Market Information Challenges in the Philippines: A Report

This report delves into the challenges of obtaining reliable market information in the Philippines, a key emerging and developing market economy (EDME). It examines the difficulties faced by businesses in accessing crucial data for informed decision-making. The report analyzes three primary challenges: the high costs associated with market research, the limited access to research resources, and the complexities of the market research process itself. It explores factors contributing to high research costs, such as currency fluctuations, inflation, and infrastructure limitations. The report also discusses the lack of readily available research materials, employee turnover, and underdeveloped databases. Furthermore, it highlights the challenges in the market research process, including the reliance on primary data, cultural nuances, and security concerns. The report suggests potential remedies for these challenges, such as leveraging local expertise, collaborating with research agencies, utilizing digital marketing, and blending primary and secondary data collection methods. The ultimate aim is to provide insights for international businesses seeking to navigate the complexities of the Philippine market and make informed decisions.

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Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................2
Critical analysis and discussion : Drawbacks associated with accessing vital market
information in EDMEs..................................................................................................................3
Costs of Research.......................................................................................................................3
Access to Research Resources...................................................................................................5
Market Research Process..........................................................................................................6
Conclusion......................................................................................................................................7
References.......................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The world today celebrates globalization as far as business development is concerned.
Advances in technology and access to market information have made more market leaders seek
to venture into business in developing countries. This interest in investing in emerging and
developing market economies is driven by the fact that such economies stand a higher chance to
yield returns as compared to economies that are already developed (Duval and Loungani, 2019).
Much as venturing into EDMEs might look lucrative to most global organizations, there lie
numerous challenges in such economies that are likely to be potential risks. These challenges not
only constitute of microeconomic factors but also macro-economic factors. In addition to these
micro and macro-economic components asymmetry in the market information may as well cause
challenges and potential risks. Lack of market knowledge, in turn, affects how stakeholders in
the business formulate and implement strategies in such economies (Mukherjee, 2016). This is
most likely to affect decision-making function for such stakeholders. For most developing
economies such as the Philippines, access to vital market is very critical. This paper as such
seeks to address the challenge of obtaining such information and possible remedies to the same.
Critical analysis and discussion: Drawbacks associated with accessing vital market
information in EDMEs
Potential investors face numerous challenges when obtaining information about a specific
market; these challenges pose potential risks in the healthy running of such firms. In the case of
the Philippines, below is a detailed discussion of the risks and the remedies of the same.

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a) Costs of Research
For a firm to have the vital information of the market it wants to venture into, a proper
market research is mandatory. Market research encompasses the demographic information of that
particular market, the players, the ease of entry, etc. For an EDMEs like the Philippines, access
to such information is quite difficult and this poses the greatest challenge to global entities in
their decision-making process. High costs of research are due to the variability in the demand for
research and the cost of conducting the research. High costs of research in the Philippines are
due to fluctuations of the local currency, invariable levels of inflation, corruption, high costs of
local services such as transport and accommodation among other factors (Wongpiyabovorn,
2016).
Arguably, for a researcher to collect vital information about a target population, they
have to live and interact with that population. Similarly, for decision-makers to collect market
information for decision-making purposes, they have to cohabit with the people of that locality.
In the Philippines, the cost of transport is quite high due to poor local infrastructures, which
contribute to a high cost of living. High costs of living affect the costs of conducting research in
such a market in one way or the other (Bell, Fisher, Brown, and Mann, 2016). Philippines has
diverse ethnic groups with a large percentage of the population not able to communicate in a
common language, collecting information from such people for a person who is not a local will
as well be costly as the potential investor will have to employ the service of an interpreter to
communicate to the people. This ultimately adds up to the cost of obtaining market information.
Poor access to the internet and prevailing high costs of the same as well pose a potential risk to
international decision-makers. This is because the investors, much as they may want to access

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specific market information, may end up accessing huge information that may not be specific to
the market they seek to advance.
To overcome this barrier, international decision-makers need to develop an alternative
research model. Instead of sending researchers to the field, they can employ people well
conversant with the Philippine's markets who will assist in getting vital information. Potential
investors as well can rely on the insights of a particular market to make decisions. As a strategy
employed by firms such as PWC, KPMG, Delloite, Caterpillar and Samsung, potential investors
need to employ the market leader strategy before making advances to a particular market. This
involves close monitoring of the market, market segmentation, products, and product
differentiation, competitors, etc. to get steadfast information for decision-making purposes
(Hacklin, Björkdahl, and Wallin, 2018).
b) Access to Research Resources
Access to research resources as well poses potential risk and challenge to potential
investors which in effect affect their decision-making process. A well-developed market will aid
in availing market information to investor. The markets in the Philippines are not well developed
to give viable information to potential investors. Limited research materials, high employee
turnover rates, inadequate sources of secondary data as well as unprofessional local suppliers
creates limited access to research resources in the Philippines. Additionally, access to local
information for decision-making is curtailed by complex cultural systems, limited public
information, inadequate consumer information and a weak database system in the Philippines
(Hampel-Milagrosa, Loewe and Reeg, 2015). Focusing on the needs of the market other than the
needs of the firm is key for any potential investor. Choosing to depend on the information on the
internet may be misleading, as the internet may not give the true picture of the situation in that

