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Top1. Introduction
Multinational companies invest a lot of money and resources in emerging markets (Deng, Delios, & Peng, 2020). One estimate says that companies have invested more than $3 trillion in emerging markets since 1998 (Economist, 2014). Such investments are made because companies feel that emerging markets have a huge potential. However, companies have not received returns as expected from such investments (Sharma & Kautish, 2020). The Economist reports that the return on investment from emerging markets for the average multinational corporation has been mediocre. It also reports that some companies have even lost a lot of money when they ventured into emerging markets (Economist, 2014).
Marketing experts attribute the failures of companies in emerging markets to a number of reasons. Managers often set low expectations for their companies from the emerging markets (Venkatesan, 2013). Managers at multinationals may be satisfied with double-digit growth in revenues or being at target profitability in emerging markets (Țilică, 2021). For these reasons, managers feel that they are performing well in emerging markets. However, the returns from the emerging markets may contribute only a small portion of their overall business (Venkatesan, 2013). Companies in emerging markets are becoming competitive and multinational companies from developed markets need to build market shares in the emerging economies (Agoraki, Kouretas, & Triantopoulos, 2020).
Individuals in emerging markets have requirements which are different from those in developed markets (Wu, Ma, & Liu, 2019). Multinational companies from developed countries need to adapt their offerings for the emerging markets (Eyring, Johnson, & Nair, 2011). These adaptations are possible only when multinationals understand the underlying dynamics in emerging markets (Veronica, Shlomo, Antonio, & Victor, 2020). Multinationals will be able to gain customer insights about emerging markets if they collect relevant marketing information (Dutta & Snehvrat, 2020). Multinationals lack good marketing intelligence to understand the underlying dynamics. They require generating relevant marketing intelligence and adapting their offerings as per the requirements of the emerging markets (Atsmon, Child, Dobbs, & Narasimhan, 2012). Successful adaptation is not possible without good marketing intelligence (Senanu & Anning-Dorson, 2022).
From the above discussions, it is evident that the requirements of emerging markets are different from that of developed markets. Multinationals should analyze and understand emerging markets well. Towards that end, multinationals require collecting relevant marketing information and generating marketing intelligence. Although the topic is important, studies addressing this important issue are missing. The study aims to address this research gap.
The objective of the study is to understand the changing and specific requirements which need to be adopted to collect marketing information and to generate marketing intelligence for emerging markets. The aim of the study is also to understand the differences between collecting marketing information and generating marketing intelligence for emerging markets when compared to developed markets. The scope of the study is the developed markets and the emerging markets of Asia and Africa.
The methodology adopted is a conceptual analysis of the literature on marketing intelligence in emerging markets and the changing and specific requirements of such markets. Primary data is not collected and empirical analysis is not done.