The problem isn’t that life is unfair – it’s your broken idea of fairness

Unless you’re winning, most of life will seem hideously unfair to you.

The truth is, life is just playing by different rules.

The real rules are there. They actually make sense. But they’re a bit more complicated, and a lot less comfortable, which is why most people never manage to learn them.

Let’s try.

Rule #1: Life is a competition

That business you work for? Someone’s trying to kill it. That job you like? Someone would love to replace you with a computer program. That girlfriend / boyfriend / high-paying job / Nobel Prize that you want? So does somebody else.

We’re all in competition, although we prefer not to realise it. Most achievements are only notable relative to others. You swam more miles, or can dance better, or got more Facebook Likes than the average. Well done.

It’s a painful thing to believe, of course, which is why we’re constantly assuring each other the opposite. “Just do your best”, we hear. “You’re only in competition with yourself”. The funny thing about platitudes like that is they’re designed to make you try harder anyway. If competition really didn’t matter, we’d tell struggling children to just give up.

Fortunately, we don’t live in a world where everyone has to kill each other to prosper. The blessing of modern civilisation is there’s abundant opportunities, and enough for us all to get by, even if we don’t compete directly.

But never fall for the collective delusion that there’s not a competition going on. People dress up to win partners. They interview to win jobs. If you deny that competition exists, you’re just losing. Everything in demand is on a competitive scale. And the best is only available to those who are willing to truly fight for it.

Rule #2. You’re judged by what you do, not what you think

Society judges people by what they can do for others. Can you save children from a burning house, or remove a tumour, or make a room of strangers laugh? You’ve got value right there.

That’s not how we judge ourselves though. We judge ourselves by ourthoughts.

“I’m a good person”. “I’m ambitious”. “I’m better than this.” These idle impulses may comfort us at night, but they’re not how the world sees us. They’re not even how we see other people.

Well-meaning intentions don’t matter. An internal sense of honour and love and duty count for squat. What exactly can you and have you done for the world?

Abilities are not prized by their virtue. Whatever admiration society awards us, comes from the selfish perspectives of others. A hard working janitor is less rewarded by society than a ruthless stockbroker. A cancer researcher is rewarded less than a supermodel. Why? Because those abilities are rarer and impact more people.

We like to like to think that society rewards those who do the best work. Like so:

But in reality, social reward is just a network effect. Reward comes down mostly to the number of people you impact:

Write an unpublished book, you’re nobody. Write Harry Potter and the world wants to know you. Save a life, you’re a small-town hero, but cure cancer and you’re a legend. Unfortunately, the same rule applies to all talents, even unsavoury ones: get naked for one person and you might just make them smile, get naked for fifty million people and you might just be Kim Kardashian.

You may hate this. It may make you sick. Reality doesn’t care. You’re judged by what you have the ability to do, and the volume of people you can impact. If you don’t accept this, then the judgement of the world will seem very unfair indeed.

Rule #3. Our idea of fairness is self interest

People like to invent moral authority. It’s why we have referees in sports games and judges in courtrooms: we have an innate sense of right and wrong, and we expect the world to comply. Our parents tell us this. Our teachers teach us this. Be a good boy, and have some candy.

But reality is indifferent. You studied hard, but you failed the exam. You worked hard, but you didn’t get promoted. You love her, but she won’t return your calls.

The problem isn’t that life is unfair; it’s your broken idea of fairness.

Take a proper look at that person you fancy but didn’t fancy you back. That’s a complete person. A person with years of experience being someone completely different to you. A real person who interacts with hundreds or thousands of other people every year.

Now what are the odds that among all that, you’re automatically their first pick for love-of-their-life? Because – what – you exist? Because you feel something for them? That might matter to you, but their decision is not about you.

Similarly we love to hate our bosses and parents and politicians. Their judgements are unfair. And stupid. Because they don’t agree with me! And they should! Because I am unquestionably the greatest authority on everything ever in the whole world!

It’s true there are some truly awful authority figures. But they’re not all evil, self-serving monsters trying to line their own pockets and savour your misery. Most are just trying to do their best, under different circumstances to your own.

Maybe they know things you don’t – like, say, your company will go bust if they don’t do something unpopular. Maybe they have different priorities to you – like, say, long term growth over short term happiness.

But however they make you feel, the actions of others are not some cosmic judgement on your being. They’re just a byproduct of being alive.

