At ASMARQ, we have a dedicated team specializing in global projects that can handle research for both international market entry in Japan and the overseas expansion of Japanese companies. Over the years since its establishment, our team has refined its capabilities based on the expertise gained from domestic projects, allowing us to now conduct various research projects in countries around the world.

In both outbound and inbound global research, it is essential to consider language, customs, and cultural differences, requiring specialized skills and expertise. In this article, our team members will share insights through interviews on how our global team adeptly handles research projects, considering various crucial factors.

Employee Introduction

Panelist

Pitchapa Booampai (Furon)

• Team: Global Research G Outbound Team
• Nationality: Thai
• Years in Japan: 8 years
• Languages Spoken: Thai, Japanese, English

Sanjay Thapa

• Team: Global Research G Outbound Team
• Nationality: Nepalese
• Years in Japan: 9 years
• Languages Spoken: Nepali, Japanese, English, Hindi

Interviewer

Aki Higashikawa

• Team: Marketing Communication Group Sales Promotion Team

Team Structure

Higashikawa: First, please tell us about the team composition of the Global Team.

Thapa: The Global Team is divided into two teams: the Inbound Team and the Outbound Team. They are each engaged in slightly different tasks. The Inbound Team handles cases where international clients want to conduct research within Japan, while the Outbound Team handles cases where domestic Japanese clients want to conduct research overseas. The Outbound Team is further subdivided into qualitative and quantitative teams.

Higashikawa: Why are there separate Inbound and Outbound Teams?

Thapa: In broad terms, it’s because the clients are located in different countries. The geographical location of the client affects the scope of our services, as it determines whether the research target is within the client’s home country or abroad. Therefore, we have specialized members to ensure that we can provide more focused and knowledgeable support based on these distinctions.

Higashikawa: I see. By the way, how many members are currently on the Global Team?

Furon: We currently have 11 members, including managers.

Higashikawa: It seems like the number of foreign members has been increasing. Could you also introduce the nationalities of the team members and the languages they can handle?

Furon: Of course. The Inbound Team currently has 4 members, with nationalities including Japan, Madagascar, China, and Italy. All of them can speak English, and in addition to that, they can communicate in their respective native languages, which are French, Chinese, and Italian. The Outbound Team has 5 members, with nationalities including Japan, Thailand, Nepal, and Taiwan. Similar to the Inbound Team, they are all proficient in English and can communicate in their native languages, including Thai, Nepali, and Chinese.

Higashikawa: What are the nationalities of the two of you who are being interviewed today?

Furon: I am from Thailand, and Thapa-san is from Nepal.

Higashikawa: It’s indeed becoming a truly multinational team. Now, could you please tell us about the support system within the Global Team?

Thapa: Certainly. In the Global Team, there are quality check points at each stage of the project. The workflow for the project roughly starts from proposal estimation, then proceeds through research design, Japanese screen creation, translation of survey forms, creation of local language screeners, data collection, data cleaning, data aggregation, and finally report generation. Each stage has specialized personnel, but there is always one project manager from the Global Team who oversees and controls the entire process.

Furon: As project managers, we support the smooth and safe progress of even complex or long-term projects. In case any issues or troubles arise, we can promptly recover and minimize the impact on cost and schedule, ensuring that the project stays on track.

Higashikawa: What happens if a project manager is on vacation?

Furon: In that case, the team member going on vacation will conduct a handover in advance, where they communicate the progress of their project and anticipate what might happen during their absence. This way, even when a project manager is out of the office, we can ensure that the project continues without any issues.

Higashikawa: That’s reassuring for clients. Earlier, you mentioned that you create a Japanese screener questionnaire before creating local language screeners in the workflow. Could you explain the reason for this?

Thapa: When designing survey screeners, we need to incorporate logic for conditions and termination criteria, among other elements. It’s less error-prone to do this in Japanese first, as dealing with multiple languages can make it harder to spot potential mistakes. Therefore, we design the screeners in Japanese, have the client review them, and once they are approved, we translate them into the local language and create the local language screeners.

Higashikawa: It seems like there’s quite a bit of effort involved even in the screener creation process.

Thapa: Yes, it’s a critical stage to prevent errors, so we take it very seriously.

Strengths of the Global Team

Higashikawa: Next, please tell us about the strengths of the Global Team.

