Australia Education Exports A Record High And Research Methods For International Marketing

Bottom up forecasting

Discuss About The Australia Education Exports A Record High?

Research methods are used extensively by every organization. They can be used to forecast demand, decide on selling price and hence gain an estimate on the profits of the business. Various research methods are beneficial in different situations. This report throws light on seven different methods of conducting research and examples have been taken to elaborate the same. Examples are from the export industry of Tasmania in order to gain an insight on international marketing.

This method is in contrast with top down research approach. As the name suggests, this method calculates the expected revenue of different products in different product lines in order to calculate the sales forecast of the entire firm. In case of exporting Tasmanian products, bottom up forecasting would include computing revenue that can be generated from various products that can be exported by different firms and thence calculating total revenue earned by Tasmania exports.

This method can be applied to Tasmanian export of seafood in china. 24.6% of total exports from Tasmania have been to China (ABC news, 2016). Seafood is a very large product line and using bottom up forecasting will make it easy to get an idea of overall demand. For example, Rock lobster is the highest in demand seafood item in china followed by Salmon and oysters. Calculating individual demands for these products will lead to an understanding of overall demand from China. 

Delphi method of forecasting can help gain an insight on the demand of Tasmania products in the international markets. This technique involves sending questionnaires to a panel and receiving answers anonymously. The panel selected usually consists of experts on the matter. Several rounds of questions are sent out and the results of them help understand what the group thinks. Delphi technique can particularly help in establishing which product has a buying market and in which international country.

For Example USA consumes a very high quantity of beer but at the same time, they require to import over 13% of the beer that they consumer. The US beer is a $107.6 billion market (Brewer Association, 2016). In this scenario Delphi technique can be used to gain an insight of how much demand can be filled by Tasmania beer. Questionnaires can be sent to beer sellers in US and get an idea on the kinds of beer consumed by US citizens. If there is a supply gap, this research can help fill it.

Delphi technique

A model is an abstract representation of a real world object or solution. Since it is an abstract, it is less complex than the actual situation. Models can be used to demonstrate the procedure of exporting Tasmanian products to a different country. List of manufacturers and suppliers in Tasmania and list of buyers, dealers and brokers in the importing country can be modelled and relationships between these can be shown with the help of flowcharts. The model will depict other relationships like government officers, PR agencies, customs agents and transportation companies. This will help in providing the blueprint of the entire procedure from procuring to selling products in international market.

Model building technique is extremely effective in selling new products to a country or selling existing products to a new country. Tasmania is in talks with China to begin the exports of blueberries. The proposal is on the verge of being finalized (The advocate, 2017). This is when a model building technique will help Tasmania understand the demand in China, Contact suppliers, government agencies, marketing teams and other brokers. In order to understand the relationship between them, model building can be used.

Projective technique is a tool for undergoing a qualitative market research which predominantly helps in establishing the emotions, feelings and thoughts that the consumers have about a particular brand. This assists in understanding the clear positioning of the brand in the minds of the consumers.

One example of performing a projective technique is to do an association test. In this test, the subject is given a word or clue and is asked to state the first thing that comes to the mind of the consumer. This helps in understanding the thought process of the subject better and will eventually assist the brand in gaining a deeper insight of the consumer thought.

Another example of this technique is to complete pictures of sentences wherein the subject is provided with an incomplete picture or sentence and is asked to complete the same. This is done to understand consumer needs and thinking ability.

This technique can be effectively used in tourism exports. Tasmania is slowly gaining ground. In fact the exports from international tourism have risen by 4% in 2015 (UN WTO, 2016). There are lot of tourists who visit Tasmania every year (Discover Tasmania, 2017). Researchers can organize games where the subjects would be asked to name their favourite tourist spot, where did they see the Tasmania tourism advertisement. Those tourists can be invited to participate in these games which would help in firstly engaging tourists and getting first-hand feedback from them. This way, the country can work towards marketing tourist spots that are most in demand and work to improve the ones that are not.

Model Building

Scenario planning is a strategy used by various firms in order to predict their future performance. Since various macro-environmental factors that the firm may have to face are unknown, organizations prepare themselves by doing a scenario planning for various unexpected situations that may occur. This strategy will help get an idea about how the demand for Tasmania products will change if the importing country is faced with inflation, recession, low growth, low consumption and/or change in interest rates. This will assist in preparing for such unforeseen circumstances in advance and will help avoid losses.