Why life isn’t fair

Our idea of fairness isn’t actually obtainable. It’s really just a cloak for wishful thinking.

Can you imagine how insane life would be if it actually was ‘fair’ to everyone? No-one could fancy anyone who wasn’t the love of their life, for fear of breaking a heart. Companies would only fail if everyone who worked for them was evil. Relationships would only end when both partners died simultaneously. Raindrops would only fall on bad people.

Most of us get so hung up on how we think the world should work that we can’t see how it does. But facing that reality might just be the key to unlocking your understanding of the world, and with it, all of your potential.

9 Ways to Quickly Improve Your Memory

Having memory problems? We all do at some point, fairly regularly actually. Do you often walk into a room, stop and then begin to question yourself as to why you went in there in the first place? You’re not alone. I do that far too often.

If your memory isn’t too brilliant and you feel like you forget things the majority of the time, important or otherwise, then don’t worry. There are many things that you can do to improve your memory in both the short term and the long term.

The only problem with improving your memory is that it’s pretty difficult to notice any kind of results. Never the less, some of the points I’m about to go through won’t just help with improving your memory, but many of them also are great for relieving stress and keeping your energy levels up. So here are…


1) Meditate

Photo credit: Mitchell Joyce

Researchers at the University of Washington completed a study to see whether meditating would in fact improve memory and concentration. The study involved participants going on an 8 week course that would teach them about meditation and body relaxation.


After these 8 weeks, they were then monitored along with a group that hadn’t undergone the course, performing various daily office tasks, and tested on factors such as their accuracy, speed and ability to multitask. The results of the group who had undertaken meditation clearly outweighed that of the others in terms of improved memory, stress levels and focus.

2) Listen to Music

Photo credit: Sascha Kohlmann

As it turns out, music has so many benefits on a person, and not just from the entertainment value that gives the music industry its huge value. Music has a positive effect on your blood pressure, your heart, immunity, memory, concentration and even athletic performance.

An article on eMed Expert shows exactly what the benefits are and that according to a paper written in the latest UK-based journal of Advanced Nursing, that listening to music can often reduce depression by up to 25%.

It used to be just classical music from artists like Mozart that was thought of as improving peoples’ ability to remember things, but it just so happens that listening to any type of music that gives you personal enjoyment will have the same benefits.

3) Focus on One Task at a Time

Photo credit: Ryan Ritchie

Focusing on just one task at a time will mean that you are able to give your full concentration to this task and not have to think about anything else. Which means your brain won’t be having to remember as many things at once and your thoughts will be focused on just one thing.

This makes it easier for you to remember things because you will be using all your concentration and brain power on one subject, an not splitting it between multiple tasks. Which is partially why when you multitask you become less productive as a whole, and therefore it’s always better to just focus on one thing at once.

4) Chew Gum

Photo credit: Adrien Leguay

Chewing gum has been shown to help people to stay focused on various tasks for longer, according to a study that The British Psychological Society performed. The study showed that anybody who took part in an audio task whilst chewing gum, had quicker reaction times and results that were more accurate than that of those who weren’t chewing gum.

When you chew gum, the flow of oxygen to the brain is increased, which in turn helps to keep people’s concentration levels high. Something that is very important if you wish to remember everything you’re trying to learn. So next time you’re struggling to concentrate on something you’re working on, why not give it a try?

5) Go for a Run

Photo credit: Ken Douglas

Running is healthy in almost every sense, apart from for your knees perhaps. Going for a run every now and then can improve your stamina, your muscle endurance and your state of mind, but it’s also been linked with improving memory and encouraging the development of new brain cells.

Running was taken for an example, but just exercising in general can help towards having a healthy brain and encouraging the growth of brain cells.

6) Doodle

Photo credit: Empress of Blandings

A recent article on Wise Health Geek showed that doodling can increase memory by up to 29% and it also states chewing gum, as mentioned above, improves tests scores by around 5%.

One of my best friends used to constantly doodle in our German language class back in high school. In fact, by the end of the year his German work book was completely covered in doodles and he’d been told many times to stop. But, when it all came down to it he got incredible scores in his exams compared to most of the class.

With that being said, doodling is not something that helps everyone, so there’s a good chance it may not help you out much.

7) Eat Berries

Photo credit: Maira Gall

Berries, or blueberries in particular have been linked more towards slowing down the natural rate of memory loss that comes with aging, rather than improving your memory.

