Over-Valuing "Mine"

People consistently place a higher value on things they own, even if their "ownership" is temporary. The research is interesting, and I often saw this phenomenum used by salesmen on busses in Ecuador. A product is thrust into your hands, and after a ten-minute sales pitch, you pay or give back "your" item. It's a very effective technique.

Regret Aversion

Of course you should bet $10 to win $20 on a toss of a coin, but for many, fear of regret (I lost $10!) outweighs desire to profit (I won $20!). The applications for this facet of human nature are in how you present things. With a person who has a strong tendency towards regret aversion, you'll more likely to make a sale by suggesting what will be lost if he does't buy, than by promising great benefits.

When thinking of market research, surveys are most likely first technique that comes to ones mind. However, surveys are a quantitative research and, in order to understand customer behavior and social and cultural context in which our business will operate, we will need to perform some qualitative research as well.

Qualitative methods are most certainly a more appropriate option when in need of researching patterns and attitudes in customer behavior, understand depth of environment around customer, and understand cultural characteristics then influence a customer – especially when marketer is not familiar with country of culture.

There are certain situations where qualitative research alone can provide marketer with all insights needed to make decisions and take actions; while in some other cases quantitative research might be needed as well.

We will stop by main qualitative techniques and see how and where they can be employed in international marketing. Craig and Douglas (2000), mention three major types of qualitative data collection techniques:

- observational and quasi-observational techniques;

- projective techniques and depth interviews;

- creative group sessions (synectics).

1. Observational and quasi-observational techniques

Observational techniques involve direct observation of phenomena (in our case, consumers' behavior) in their natural settings. Observational research might be somehow less reliable than quantitative research yet it is more valid and flexible since marketer is able to change his approach whenever needed.

Disadvantages are given by limited behavioral variables and fact that such data might not be generalizable – we can observe a customer's behavior at a given moment and situation but we cannot assume all further customers will act same.

Quasi-observational techniques are reported to have increased in usage over past decades, due to large scale employ of surveillance cameras within stores. Such techniques cost less than pure observational ones since costs associated with video surveillance and taping are far lower than a researcher's wage; tape can be viewed and analyzed at a later time, at marketer's convenience. When performing videotaping of consumers' behaviors, they can be asked to give comments and insights upon their thoughts and actions while conversation itself can be recorded and be further analyzed.

Pure observation: marketer watches behavior of customers in real-life situation, either in situ or by videotaping consumers (less intrusive). Videotaping can be specifically recommended when studying patterns of different cultures, since we can easily compare behaviors taped and highlight similarities and / or differences.

Trace measures: consist in collecting and recording traces of consumers' behavior. Such traces can be fingerprints or tear of packages, empty packages, garbage cans analysis and any other ways a marketer can imagine (it's all about creativity here!). In eMarketing, trace measures come under form of recorded visits and hits – there are numerous professional applications that can help an emarketer analyze behavior of visitors on his company's website.

Archival measures: can be any type of historical records, public records, archives, libraries, collections of personal documents etc. Such data can prove to be of great use in analyzing behavioral trends and changes in time. Marketers can also identify cultural values and attitudes of a population at a given moment by studying mass media content and advertisement of timeframe questioned.

Entrapment measures: those are indirect techniques (by comparison to previously mentioned ones) and consist in asking respondent to react to a specific stimulus or situation, when actual subject of investigation is totally different. The marketer plants real stimulus among many fake ones and studies reactions. The method is quite unobtrusive and marketer can gather valuable, non-reactive facts. When respondent becomes aware of true subject under investigation (s)he might change behavior and compromise study.