ABSTRACT
Spanish retailer Zara believes that speed and responsiveness are more important than cost. 1 The company takes only four or five weeks to design a new fashion collection, compared with the six months it takes its major competitors. Zara’s designers frequent fashion shows and talk to customers. One designer remarks, “We’re like sponges. We soak up information about fashion trends from all over the world.” The firm sent out new skirts during the night to some of its 1,770 stores worldwide. From their desks at headquarters, Zara managers can check real-time sales on computers to see where the skirts are selling. They keep in constant contact with store managers in order to spot and react to trends quickly. 2 Understanding the market allows Zara to thrive even during global recessions. 3 Zara competitor, Princess Polly, targets women aged 16 to 26. The fast-fashion company finds social media to be an excellent market research tool and a way to get rapid consumer feedback on new products. 4
Our purpose in this chapter is to explore methods for collecting appropriate data to better understand potential markets. Our emphasis is managerial rather than technical. Throughout the chapter, we focus on how companies can obtain useful and accurate information that will help them make more informed strategic decisions, such as decisions related to market choice and to the marketing mix that will be discussed in later chapters. This chapter begins by examining the scope and challenges of international research. We then describe the research process, with particular emphasis on data collection. The chapter concludes with a discussion of global information systems.