Never the less it will improve your memory in the long term and essentially slow down aging. This is information that has been around for a while, but before this berries were considered as more anti-aging in terms of your skin and general health, rather than being associated with the brain.

An article was written about the study by Harvard researchers of this on CBS News a couple of years ago, by Ryan Jaslow. It gives a little more detail as to how they were able to show the effects of blueberries on a person’s brain.

8) Caffeine

Photo credit: Zach Inglis

Caffeine is often associated with improving your energy levels within the short term, or even causing fatigue if you have too much, but it’s now associated with also improving memory.

A study was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, that involved various participants being shown a series of pictures, and then being given a pill. Half of the pills were caffeine pills and the other half were placebos.

After a day had passed, the contestants were showed the pictures again, with some of them being new, and everyone was asked whether they remembered those pictures or not. Needless to say, those who took the caffeine pill performed better than those who didn’t.

9) Challenge Yourself

Photo credit: Voice of Your Soul

Lastly, challenge yourself! How can you expect your memory to improve if you are not challenging your mind at all, to make it improve.

If you are never challenging yourself then your brain has no reason to grow. But if you do, it will be forced to grow as you’re pushing it to improve to cater for your needs.

Source : Motivationgrid

How to Become Better when You Are Sick

When you're sick you can rarely go to places, see friends or go to sports games - it's no fun at all. Nobody likes to be sick, so follow these steps to get better quickly.

EditSteps

1. 1
   Eat healthy foods. Unhealthy foods can make you feel, and possibly become, even more sick, and they usually contain little nutrients, so they won't help you get better. Eat healthy foods like fruits and vegetables while you're sick, especially fruits that contain vitamin C. Honey is also especially good for sore throats and colds.
2. 
   2
   Make sure you stay warm. Get into your long pajamas or get a soft and warm blanket and curl up on the couch or in bed. Drink tea or other hot liquids and eat soup to help keep you warm and soothe your throat.
3. 
   3
   Try to blow your nose less often. Blowing your nose may be worse.
4. 
   4
   Take some medicine. Medicine can help the body when you are sick, so consider taking some medicine to help you get better. If your doctor has prescribed you any specific medication, be sure to take it.
5. 
   5
   Lie down and get some rest. You should get about 8-9 hours of rest or more when you're sick, so be sure to get a lot of sleep at night and to take a nap or two during the day, if possible.
6. 
   6
   Get some fresh clean air occasionally. Go outside and sit on your porch for a while on a nice day to get some fresh air; it can do wonders for you. Bring a book with you and read for a bit while you experience the sunshine. Make sure that if it's cold outside, try to get all bundled so you can feel warm and toasty.

EditTips

• Do not forget that it is okay to relax and try to get as much sleep as is reasonable when you are sick. It can also be helpful to try to stay in a positive frame of mind as opposed to focusing on how miserable you may feel. Dwelling on the negative too much is just going to make time pass more slowly, and you never know, maybe there is something to the idea of thinking yourself well.
• Rest in a cool place and make sure that it is not noisy. Noisy places causes headaches and such which could delay recovery.

EditWarnings

• Read the warnings on the medicine carefully.
• Never take other people's medicine. It can make you even more sick.

EditThings You'll Need

• Water
• Vitamins and Supplements (Shaklee)
• Quiet place to rest
• Ice cubes
• Healthy snacks
• Warm clothes

How to Speak in a British Accent

edits by: biuealien, Ben Rubenstein, KnowItSome, Waited (see all)

Accents that are particular to England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are each different and with practice you can begin to talk with one that sounds genuine. Along with the accents are mannerisms that you will need to assume to affect the part. The following directions may describeQueen's English or "Received Pronunciation" (RP) spoken in south England and Wales, rarely ever used in the modern-day United Kingdom, but the foreigners' stereotypical view of how the British talk. This study of RP is concerned largely with pronunciation, while study of the standard language is also concerned with matters such as correct grammar, more formal vocabulary and style.

