

Introduction and overview
The current assessment there will be discussion over the subjected question on whether the three
elements of market research that are language, culture and techniques are important and
significant in carrying out a marketing research for a company. The assessment will discuss over
Asia Insight Pte Limited that is a Southeast Asia based Market Research Company. The firm is
headquartered in Singapore and operates in the market research segment. The study will analyze
on whether the company uses the above-mentioned elements in their marketing research or not.
The study will also look at the viability of the above-mentioned marketing research elements.
The research objectives of the current study are as follows:
 To know the viability of the three elements in marketing research
 To know whether Asia Insight uses the above mentioned elements in the marketing
research procedure
 To know whether a New Zealand Based company can perform market research in
Southeast Asia market
Issues faced by the in current and previous market situation in accordance to
the case study
The major issues which are indemnified in the current marketing situations are as
follows:
1. Cultural issues faced by the companies in South East Asia which
2. Language barriers in this are for the purpose of marketing research
3. Technical barriers in line of conducting he research
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Designing international Marketing research
In order to conduct the research it is important to design the research process select properly
methodologies which will support and extract knowledge in relation to the stated research study.
It can be said that the researcher will follow exploratory design that will enable the researcher in
gathering accurate information in relation to the above stated study1. The researcher will follow a
deductive approach and positivism philosophy in order to conduct the research in accurate and
scientific manner. The research will tend to follow both qualitative and quantitative research
method to collect and analyze data for the give research subject. The data collection will done
using primary and secondary sources in which primary sources will have information from
books, journals and articles2. The secondary sources of information will be derived from
interviews and surveys. The sampling will be done under the process of random sampling which
will in accordance to the researcher procedure3.
Secondary data
1 Hair Jr, Joseph F., and Bryan Lukas. Marketing research. Vol. 2. McGraw-Hill
Education Australia, 2014.
2 Leung, Xi Yu, Lan Xue, and Billy Bai. "Internet marketing research in hospitality and
tourism: a review and journal preferences."International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management 27, no. 7 (2015): 1556-1572.
3 Malhotra, Naresh K., and Mark Peterson. Basic marketing research. Pearson, 2014.
Babin, Barry J., and William G. Zikmund. Exploring marketing research. Cengage
Learning, 2015.
Page 4 of 18

Secondary data will be collected from books, journal and articles which are relevant to the
subjected research and will are accurate as well as authentic in nature. It can be said that the the
research will ensure that the data from secondary sources are authentic and have accurate
knowledge in relevance to the subjects research. Data from secondary section will provide
authenticity to the primary collected data and will act as a supporting material. Information from
this sources will demonstrate the accuracy and authenticity of the conclusion chalked up by the
researcher after collecting data from secondary sources4.
Databases and management Information systems in international research
The researcher will use effective database in order to store and select information relating to the
subjected topic. The data base management of international marketing research will be analyzed
to check on what are the extent to which international market researching firm store and analyze
data to proper state the position of the firm in the market5. The research will analysis the
techniques and will use of database system to ensure pore collection and storage of research
data6.
Primary Data Collection – Exploratory research
4 Babin, Barry J., and William G. Zikmund. Essentials of marketing research. Nelson
Education, 2015.
5 Aaker, David A., V. Kumar, Robert P. Leone, and George S. Day. Marketing research.
Wiley Global Education, 2016.
6 Burns, Alvin C., Ronald F. Bush, and Nilanjana Sinha. Marketing research. Vol. 7.
Harlow: Pearson, 2014.
Page 5 of 18

As it can be said that in Exploratory design that it will help the research in choosing the accurate
procedures from which the researcher can conduct their research study. In the current research
study the primary source of data collected will be form interviews and surveys. Under the
qualitative research interviews will be taken from the managers of the Asia Insights Pte Limited
where under the quantitative measure surveys of people operating in marketing researcher will
also question through questionnaire which will be determined to generate accurate results7. The
research has used his process to gather accurate and descriptive information over the subject
topic to draw a conclusive result. Interview of 3 managers will be taken where as the 87
employees of the company will asked questions in the surveys8.
Experimental design and Questionnaire design
The experimental and questionnaire design of the research is very important in order to gather
substantive and effective information in accordance to the research subject. The questionnaire
design will be on the liket scale to define limits which extract evident knowledge in relation to
the subject topic and will enable the research to gain knowledge over the subjected topic. It can
be said that the questionnaire design to is suitable to extract knowledge overcurrent subjected
7 Lamberton, Cait, and Andrew T. Stephen. "A thematic exploration of digital, social
media, and mobile marketing: Research evolution from 2000 to 2015 and an agenda for future
inquiry."Journal of Marketing 80, no. 6 (2016): 146-172.
8 Zikmund, William G., Steven D'Alessandro, Hume Winzar, Ben Lowe, and Barry Babin.
Marketing Research: Asia-Pacific Edition. Cengage AU, 2017.
Page 6 of 18