Furon: One of the primary strengths of the Global Team is the diversity of its members, which results in a wide range of languages that we can work with. While we primarily communicate with international clients and partner companies in English, having members who can speak languages such as Chinese allows us to convey subtle nuances that may be difficult to express in Japanese or in English. Additionally, since all team members are proficient in English, we can communicate with clients from any country in the world.

Higashikawa: Are clients from English-speaking countries the majority?

Furon: Yes, we do have a significant number of requests from the United States, but we also receive a considerable number of requests from China. However, we are fortunate to receive requests from various countries, and since most clients can communicate in English, being proficient in English allows us to handle requests from almost any country.

Higashikawa: It seems like you receive requests from various countries. Do you also receive requests from developing countries?

Furon: Rather than receiving requests directly from developing countries, we often receive requests from domestic companies that want to conduct research in those countries. For example, we receive requests for research in countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, especially in Southeast Asia.

Thapa: In some countries, online surveys may not be the prevailing method. In such cases, we may employ a method where surveyors read out the questions and answer choices and input the responses on behalf of the respondents.

Higashikawa: It’s impressive that you can handle countries where data collection might be challenging. Next, could you tell us about the services that are unique to ASMARQ?

Thapa: ASMARQ doesn’t maintain its own in-house panel of overseas respondents; it relies 100% on outsourcing. However, we see this as an advantage. We collaborate with more than 20 panel partners, and for each project, we carefully design a sampling plan, considering the balance between quality and cost, before selecting and proposing the panel. We can choose the panel partner on a project-by-project basis depending on budget and schedule considerations, giving us the flexibility to use a wide range of panels. This flexibility is what makes Asmarq’s service unique.

Higashikawa: With over 20 panel partners, do you have concerns about the quality of each company?

Thapa: When entering into new contracts with partner companies, we utilize the “37 Questions” provided by ESOMAR, the world’s largest marketing research organization. This list of guiding questions is designed for marketing research professionals. Through the answers to these questions, we confirm if the partner’s services align with our requirements, and we check for any quality or security issues. Simultaneously, we review company profiles, clients, and past achievements, only entering into contracts with panel partners that meet our standards and who are reliable.

Furon: We also conduct regular screenings of panel partners based on the responsiveness of their contact persons during actual projects and the results of data collection. This ensures that we maintain consistent quality regardless of the panel chosen.

Higashikawa: It’s good to hear that panel quality is well-managed. By the way, are all the panels from foreign companies?

Thapa: Yes, all the panels are from foreign companies. Many of them are part of larger market research organizations based in the United States, with branches and panel companies in various countries. We also have collaborations with local panel companies in China when needed. You can think of it as a combination of large American panel companies and smaller local panel companies in each country.

What We Pay Attention to in International Surveys

Higashikawa: I imagine there are specific considerations for international surveys that differ from domestic surveys. Could you please share some of those considerations?

Furon: There are indeed various considerations, including questioning rules and sensitive questions. For example, when it comes to sensitive questions, in most cases, we ask for gender as an attribute, and in Japan, the only options are usually male or female. This might seem like a given in Japan, but in other countries, there are genders beyond male and female, so we always include options like “Other” or “Prefer not to say.” Additionally, even if someone answers their gender, we set it up so that they are not excluded immediately but rather marked as non-targeted at the end of the screening process, to avoid making respondents feel excluded based on their gender identity.

Higashikawa: It’s important to consider gender diversity and be inclusive. Are there any other considerations you take into account?

Thapa: Yes, we also need to be sensitive when it comes to race and religion, as these are often sensitive topics. While there are no specific questions that are off-limits, we ensure that respondents explicitly consent to questions related to these topics on the consent part of the screener. We also include options like “Prefer not to say” within the questions themselves, allowing respondents to choose not to answer. However, there are exceptions, particularly in Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia, where non-binary gender identities are not officially recognized by the country. In such cases, including questions related to LGBTQ topics can be challenging, so we confirm and adapt our approach on a country-by-country basis based on client preferences.

Higashikawa: I see, cultural and religious differences can indeed present unique challenges.

Thapa: That’s correct. Religion, in particular, varies greatly, and we need to be cautious, especially when dealing with food products. For instance, in countries where Islam is practiced, consuming pork or alcohol is prohibited. Many people may be aware of this, but it’s crucial to pay attention not only to the final product but also to the ingredients. This means that even products with traces of pork or alcohol, as well as dishes or soups made with them, should be avoided.