EditPart 1 of 6: R's

1. 
   1
   Start with the Rs. Understand that in most British accents speakers don't roll their Rs (except for those from Scotland, Northumbria, Northern Ireland, and parts of Lancashire), but not all British accents are the same. For example, a Scottish accent varies greatly from an English accent. After a vowel, don't pronounce the R, but draw out the vowel and maybe add an "uh" (Here is "heeuh"). In words like "hurry", don't blend the R with the vowel. Say "huh-ree".
   • In American English, words ending with "rl" or "rel" can be pronounced using either one or two syllables, completely interchangeably. This is not the case in British English. "-rl" words like "girl", "hurl", etc, are pronounced as one syllable with silent R, while "squirrel" is "squih-rul", and "referral" is "re-fer-rul".
   • Some words are easier to say in a British accent. For example, mirror, which sounds like "mih-ra". Do not say "mirror" like "mere"; British people almost never do that. When saying some words that end in a W it is often pronounced with an "r" at the end. For example, the word "saw" can be pronounced as "saw-r", used in a sentence it is "I sawr it!"

EditPart 2 of 6: U's

1. 
   1
   Pronounce U in stupid and in duty with the ew or "you" sound. Avoid the oo as in an American accent; thus it is pronounced stewpid or commonly schewpid, notstoopid, etc. duty would be pronounced dewty or more often jooty. In the standard English accent, the A (for example, in father) is pronounced at the back of the mouth with an open throat—it sounds like "arh". This is the case in pretty much all British accents, but it's exaggerated in RP. In southern England and in RP, words such as "bath", "path", "glass", "grass" also use this vowel (barth, parth, glarss, grarss, etc.). However, in other parts of Britain "bath", "path", etc. sound like "ah".

EditPart 3 of 6: Heavy consonants

1. 
   1
   Enunciate on heavy consonant words. Pronounce that T in "duty" as T: not as the American D as doody so that duty is pronounced dewty or a softer jooty. Pronounce the suffix -ing with a strong G. This way it sounds like -ing rather than -een. But sometimes it is shortened to in as in lookin.
   • The words human being are pronounced hewman being or yooman been in certain areas, though it could be pronounced hewman bee-in.

EditPart 4 of 6: T's

1. 
   1
   Sometimes drop the Ts. With some accents, including cockney accents, Ts aren't pronounced in words where Americans use D to replace it. However, there is usually a short pause or "hiccup" in its place. So "battle" might be pronounced ba-ill but it would be a rare occasion to find someone saying "Ba-ill" catching the air behind the back of the tongue at the end of the first syllable before expelling it on pronunciation of the second syllable. This is known as the glottal stop. Americans use glottal stops, too, for words like "mittens" and "mountain". It's just that British use them more often.
   • People with Estuary English, RP, Scottish, Irish and Welsh accents do consider it lazy and rude to drop the Ts, and this feature doesn't exist, but in almost all accents it's accepted to do it in the middle of words in casual contexts and almost universal to put a glottal stop at the end of a word.

EditPart 5 of 6: Pronunciation

1. 
   1
   Observe that some words are pronounced as written. The word "herb" should be pronounced with an H sound. The word "been" is pronounced "bean", rather than "bin" or "ben". For RP, "Again" and "renaissance" are pronounced like "a gain" and "run nay sänce", with the "ai" as in "pain", not "said." The words ending in "body" are pronounced as written, like "any body", not "any buddy." But use a British short O sound.
2. 
   2
   Observe that H is not always pronounced. The "H" is pronounced in the word "herb," in contrast to American erb. However, in many British accents, the H at the beginning of a word is often omitted, such as in many Northern accents and the Cockney accent.
3. 
   3
   Say "bean," not "bin" for the word been. In an American accent, this is often pronounced bin. In an English accent, been is a common pronunciation, but "bin" is more often heard in casual speech where the word isn't particularly stressed.
4. 
   4
   Notice that two or more vowels together may prompt an extra syllable. For example, the word "road" would usually be pronounced rohd, but in Wales and with some people in Northern Ireland it might be pronounced ro.ord. Some speakers may even say "reh-uud."

