Introduction:

Marketing research plays a very important role in marketing management. With the
emergence of globalization; many companies look forward to enter into international
market. However it is necessary to conduct market survey before entering into the market
which differs from the parent country. & therefore for “International Marketing
Research” come into view. The purpose of given assignment is to study “International
Marketing Research” in details & to understand the difference between Domestic Market
Research & International Marketing Research.

International Marketing Research:

There is an argument among academicians & practitioners to challenge the very concept
of “International marketing Research”. According to some experts there is no such thing
as “International Marketing Research” because all the marketing research is essentially
national & the circumstance that a survey might be carried out in several countries does
not essentially alter its national character & therefore there is no specific skill or
experience required.

On the other hand, some experts argues that the international marketing involves
decisions concerning to priorities & the allocation of resources in several countries. & the
“International Marketing Research” aids to provide information that will serve as a basis
for decisions of this type.

Issues in International Marketing Research:

Companies have to make some decisions before going international. There are several
risks associated with these decisions & companies should be looking at some key
indicators before they invest in the process of internationalization. Following are the
issues in the international marketing research:
 • Globalization:
There is a fine line between globalization & local adaptation. Marketing achievement is
assessed in terms of achieving the right balance between integrated central marketing &
strategic thinking & a flexible & more decentralized marketing approach adapted to
national culture. Both these approaches are needed & these issues varies with industry
sector, maturity of market & the company’s culture.

• Major decisions:
Events such as acquisition, purchase of shares or adoption of media approach make the
task of marketers more complex & multidimensional.

• Complexity:
Gaining familiarity with systems, structures & cultures radically different from one’s own
is complex maneuver. Today clients expect solutions, not just answers to all problems.
Hence international researcher’s role is to help clients reduce risks by making better
decisions.

• Fragmentation:
Specialists & centralized market research departments are becoming fewer & smaller &
end users of research are more involved in purchase decisions. Today researchers plays a
different role of advising client on which research decisions to make & provide
recommendations.

• Speed & action-ability:

More time is required to implement decisions on a larger scale or wider area & therefore
information must be provided faster.
Steps in International Marketing Research:

Marketing research is very important to keep pace with the changing environment
characterized by factors such as increasing competition, fast technological development,
changing consumer attitudes, changing tastes & requirements. Following are the steps
involved in carrying out market study for the feasibility of "Electric powered cars" in
emerging markets like India.

 Definition of the problem:

It is a very first step in international marketing research which defines objective &
propose of the study clearly. It helps to give a clear direction to research & avoid
confusion. This is necessary to collect the required information, avoid gathering
irrelevant information, analyze & interpret the data in proper perspective & to make the
best use of time & other resources.

 Conducting a situation analysis:

Situation analysis is particularly carried out by outside agency to familiarize the

researcher with the company & its environment & thereby make the problem more
clearly to researcher. It also helps to define the problem more clearly & enables the
formulation of the research hypothesis.

 Conducting an informal study:

This step requires an extension of the previous step which gathers more information from
external sources such as competitors, middleman, advertising agencies, customers etc. if
the informal investigation reveals the need for a further investigation, the next step will
have to take i.e. formulating a research design.
  Formulation of the research design:

A research design is the specification of methods & procedures for acquiring the
information needed. It is the overall operational pattern of framework of the project. It
specifies:
o The type of information required
o The sources of information (Primary data & Secondary data)
o The methods or techniques of data collection

 Collection of data:
As mentioned above, the research design specifies the data requirements sources of the
data, methods of data collection, the sampling techniques & the sample size. After
specifying these things; it is necessary to prepare data collection forms like
questionnaires which is needed to be pre-test before the data collection process starts to
ensure that the questions are clear & do not cause embarrassment to the respondents.

 Processing, analysis & interpretation of the data:

The raw data have to be processed & presented in an appropriate form like tables to make
them easily amenable to analysis. Analysis should be followed by interpretation which
includes expressing the findings in more meaningful terms like percentages & drawing
useful interfaces from them. However perfect the data collection may be, they will not be
of any significant use unless they are properly analyzed & interpreted.