Higashikawa: In Japan, we rarely consider religion when conducting surveys, so this is very enlightening. Could you also explain the rules for questionnaire design that you mentioned earlier?

Furon: In the case of quantitative surveys conducted abroad, screening questions are primarily used to exclude individuals who should not proceed to the main survey. If too many screening questions are included, the dropout rate in the survey can become very high. Therefore, there is a rule that screening questions must be kept to a maximum of 10 questions. As for the main survey, there is no specific limit on the number of questions, but in international settings, the response time becomes crucial. Surveys that exceed 30 minutes tend to result in respondents providing inaccurate or incomplete answers or dropping out altogether, so we recommend keeping the main survey to around 30 to 40 questions within a timeframe of 30 minutes.

Higashikawa: I see. This is another difference in national characteristics.

Furon: Japanese people are known for being very diligent and patient, so their survey responses tend to be of high quality compared to the global average.

Higashikawa: That’s something to be proud of as Japanese people. What about the operational aspects? What do you pay attention to in terms of operations?

Thapa: In terms of operations, one thing to note is that, compared to Japanese companies, we often receive less extensive support from overseas partner companies. What may be common practice in Japan is not necessarily common overseas, so we need to be very attentive.

Therefore, when working with overseas companies, it’s essential to clearly communicate our requests and requirements in detail. We take extra care in this regard, listing our specific requests and providing clear, itemized instructions to ensure mutual understanding.

Higashikawa: It seems that closer communication with overseas companies is necessary, even more so than with Japanese partner companies.

What We Strive to Do in Response to Our Customers

Higashikawa: Next, can you share some of the efforts you make in customer relations?

Furon: Since the rules for domestic and international surveys are different, we always make sure to inform our customers of the rules for international surveys in advance to avoid any misunderstandings. As I mentioned earlier, we inform them about the limitations on the number of questions and how costs vary depending on the length of the interview. Additionally, when there are differences between the domestic and international contexts, we sometimes request desk research from our international partner companies to provide a clear picture of the current situation.

Higashikawa: Can you provide any specific examples of differences between domestic and international contexts?

Furon: Recently, we received a request to conduct a survey targeting junior high and high school students. However, the question arose about whether Japanese junior and senior high school students are the same age as their counterparts in the target country or if there is even a distinction between junior high and high school students in the target country’s education system. We researched this information in advance and discussed it with the customer to align our approach accordingly.

Higashikawa: By the way, which education system did you align with in that case?

Furon: We aligned with the Japanese education system, so we conducted the survey targeting individuals of the same age group as Japanese middle and high school students.

What We Are Trying to Do to Improve the Quality of Our Research

Higashikawa: What are the efforts you make to ensure the success of surveys?
Thapa: One of the key efforts we make is collaborating closely with our in-house fieldwork department. We receive daily reports on the progress of survey data collection, which includes the number of responses, response times, and changes in incidence rates. We consistently monitor whether we are staying within the budget provided in our estimates and ensure the quality of the data. We also make sure there are no communication errors in conveying our customers’ requests, and we continually work on improving our English language nuances to provide more information to our partner companies accurately.

Finally

Higashikawa: Finally, if you have any goals or challenges that the Global Team would like to tackle in the future, please share them with us.

Thapa: While it may be a lofty goal, we aim to expand our track record of international surveys to eventually establish overseas branches. Although online surveys have been predominant in the past, the easing of COVID restrictions is gradually bringing back offline surveys as well. In fact, the number of team members traveling abroad for qualitative surveys has been increasing. So, in the future, we want to further increase our overseas trips and make our team more dynamic.

Higashikawa: The prospect of having overseas branches sounds exciting! How about you, Furon?

Furon: We haven’t had many opportunities to showcase the Global Team like this in the past, so I would like to continue sharing information about the Global Team in order to acquire more projects. This way, not only our clients but also our internal team members who may not be familiar with the Global Team can gain a better understanding of our capabilities.

After This Conversation

ASMARQ’s Global Team is dedicated to maintaining a high level of expertise and improving the quality of their research. They work diligently to accommodate the varying conditions and diverse cultures of both domestic and international markets while paying meticulous attention to detail to meet their clients’ needs. With ambitions to potentially establish overseas branches and further expand their international survey capabilities, it’s evident that they are a team to watch in the future.