EditPart 6 of 6: Listening and copying

1. 
   1
   Listen to the "music" of the language. All accents and dialects have their own musicality. Pay attention to the tones and emphasis of British speakers. Do sentences generally end on a higher note, the same, or lower? How much variation is there in tone throughout a typical sentence? There is a huge variation between regions with tonality. British speech, especially RP, usually varies much less within a sentence than American English, and the general tendency is to go down slightly towards the end of a phrase. However, Liverpool and north-east England are notable exceptions!
   • For example, instead of saying, "is he going to the STORE?" Say, "is he GOING to the store?" Have the question descending in tone as opposed to ascending in tone (going up in tone is more common in American or Australian English).
2. 
   2
   Get a British person to say well known sentences: "How now brown cow" and "The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain" and pay close attention. Rounded mouth vowels in words such as "about" in London, are usually flattened in Northern Ireland.
3. 
   3
   Immerse yourself in the British culture; this means surround yourself with individuals that speak, live, walk and talk British English. It's the surest way to learn a British accent quickly. Soon, you'll find yourself naturally able to speak with the variations above. Anything with a British speaker will work—try listening to the BBC (which provides free radio and television newscasts on the web) songs with British singers, or movies with British characters.

EditTips

• When you say "at all" pronounce it like "a tall" but with a British accent.
• RP is not called Queen's English for nothing, hear for yourself how HM Queen Elizabeth II speaks. A good thing would be to hear her at the State Opening of Parliament where she always delivers a very long speech, the perfect time to observe the way she speaks.
• Don't learn more than one accent at a time. Since Estuary English sounds very different from a "Geordie" accent, you'll get confused very easily.
• There are hundreds of different accents within the United Kingdom, so categorizing them all as a British accent is rather incorrect; wherever you go, you will find an unbelievable variety of different pronunciations.
• Be creative. Have fun with it. Take your new knowledge and explore. Test your British accent on your friends! They'll tell you if it's good or not!
• Many places have different mannerisms and word usages. Look up a British dictionary online for more British terms. Bear in mind that beyond the obvious tap/faucet, pavement/sidewalk distinctions, locals would find you at best an endearing source of amusement and at worst patronizing if you tried to adopt their local words and mannerisms yourself.
• As well as accent, watch out for slang words, such as lads or blokes for boys and men,birds or lasses (in the north of England and in Scotland) for women. Loo for the toilet, butbathroom for a room you clean yourself in.
• As with any accent, listening to and imitating a native speaker is the best and fastest way to learn. Remember that when you were young you learned a language by listening and then repeating the words while imitating the accent.
• It is easier to learn accents by listening to people. A formal British accent can be heard on BBC news, where it can frequently be heard. Formal British speech is more deliberate and articulated than American, but as with newscasters everywhere, this effect is deliberately exaggerated for TV and radio broadcast.
• If you're visiting England, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge are some of the last strongholds of the traditional RP and "Queen's English" accent. However, more and more students there now speak with accents from around Britain and the world, and the natives of the cities and surrounding areas speak with their own (often very distinctive) local accents. They'd probably be offended if you assumed they spoke with a "stereotypical British accent"; don't fall into the common trap of thinking an Oxfordshire or Cambridgeshire accent is the same as an RP accent.

Show 14 more tips

Edit

• Don't be over confident that you do a good British accent. It is rare to find an imitation that sounds genuine to the native ear.
• Don't think that you'll get it right quickly. It is likely that any true British person will know that you're faking it straight away, but it might pass for a real accent to non-Brits.
• Don't narrow your mouth too much when you say words with "A" as shark or chance. The result may sound South African.

EditThings You'll Need

• CD player, some CDs related to the British accent
• You can also refer to BBC Learning English
• Record the British accent and open windows media player and play it on slow. That will help you learn the British accent more quickly.Source : wikihow

Hướng dẫn sử dụng SPSS 20.0

HuongDanSuDungSPSS_P1

http://ngothong.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/huongdansudungspss_p1.pdf

HuongDanSuDungSPSS_P2

http://ngothong.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/huongdansudungspss_p2.pdf

Data thực hành

http://www.mediafire.com/download/l1kx8l04fmc4bk3/Data_Huong+dan.sav

Tại sao cần nghiên cứu thị trường

1. Sự cần thiết của việc nghiên cứu thị trường

Nghiên cứu thị trường là công cụ kinh doanh thiết yếu và là công việc cần làm trong một thị trường cạnh tranh, nơi có quá nhiều sản phẩm phải cạnh tranh gay gắt để dành sự chấp nhận mua và/hoặc sử dụng của khách hàng. Do đó, cang hiểu rõ về thị trường và khách hàng tiềm năng bạn càng có nhiều cơ hội thành công. Việc hiểu biết về nhóm khách hàng mục tiêu tại một địa phương và thói quen mua sắm của họ sẽ giúp bạn tìm ra biện pháp thích hợp để đưa sản phẩm của mình vào thị trường một cách thành công.