topic of whether the 3 elements of marketing research are need in order to conduct market
research in Southeast Asia9.
Scale measurement
The measurement of responds will done in percentage hence the scale of survey question will be
the percentage of responds which will be received by the researcher at the end of the project. The
percentage of responds will determine the scale of agree and disagreement to the asked question
of the research which will further provide knowledge on the subjected topic to draw a effective
conclusion.
Questionnaire administration
The questionnaire will be administered by the researcher as the questionnaire will be developed
in such a manner that the survey will derive the accurate knowledge which will be needed by the
researcher through the researcher manner10. This will help the researcher to draw an accurate
conclusion through the information which will be derived from he surveys and interviews in the
research process.
Sampling
9 Malhotra, Naresh K. Essentials of marketing research: A hands-on orientation. Essex:
Pearson, 2015.
10 Sargeant, Adrian, and IAN MACQUILLIN. "Marketing for nonprofit organisations." In
The Marketing Book, pp. 555-576. Routledge, 2016.
Page 7 of 18

The researcher will use random sampling method as it is the most accurate sampling method in
which the researcher will randomly select a set of data which will be analyzed to chalk out
relevant data and to check the reliability of the data sources which has been collected through the
research process. The sampling process will determine that the research process is accurate and
effective to derive an effective conclusion at the end of the research.
Data analysis
In this section there will be analysis of the data will collected from interview and survey process.
Qualitative research
There were 3 question which were asked by the managers of Asia Insight managers and responds
to the interviews as as follows:
Question 1. Does Asia Insight Pte Limited follow and complies all three important elements
like language, culture and technique?
Answer 1: Manager 1 responded that the company make sure that while conducting the research
the tend to focus on these elements as they play a huge role in determining the results of the
market research . On the other hand Manager 2 stated that the Language and techniques are
focused as they are the two major two elements which help the organization in conducting
research and that culture is minor elements and can be ignored. Manager 3 responded that all of 3
elements are followed within the company in order to ensure that the research is conducted in
effective manner. The manager also exclaimed tha culture is major parameter in order conduct
such market research11.
11 Ren, Shengce, Andreas B. Eisingerich, and Huei-Ting Tsai. "How do marketing, research
and development capabilities, and degree of internationalization synergistically affect the
innovation performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)? A panel data study of
Chinese SMEs."International Business Review 24, no. 4 (2015): 642-651.
Page 8 of 18

Question 2. Does all these elements have huge effect on the market research process ?
Answer 2: Manager 2 said that language and technique are mainly required in order to conduct
research in Southeast market. Culture is also required but the priority is on language and
Technique. This because the manager thinks that without knowing language and technique the
researcher will not be able to perform the research work even though the following is familiar to
the culture. Manager 1 and 3 think that all of the three elements are major parameter based on
which a power research can be conducted and data can be collected from market reach which is
done in South East Asia Regions.
Question 3. Can a company from New Zealand conduct market research in Southeast
Asia?
Answer 3: Manager 1 think that it will not be possible for a n\New Zealand company to conduct
market research in Southeast Asia this because they are not known to the business culture,
language and techniques which are needed to in order to conduct the research. Manager two
thinks that if a New Zealand based company want to conduct market research in Southeast Asia
it is important that the employee researcher belonging from these regions although it will not be
possible for them to conduct research in these areas. Manager three agrees to the statement made
by the other respondents in the interview12.
Quantitative research
12 Ren, Shengce, Andreas B. Eisingerich, and Huei-Ting Tsai. "How do marketing, research
and development capabilities, and degree of internationalization synergistically affect the
innovation performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)? A panel data study of
Chinese SMEs."International Business Review 24, no. 4 (2015): 642-651.
Page 9 of 18

In this section there will analysis over the data collected from survey. The survey also asked
some demographic question to check the reliability of data which is collected from the
respondents.
What is your educational qualification ?
Options Percentage Responds No of respondents
High School 6% 5 87
Graduation 14% 12 87
Post Graduation 61% 53 87
Above 20% 17 87
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Do you agree that language is major element while conducting marketing research?
Options Percentage Responds No of respondents
Strongly Agree 34% 30 87
Agree 37% 32 87
Neutral 7% 6 87
Disagree 14% 12 87
Strongly Agree 8% 7 87
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Do you agree that culture is major element while conducting marketing research?
Options Percentage Responds No of respondents
Strongly Agree 41% 36 87
Agree 32% 28 87
Neutral 7% 6 87
Disagree 11% 10 87
Strongly Agree 8% 7 87
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Do you agree that technique is major element while conducting marketing research?
Options Percentage Responds No of respondents
Strongly Agree 28% 24 87
Agree 41% 36 87
Neutral 2% 2 87
Disagree 17% 15 87
Strongly Agree 11% 10 87
Page 13 of 18