 Presentations of findings:
The research findings should be presented in appropriate report format. The type of
presentation to be made depends upon factors like nature of research, its purpose & use,
the person who will use them etc. The findings should be presented in a form & language
that will b easily understood by the people who will use them. Summery should be
included in the report if the report is lengthy.
Electric Power Car:

An electric car is a plug-in battery powered automobile which is propelled by electric

motors. Although electric cars often give good acceleration & have generally acceptable
top speed, the lower specific energy of production batteries available in 2010 compared
with fossil fuels means that electric cars have relatively low range between charges, &
recharging can take significant lengths of time. For shorter range commuter type
journeys, rather than long journeys, electric cars are practical forms of transportation &
can be inexpensively recharged overnight. Longer range journey options are currently
being pursued by installing battery swapping station infrastructure throughout several
pilot cities such as Tokyo.

It is not something new to the car industry as they have been around for some time. In
fact, presently, they are the leaders in future cars. It is mainly because of its limited range
that most of the BEVs that consumers can access are called NEVs, or neighborhood
electric vehicles.

Electric cars have the potential of significantly reducing city pollution by having zero tail
pipe emissions. Vehicle greenhouse gas savings depend on how the electricity is
generated. With the current U.S. energy mix, using an electric car would result in a 30%
reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Given the current energy mixes in other countries,
it has been predicted that such emissions would decrease by 40% in the UK, 19% in
China, & as little as 1% in Germany.

Electric cars are expected to have a major impact in the auto industry given advantages in
city pollution, less dependence on oil, & expected rise in gasoline prices. An important
goal for electric vehicles is overcoming the disparity between their costs of development,
production, & operation, with respect to those of equivalent internal combustion engine
vehicles (ICEVs). Another advantage of buying an electric car is that there are numerous
financial incentives such as cash rebates, tax credits, free re-charging & even free parking
in some states.
However talking in terms of drawbacks; an electric car is lacks a substantial driving range
with each battery charge at present. The range is said to lie between 50 to 100 miles while
the cars can’t reach very high speeds. The maximum speed it reaches now is about 50
mph; this is why this car is used more for local driving & to reach local destinations &
not for long distance driving.

Major Players:

Over the last 20 years there has been a major increase in the number of electric vehicles
on the roads & a significant increase in the number of electric car manufacturers around
the world. While many of these companies have relationships with traditional vehicle
manufacturers there are number of standalone operations which are making a name for
themselves in this new up-&-coming sector.

 Tesla Motors

For many people Tesla Motors is perhaps the epitome of the electric vehicle market with
a company that has literally grown from nothing to become one of the best-known
electric car manufacturers in the world. Such is the technology which Tesla incorporates
into its vehicles that for many people the performance of a Tesla electric car is
indistinguishable from that of a more traditional petrol powered vehicle.

 REVA Electric Car Company

The REVA electric car company is a joint venture between Maini Group of India & a
number of US venture capital investors. The company has introduced some of the best
selling electric vehicles in the world. The Indian automotive market is enormous but
REVA has managed to crack the worldwide electric market with the vast majority of
income reinvested to push the technology & the company further forward in an attempt to
stay ahead of competitors.
  General Motors

If there is one company in the electric car market which has attracted more controversy
than any other it has to be General Motors which hit the market earliest. Thousands of
words have been written about the General Motors EV1 & the fact that this was the first
mass market concept car to attract the attention of consumers in the US & even around
the world.

Conspiracy theories have followed the General Motors EV1 for many years with
allegations of political pressure as well as pressure from the oil companies which begun
to see electric vehicles as a potential threat to their future income. However, General
Motors has now re-entered the electric car market under a more traditional banner & has
managed to shake off the earlier controversy to become a well-known name in the
industry.

 Toyota

If there is one vehicle which seems to reflect the growing demand & growing popularity
of electric vehicles it has to be the Toyota Prius which is one of the best-selling hybrid
electric vehicles of all time. The Prius gave Toyota a significant foothold in the hybrid
vehicle market which the company has used to go from strength to strength in this
growing industry.

However, there is no doubt that the Toyota Prius, which has been updated & revamped
on a regular basis, is still the company’s most popular hybrid option & proving evermore
popular around the world. Many people see hybrid vehicles as a halfway house between
electric powered cars & traditional petrol powered cars which has in many ways made
them more acceptable to the general driving public.

 Myers Motors
Myers Motors originally began life as Corbin Motors back in January 1996 with the
introduction of the Sparrow electric vehicle to this new & up-&-coming arena. The
company has gone from strength to strength with the introduction of the MM NmG in
April 2006. There have since been major developments in the battery technology used
within the MM NmG with the company currently claiming to have doubled the cars range
to over 60 miles. It will be interesting to see how Myers Motors develops & expands in
the future after initially breaking into this very difficult & often complex marketplace.