Australian education exports is a $21.8bn dollar industry (University of Australia, 2017). Scenario planning will help Tasmanian universities gain insight about how many students are applying and for which course. This method will consider the status of importing universities and their curriculum. For example, if Management graduate students are increasing in India, then it is safe to expect that post graduate applications in Tasmania will rise from Indian students. This scenario planning will help universities with the number and quality of applicants and hence they can prepare themselves for the same.

Surveys of intentions give the most realistic results to expected demands of the consumer in the near future. These surveys are done to analyse which product the consumer is expected to buy, in how much time and in what quantity. However, this is a tedious task and not much advised for firms exporting in international waters as it becomes very difficult to contact final consumers. On the other hand, what an organization can do is take an expected sales forecast from various dealers in the country and export products according to that analysis.

This method is used when the market is niche and it is easy to contact consumers. Australian service industry is on an increasing trend. Service exports are growing at a pace of 9.4% annually (Australian trade and investment commission, 2016). Education and tourism are major service exports. But financial services exports are gaining ground. Since the final consumers are large firms, it is easy to do a survey of intentions where information can be gathered about how many and exactly what services are required in the upcoming year.

This is exactly opposite to bottom up approach. In this technique, firstly the entire market is taken into consideration and then segmented as per the needs and demands of the consumers. Based on this segmentation, target market is defined and then by researching in that particular market, the demand of the product is forecasted. This will help to comprehend how many goods from Tasmania need to be exported and in turn what would be the costs incurred by the firm.

Projective technique

Top down approach can be used in order to research the market for precious and semi-precious items. The reason why we use top down approach is because their selling price and their market is dependent on the supply rather than the demand. Semiprecious ores exported from Tasmania every year are based on their availability. Once data has been collected on available resources overall, they can be distributed to different countries and to different dealers efficiently in a top down approach.

There are various research tools available in the market. Many organizations also build their own tools in order to conduct their research. Two of the recently used tools are explained below.

This is an online survey software designed specifically to design, circulate and analyse questionnaires. This is effective when we need to collect data from individuals or firms. This software will make a questionnaire as per the needs, circulate to a target audience as specific by the user and later analyse the answers filled by them and provide recommendations.

This is qualitative research tool which brings experts on a single online platform and allows discussion amongst them. The host can put forward a question and invite panellists. Every participant can write 300 words per day and share images or other links on the same platform.

Conclusion

Tasmanian companies have shown their export readiness in the recent years and they are hence able to gain support from the Tasmanian government in order to reduce time, cost and risks associated with exporting (Tasmanian government, 2017). Whenever any country is exporting, research methodology becomes very important as they help gain an insight on what the future might hold and help be prepared for the same. Different research methodologies come handy in different situations and must be used accordingly. Efficient use of these research tools can help exporters gain profitability in their top line.

References

ABC News, (2016), ‘Tasmanian seafood suppliers’, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-08/tasmanian-seafood-suppliers-celebrate-export-value-jump/7075948?pfmredir=sm, viewed on 19 September, 2017.

Australian trade and investment, (2016), ‘Australia’s services exports by trade’, https://www.austrade.gov.au/news/economic-analysis/australias-services-exports-by-state, viewed on 19 September, 2017.

Australian University, (2017), ‘Australia’s education exports at a record high’, https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/Media-and-Events/media-releases/Australia-s-education-exports-at-record-high#.WcDf88gjHIU, viewed on 19 September, 2017.

Brewer Association, (2016), ‘National beer sales and production data’, https://www.brewersassociation.org/statistics/national-beer-sales-production-data/, viewed on 19 September, 2017.

Discover Tasmania, (2017), ‘About Tasmania’, https://www.discovertasmania.com.au/about, viewed on 19 September, 2017.

Tasmanian Government, (2017), ‘Exporting your product’, https://www.business.tas.gov.au/growing-and-improving-your-business/exporting-your-product, viewed on 19 September, 2017.

The advocate, (2017), ‘Tasmanian blueberry exports back on agenda’, https://www.theadvocate.com.au/story/4924189/keay-takes-blueberry-export-campaign-to-federal-parliament/, viewed on 19 September, 2017.

UN WTO, (2016), ‘Exports from international tourism rise 4% in 2015’, https://media.unwto.org/press-release/2016-05-03/exports-international-tourism-rise-4-2015, viewed on 19 September, 2017.