International Marketing Indicators Available to Purchase

Action in international marketing is usually preceded by research. Most international marketing research reports are built on a skeleton of currently available international socio‐economic, demographic and social indicators. The author in this paper argues that the currently available indicators used by marketing analysts have in many cases little comparative value and are in many cases inadequate for, or irrelevant to, the requirements of marketing. He uses in illustration the needs of a specific project that had as its objective the prediction of the different levels of retail distribution in Western Europe. The limitations of available international indicators are analysed. Preferable alternatives are proposed. Some of these require original research: others the restructuring of existing data. It is also urged that it is a basic pre‐requisite that international marketing analysis be made at the level of the sub‐national region — not at national level. The formation of a specifically‐oriented Marketing Indicators Working Party is proposed.