Content Analysis: An Analytical Technique for International Marketing Research

Effective international marketing requires collection of large amounts of data from diverse sources and sensitive use of such information in marketing strategy. While marketing information systems help managers incorporate some kinds of data into their planning, content analysis offers a different set of insights into cultural concepts, themes and trends not usually captured by traditional data systems. Content analysis has evolved as a research technique since the 1920s, largely in social science applications. Today, aided by new analytical techniques and optical scanners, which can read huge volumes of material inexpensively; and state‐of‐the‐art computer software, which can handle languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic, content analysis has great promise for international marketing applications.