Editor’s note: Chris Van Derveer is president of Van Derveer Industrial Research, New York City.

Although makers of consumer products are familiar with international research, for many industrial products firms, it’s uncharted territory. While consultants portray researching overseas markets as a magic art, international projects don’t differ greatly from those conducted in America. To begin with, industrial market research always starts with the corporation. All industrial firms, whether they are located in Berlin, Caracas or Tokyo, adhere to essentially the same organizational format, e.g., a corporate headquarters staffed with personnel, a factory and perhaps a distribution network. Corporate managers work in generally similar offices regardless of their locale and a telephone is always by their side. Thus, conducting a telephone survey with foreign managers is about the same as it is in America with some small - but important - differences.

Which method is best?

The first debate in managing international research centers around technique. In our experience, telephone surveys have been effective regardless of where they are administered. Many research providers, in their bids, suggest in-person interviews for both the South American and Asian markets. Since business contacts in South America are much more social in nature, conventional wisdom says, the research method you use should be too. The in-person interview is viewed as more social than an impersonal telephone call. For the Asian markets, in-person interviews are often suggested because they allow the researcher to show proper respect for respondents.

While in-person interviews are a fine method of gathering data, they can be much more expensive than a telephone contact and require more time to collect data. There is no difference when it comes to calling a foreign company’s switchboard to request a specific person or a general manager’s title. Receptionists everywhere will dutifully transfer you to the proper department.

In designing a questionnaire for a foreign market, the introduction and purpose of the survey should be described more fully than in the United States. Foreign respondents are generally more inquisitive and require a higher degree of formality than do Americans. You will find that a survey that requires 15 minutes here may take up to 40 minutes in Germany because German respondents like to talk more and the language is less concise than English. This longer response time adds to the cost of the research. Whereas you can usually expect a completion rate of one per hour in the United States, for international work a completion rate of one every 90 minutes is more likely.

The art of the translation

The major stumbling block of most international research translation. Keep in mind that if you are researching five different markets/languages, the questionnaire must state exactly the same question in the same place for each of those five markets. Otherwise, you could tabulate two different sets of responses, offering nothing in the way of useful information.

The first critical step is to choose a competent supplier of translation services. Don’t try to economize on this aspect of the research. Ideally, you should provide your supplier with translations for as many of the technical terms in the survey as possible. Select a company with past experience as well as personnel who do translate as full-time work. In our experience, Berlitz is the only firm that fits this profile.

Once the questionnaires are translated, they should be faxed to your client’s managers in each of the countries where they will be administered. After review and correction, re-submit the new drafts to your translation supplier for final changes. As a third pass to verify survey accuracy, require the managers at your telephone interviewing house to again review the two previous translations.

Choosing a supplier of telephone surveys

In choosing a firm to conduct the interviews, it’s key to select one with verifiable experience in the international interviewing business. Our firm has had an excellent experience with a WATS supplier in the New York City area. This firm provides an international interviewing ability due to the diverse foreign language groups living in the area. Retaining a domestic supplier for this service has numerous advantages. The principal one is that your company can monitor how the survey is progressing. Others include: less investment of your staff time; a reduction in shipping and telephone costs; and no exposure of the contract to currency fluctuations.

For those not in the New York City area, you may have to retain a WATS facility that is centrally located in the overseas markets you’re researching. Therefore, it’s best, before choosing a supplier in an overseas country, to get a referral or go directly to the facility to interview personnel and verify business stability. Many times your domestic WATS supplier is a good source for a recommendation as they may have had to sub-contract out the overseas segment of a global research project. Your supplier should have a manager assigned to your project who can speak all of the languages that are being used. Monitoring is especially critical in international research as questions specific to each country come up frequently and must be addressed on the spot.

When developing the calling list, the easiest method is to use a list of company contacts. In this situation, you would use established random selection techniques much as you would do for a domestic project. If no list exists, you must purchase one. The international division of Dun & Bradstreet maintains lists of the major corporate sites with telephone numbers and some contact names. Again, it is important to clearly focus on the industry or industries most likely to use your product and to buy a sample large enough to permit a random selection of respondents.

More complex

While international and domestic research projects may share many similarities, they also have a number of differences. The international project is more complex due to the variety of languages employed and the cultural differences of the respondents in each region surveyed. However, no matter where they live and work, the respondents are all professionals and they will respond to a telephone query.

I hope this article has helped demystify the process of international market research and that your firm will give it strong consideration as an way to support your global marketing plan.