Do you agree that a firm in New Zealand can conduct market research in Southeast Asia?
Options Percentage Responds No of respondents
Strongly Agree 11% 10 87
Agree 18% 16 87
Neutral 14% 12 87
Disagree 34% 30 87
Strongly Agree 22% 19 87
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From the above survey results it can be said that the employee in a market research company
agree to the importance of 3 major elements which are needed in a marketing research process 13.
It also demonstrated the that sources of data are reported has proper educational qualification and
the responds given by them are knowledge full through their educational skills and experience.
The respondents feel that the language, technique and culture are major parameter based on
which a company can conduct market research within Southeast Asia. The respondents also feel
that a foreign terrain company without having focus on these parameter will be able to succeed
in conducting their research 14.
13 Ren, Shengce, Andreas B. Eisingerich, and Huei-Ting Tsai. "How do marketing, research
and development capabilities, and degree of internationalization synergistically affect the
innovation performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)? A panel data study of
Chinese SMEs."International Business Review 24, no. 4 (2015): 642-651.
14 Aaker, David A., V. Kumar, Robert P. Leone, and George S. Day. Marketing research.
Wiley Global Education, 2016.
Page 15 of 18

Conclusion and recommendations
Concluding in the light of above context it can be said that culture, language and technique are
the major parameters of market research within Southeast Asia. The statement made was correct
where it will not be promising that a company from New Zealand can operate in market without
recruiting researcher belonging from the region having all of the above stated elements. This
because people in Southeast Asia are very conservative and believe in language and cultural
aspect which is very important to have in order to conduct research. For the purpose of solving
the above mentioned issue the possible solutions are as follows:
1. The company should have cultural approach while conducting research which makes the
respondent in the research more comfortable.
2. Trading and language for particular region or hiring personnel skilled in this native
language will help mitigate the language problem.
3. Technical training and for using appropriate research techniques in South East Asia
regions will benefit the company in conducting market research.
4.
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References
Aaker, David A., V. Kumar, Robert P. Leone, and George S. Day. Marketing research. Wiley
Global Education, 2016.
Babin, Barry J., and William G. Zikmund. Essentials of marketing research. Nelson Education,
2015.
Babin, Barry J., and William G. Zikmund. Exploring marketing research. Cengage Learning,
2015.
Burns, Alvin C., Ronald F. Bush, and Nilanjana Sinha. Marketing research. Vol. 7. Harlow:
Pearson, 2014.
Dolnicar, Sara, and Amata Ring. "Tourism marketing research: Past, present and future."Annals
of Tourism Research 47 (2014): 31-47.
Hair Jr, Joseph F., and Bryan Lukas. Marketing research. Vol. 2. McGraw-Hill Education
Australia, 2014.
Lamberton, Cait, and Andrew T. Stephen. "A thematic exploration of digital, social media, and
mobile marketing: Research evolution from 2000 to 2015 and an agenda for future
inquiry."Journal of Marketing 80, no. 6 (2016): 146-172.
Leung, Xi Yu, Lan Xue, and Billy Bai. "Internet marketing research in hospitality and tourism: a
review and journal preferences."International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management
27, no. 7 (2015): 1556-1572.
Malhotra, Naresh K. Essentials of marketing research: A hands-on orientation. Essex: Pearson,
2015.
Malhotra, Naresh K., and Mark Peterson. Basic marketing research. Pearson, 2014.
Page 17 of 18

Ren, Shengce, Andreas B. Eisingerich, and Huei-Ting Tsai. "How do marketing, research and
development capabilities, and degree of internationalization synergistically affect the innovation
performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)? A panel data study of Chinese
SMEs."International Business Review 24, no. 4 (2015): 642-651.
Ren, Shengce, Andreas B. Eisingerich, and Huei-Ting Tsai. "How do marketing, research and
development capabilities, and degree of internationalization synergistically affect the innovation
performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)? A panel data study of Chinese
SMEs."International Business Review 24, no. 4 (2015): 642-651.
Sargeant, Adrian, and IAN MACQUILLIN. "Marketing for nonprofit organisations." In The
Marketing Book, pp. 555-576. Routledge, 2016.
Zikmund, William G., Steven D'Alessandro, Hume Winzar, Ben Lowe, and Barry Babin.
Marketing Research: Asia-Pacific Edition. Cengage AU, 2017.
Page 18 of 18