Qua nghiên cứu thị trường, bạn có thể sẽ hình thành nên ý tưởng phát triển một sản phẩm mới và lựa chọn chiến lược định vị đúng cho sản phẩm đó tại từng thị trường cụ thể. Ví dụ, qua nghiên cứu, bạn có thể phát hiện thấy hương vị của một loại thực phẩm cụ thể rất phổ biến ở thị trường này nhưng lại được coi là đặc biệt ở một thị trường trường khác và đó sẽ là thông tin marketing cần thiết nếu chiến lược kinh doanh của bạn có liên quan đến lĩnh vực đó.

Việc nghiên cứu sẽ cung cấp những chi tiết rất quan trọng hỗ trợ bạn từ việc phát hiện ra thị trường "ngách" cho đến việc hoạch định một chiến lược tiếp thị xuất khẩu có hiệu quả. Nhờ nghiên cứu, bạn không phải lãng phí tiền bạc và công sức cho những hy vọng sai lầm, đặc biệt khi bạn tiến hành xuất khẩu lần đầu. Mặt khác, cũng cần lưu ý rằng nghiên cứu thị trường không phải là điều đảm bảo chắc chắn cho sự thành công trong kinh doanh, tuy nhiên nó sẽ giúp bạn tránh được nhiều quyết định sai lầm.

Nghiên cứu thị trường có thể hỗ trợ:

• Giúp tìm ra những thị trường lớn nhất cho sản phẩm của bạn, các thị trường tăng trưởng nhanh nhất, các xu hướng và triển vọng của thị trường, các điều kiện, tập quán kinh doanh và cơ hội dành cho sản phẩm của bạn trên thị trường.


• Cho phép thu gọn tầm nhìn và nỗ lực một cách hiệu quả vào một lĩnh vực, phạm vi nhất định. Từ đó bạn có thể đặt ra các ưu tiên đối với một thị trường mục tiêu cụ thể và lên kế hoạch cho các thị trường tương lai ở mức độ dài hạn hơn.


• Giúp bạn xác định các "thủ thuật" giới thiệu sản phẩm tốt nhất. Sau một thời gian, ví dụ một năm, qua nghiên cứu bạn có thể đánh giá được các nỗ lực của mình cũng như của các đối tác thương mại để từ đó có thể tiến hành những điều chỉnh cần thiết ở từng thị trường.


• Giúp hiểu rõ về các đối thủ cạnh tranh, bao gồm cả điểm mạnh và điểm yếu, những sai lầm cũng như nguyên nhân thành công của họ.


• Có thể giúp tìm ra các ý tưởng để phát triển sản phẩm mới.


• Giúp củng cố quan hệ làm ăn nghiêm túc với đối tác do quan tâm và am hiểu về thị trường của họ.

Nghiên cứu thị trường - Cách tiếp cận "chủ động"

Nghiên cứu thị trường giúp bạn nắm được các diễn biến mới nhất trên thị trường mục tiêu, từ đó đưa ra các quyết định marketing nhanh chóng. Trong môi trường kinh doanh quốc tế biến động rất nhanh, bạn cần một cách tiếp cận chủ động như vậy và đó thực sự là lợi thế cạnh tranh của bạn.

Ngay cả trong giai đoạn dân số tăng trưởng chậm vẫn xuất hiện những xu hướng và những nhóm khách hàng mục tiêu mới, chảng hạn như số lượng người cao tuổi hoặc các hộ độc thân ngày càng đông. Cả hai nhóm này đều tìm kiếm những sản phẩm tiện dụng. Qua nghiên cứu thị trường, bạn có thể xác định được quy mô của các nhóm này cũng như sự khác biệt của mỗi nhóm ở các quốc gia khác nhau và có thể dự đoán những mối quan tâm của họ để đáp ứng.

Cách tiếp cận "chủ động" sẽ dẫn đến thành công qua việc nhanh chóng đáp ứng và giới thiệu sản phẩm được thiết kế phù hợp về kích cỡ, kiểu dáng…cho từng khách hàng nói trên.

Nghiên cứu thị trường-nội dung không thể thiếu trong chiến lược marketing xuất khẩu 

Nghiên cứu thị trường không đơn thuần chỉ là việc sưu tập các dữ liệu và con số thống kê. Mọi dữ liệu thu thập cần được phân tích và chuyển hoá thành các thông tin liên quan. Những thông tin này là cơ sở cho việc hình thành chiến lược và công cụ marketing của bạn.