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particular market. As such, it is vital to visit or employ trustworthy parties to visit the market on
behalf of the investor.
For the investors to overcome the challenge of accessing proper market resources,
potential investors may seek the services of the few renowned professional research entities in
the Philippines. Additionally, the respective international firms may seek to access these data
from the international mission agencies operating in the Philippines. From their databases, within
and outside the Philippines, such agencies have a clear picture of what the market is like in the
Philippines. Such information might be vital for decision-making purposes for international
decision-makers. As a business expansion strategy, decision-makers may choose to collaborate
with local firms to access market information (Lynch and Jin, 2016). Ideally, the advent of
digital marketing has played a significant role in boosting sales and taking over foreign markets
for most international investors (Todor, 2016). The idea of choosing to go digital may work to
the advantage of international decision-makers since there will be direct interaction with
potential clients in the Philippines. The investor may choose to employ the use of social media
platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn where they will interact with a
diverse nature of clients and get to know the expectation of each client from different clients'
subgroups. Much as the telecommunication in the Philippines is still developing (Patalinghug,
Lizares and Patalinghug, 2017), a greater percentage of the citizens have access to social media
platforms, this plays a vital role for the consumer decision making within the market. Rather than
choosing to rely on information on the internet that may be misleading, choosing to engage the
customers directly on social media platforms, will communicate the needs and demands of the
customers in the market. It may as well reveal more gaps that the investors had not considered,
and this may be vital in their decision-making process.

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c) Market Research Process
The market research process for decision-makers is very important. The process should
be more rigorous and take a specific period. For the case of EDMEs such as the Philippines, the
process of conducting research mainly relies on primary data rather than secondary data. Much
as globalization is advocating for use of secondary data by investors to influence their decision-
making, this might have setbacks in the Philippines. In the Philippines, the local customers do
not have more knowledge in line with research. Such clients would rather choose primary ways
of data collection such as face-to-face interactions than settle for technological ways of data
collections such as online interviews and review collections. Due to the negligence of the local
clients on the vitality of market research, most international decision-makers find it hard to
establish the needs of such a market (Lynch and Jin, 2016). Choosing to work with consultant
agencies and not local researchers is a set back to the research process as most consultants will
carry out a shady work due to the nature of the respondents in the field. Most respondents will
want their demands to be met first before availing information on the market something that
most consultants will not agree with. The issue of insecurity as well affects the research process.
With class differentiation, the well-off are well secured while the low class is not (Querubin,
2016). This poses a challenge as decision-makers fail to know the appropriate persons to
approach for market information. The decision-makers hence lack the market insights in that
particular market.
To mitigate the dangers related to the research process, international decision-makers
need to settle for the appropriate research process depending on the type of information needed
from that particular market. Choosing to blend between the use of both primary and secondary
data will be vital, as it will show the true picture of what the market looks like. This as well will

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curb assumptions that most marketers post online, something that might affect investment
decisions taken by foreign investors. Additionally, proper collaboration between the decision-
making team and the research team needs to be established. Both parties need to understand the
risks involved in the process and need to have good insights to evaluate the market
circumstances, as this will affect decision-making. The scope, impact of decisions, parties in the
decision-making team, research team as well mediums of data collection should be critically
examined to get the vital information for decision making from the Philippines market.
Conclusion
In conclusion, market information is very vital for decision-making purposes for
investors. This, however, is accompanied by several setbacks such as risks in line with the
research process, the costs of research and access to the research resources. To mitigate these
drawbacks, decision-makers need to blend between the natures of information needed from the
field and the kinds of decisions they need to take. They need to employ bot primary data and
secondary data in decision-making since secondary data is prone to biases (Gretz and Malshe,
2019). In the Philippines, market collaboration with available local research firms, deployment
of enthusiastic research teams, the hearsay of other foreign firms plays a significant role in
accessing market information for decision-making purposes by international decision-makers.

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References
Bell, S., Fisher, D., Brown, S. and Mann, K., 2016. An Approach for Conducting Actionable
Research With Extreme Teams. Journal of Management, 44(7), pp.2740-2765.
Duval, R. and Loungani, P., 2019. Designing Labor Market Institutions in Emerging and
Developing Economies: Evidence and Policy Options. Staff Discussion Notes, 19(04),
p.1.
Gretz, R. and Malshe, A., 2019. Rejoinder to “Endogeneity bias in marketing research: Problem,
causes and remedies”. Industrial Marketing Management, 77, pp.57-62.
Hacklin, F., Björkdahl, J. and Wallin, M., 2018. Strategies for business model innovation: How
firms reel in migrating value. Long Range Planning, 51(1), pp.82-110.
Hampel-Milagrosa, A., Loewe, M. and Reeg, C., 2015. The Entrepreneur Makes a Difference:
Evidence on MSE Upgrading Factors from Egypt, India, and the Philippines. World
Development, 66, pp.118-130.
Lynch, R. and Jin, Z., 2016. Exploring the institutional perspective on international business
expansion: Towards a more detailed conceptual framework. Journal of Innovation &
Knowledge, 1(2), pp.117-124.
Lynch, R. and Jin, Z., 2016. Knowledge and innovation in emerging market multinationals: The
expansion paradox. Journal of Business Research, 69(5), pp.1593-1597.
Mukherjee, A., 2016. Are Control Rights Valuable When Shareholders Lack Information?.
SSRN Electronic Journal,.

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Patalinghug, E., Lizares, R. and Patalinghug, J., 2017. Assessment of the Structure, Conduct, and
Performance of the Philippine Telecommunications Industry. SSRN Electronic Journal,.
Querubin, P., 2016. Family and Politics: Dynastic Persistence in the Philippines. Quarterly
Journal of Political Science, 11(2), pp.151-181.
Todor, R.D., 2016. Blending traditional and digital marketing. Bulletin of the Transilvania
University of Brasov. Economic Sciences. Series V, 9(1), p.51.
Wongpiyabovorn, O., 2016. Financial development and economic growth: the cases of Thailand,
Malaysia, and the Philippines. International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging
Economies, 9(2), p.103.