 Detroit Electric

While many people still believe that the electric vehicle market is still a relatively new
introduction to the automotive industry, the history of the Detroit Electric company
certainly casts a very different light on this industry. The company has gone on to
announce a number of joint ventures & partnerships with well-known electric vehicle
suppliers & manufacturers around the world.

Electric Power car in Indian Market:

The reason behind the immense growth of the India Car Industry can be attributed to
the availability of car loans, affordable rates of interest, smooth repayment facilities &
the deductions offered to the customers by the retailers.

The constant changes in the existing car models with regard to design, innovation,
technology, & colors, have led to a fiercely competitive market. Now that technology &
innovation are not alien concepts for Indian car makers, Indian cars are becoming
increasingly sleek, stylish, & luxurious.

However, at the present age of depleting petroleum resources, car manufacturers have
realized the importance of using alternate fuels to power cars. Lots of R&D is being done
in this direction to come up with a technology so advanced which is both efficient &
economical. One of the many solutions that are most likely to influence the future in a big
way is the concept of electric cars. A number of automobile companies have developed
their variants of electric cars. The concept of electric cars boasts off the idea of eco-
friendly beauties across the world.

In India, he pioneer of popular electric cars has been the Reva Electric Car Company,
which is a joint venture between the Maini Group India & AEV California. With
different specifications Reva is available in three variants namely REVAi Standard,
REVAi AC & REVAi Classes between range of ` 3.31 lakhs to 5.19 lakhs.

Besides this, other companies like Tata, Mahindra, Hero motor, Mitsubishi, Renault etc
have also announced their endeavor to enter this new segment of car. Tat Indica Vista &
Tata Nano are all set to be launched in electric variants very soon. The E-Nano will come
in association with Norwegian electric car specialist Miljoebil Grenland & is expected to
be launched soon. Likewise, Japanese auto giant Mitsubishi is also working on its electric
car project with plans using lithium-ion batteries for power. The Mitsubshi e-car would
have a motor placed at the back of the car. Indian motorcycle manufacturer Hero motor is
also planning its electric car by replacing the use of conventional batteries with capacitor
for instant charging. The car is expected to be launched by 2013.

Some of their biggest minuses of these vehicles are underpowered performance, the
heavy weight of batteries, which consequently drags the performance even further, poor
driving range per charge of the batteries & inability to offer all the devices that
gasoline/diesel powered car offer since they will drain the battery & charge needs to be
saved for the main purpose of driving the car.

Other problems include less availability of spare parts & qualified mechanics, bad dealer
network, even though it is claimed maintenance free, problems with electrical kits often
occur. Very importantly these vehicles are priced too high for instance Reva is priced on
par with a well established car like Zen estilo makes it unattractive. But the manufactures
estimated that production of higher volumes of EVs will reduce the cost by 10-15%. Also
larger number of regional players makes electric vehicle less reliable since prospect of
the company itself uncertain. The industry requires consolidation & proper marketing.
Government has reduced the custom duty on three of the imported components in battery
operated vehicles (BOV) to 10%.Excise duty reduced on electric vehicles from 16% to
8% in 2004 budget. But the industry feels that the efforts are not sufficient.

Following some pleasing relief announced in the latest budget by the government, the
electric car makers are sharpening their tools to play more. This will reflect the fall in the
prices in the month to come. The Union Finance Minister reduced the customs duty- from
24% to 4%- levied on import of components for such vehicles. This move is a positive
sign in promoting green budget. Also it is exempted from the Central Vehicles
registration act by the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) & does not
require any registration or license.

Conclusion:

From the above data which I have collected from the internet; I feel that it is viable to
launch electric power car in Indian market in different manner. It has huge potentials in
the market. However, according to me it should promoted as an “eco-friendly car” rather
than promoting “electric power car” with point of view of environment protection &
alternative source for petroleum car.

In spite of its weaknesses; electric car market will expand because of they are virtually
free maintenance, with no gears, no engine, no belt or chain drive, zero emission, no
pollution, electronic start & accelerator, & mainly inflation in the prices of fossil fuels &
governments policies to promote such “eco-friendly” car.