Giống như quá trình lập kế hoạch, nghiên cứu thị trường cũng mang tính tuần hoàn theo chu kỳ. Đầu tiên, khi xem xét lại các dữ liệu ban đầu, bạn thấy nổi lên một số vấn đề cần nghiên cứu thêm. Bạn tiến hành nghiên cứu, sau đó bổ sung những thông tin mới vào hệ thống thông tin của mình. Do vậy, nghiên cứu thị trường không đứng riêng rẽ mà là một phần không thể tách rời trong chiến lược marketing xuất khẩu của bạn. Đó là một quá trình liên tục.

Nghiên cứu thị trường đòi hỏi sự cam kết mạnh mẽ

Nghiên cứu thị trường đòi hỏi phải có sự đầu tư về thời gian và tiền bạc. Nhiều công ty hiện vẫn thực hiện hoạt động xuất khẩu theo phương thức "tự trang trải", nghĩa là, bắt đầu xuất khẩu sau đó sử dụng lợi nhuận thu được từ việc bán sản phẩm trên thị trường này để tiến hành đầu tư lại. Điều này không thể áp dụng đối với nghiên cứu thị trường. Ở đây, bạn cần phải đầu tư một khoản tiền để nghiên cứu thị trường trước khi giới thiệu sản phẩm và điều đó sẽ giúp bạn tránh phải trả giá đắt cho những sai lầm trên thị trường mục tiêu sau này.

2. Định nghĩa nghiên cứu thị trường

Nghiên cứu thị trường bao gồm tất cả các phương pháp nhằm đánh giá xem những thị trường ngoài nước nào mang nhiều tiềm năng nhất cho các sản phẩm của doanh nghiệp.

Có thể định nghĩa đơn giản về nghiên cứu thị trường như sau:

"Nghiên cứu thị trường là sự thu thập và phân tích các dữ liệu về thị trường con người, các hạn chế, kênh phân phối và đối tượng tham gia nhằm hỗ trợ tốt hơn cho các quyết định marketing xuất khẩu".

Có một số lầm tưởng sau đây khiến các doanh nghiệp quay lưng lại với công tác nghiên cứu thị trường:

Thứ nhất: "Nghiên cứu là việc của đội ngũ trí thức và hàn lâm"

Có sự hiểu lầm này là một phần do một số nhà nghiên cứu đã sử dụng những khái niệm và thuật ngữ phức tạp chuyên nghành. Tuy nhiên, những người làm nghiên cứu giỏi đều ý thức rõ rằng mọi người đều có thể dễ dàng thiết kế và thực hiện nghiên cứu thị trường.

Thứ hai: "Phía đối tác sẽ tiến hành mọi nghiên cứu cần thiết"

Một số nhà xuất khẩu tin rằng họ đã có đủ thông tin qua đối tác thương mạicủa mình hoặc trông chờ phía đối tác tiến hành nghiên cứu trước. Ngoài ra, một số nhà xuất khẩu coi thông tin thị trường là một sản phẩm phụ của hệ thống kế toán. Nhưng vấn đề là các đối tác thương mại thường thiếu sự đánh giá khái quát, khách quan về thị trường và sự phát triển kênh phân phối trên đất nước của họ.

Thứ ba: "Nghiên cứu thị trường quá tốn kém"

Nghiên cứu thị trường không nhất thiết là phải tiến hành khảo sát, phỏng vấn thật nhiều người và thực hiện các phân tích phức tạp trên máy tính vốn rất tốn kém, nhất là khi thâm nhập vào các nước EU khác nhau, mà có thể sử dụng nhiều kỹ thuận ít tốn kém (ví dụ như kỹ thuật nghiên cứu tại văn phòng hoặc tìm kiếm trên mạng internet).

Thứ tư: "Sợ mất khả năng kiểm soát khi thông tin quá nhiều"

Một số nhà xuất khẩu đã quá bận rộn và e ngại không theo dõi được vấn đề khi phải xem xét toàn bộ thông tin và làm việc với các chuyên gia nghiên cứu. Tuy nhiên, hầu hết các nghiên cứu được thảo luận trong cuốn sách này yêu cầu một tố chất bình thường và một sự cam kết về thời gian.

Nguồn nghiencuuthitruong.net