FOREIGN MARKET ENTRY MODES

Module 2 – SLP
Foreign Market Entry Modes

After you identify the product/brand you want to introduce to a foreign market, it is important to do a country analysis for your product/brand. The company needs adequate information to evaluate a foreign country’s market potential, assess the country’s environment, and identify the opportunities and threats in the foreign country so that the company can evaluate the feasibility to go into the foreign market, as well as its marketing mix for possible adaptation in the foreign country.

Many businesses have a country profile for each country in which they do business. The country profile contains information a company should know when making decisions regarding a specific foreign market. It is critical to update country profile continually by the company. The managers often refer to the country profile when making decisions involving a country such as introducing a new product, developing a new social media campaign, and other marketing decisions. SLP2 will focus on the country profile for the international marketing plan.

When identify the foreign country for your business, keep in mind the specific product or brand provided by the business, as you identified in SLP1. You need to find a foreign country that shows the best opportunity for your business to succeed in that market while the threats would be low. In this SLP, you would look at the cultural, social, political and economic aspects of the foreign country. The following guideline suggests the kinds of information you need to gather for your international marketing plan.

Section III: The Foreign Country

State the country your business would enter. Provide a brief discussion on the foreign country’s history, its geographic setting such as its location, climate and topography, demographics of its population, the geographic distribution of its population, and so on.

Section IV: Environment Analysis

Evaluate the living conditions of the people in the foreign country including the diet and nutrition, the housing, clothing such as the work clothes and traditional dresses, recreation, sports, and other leisure activities, social security and health care;
Identify the social aspects of the foreign country including official language(s) of the foreign country, dialects; the religion and other belief systems such as the influential regions and the powerful or influential cults; the music, folklores, visual arts and other performing arts; family dynamics; the education system and literacy rate;
Assess the political system of the foreign country; legal systems; social organizations such as social class, race, ethnicity, and subcultures; Business customs and practices;
Collect the economic facts of the foreign country including GDP and growth rate, personal income per capita, average family income, inflation rate, wealth distribution, natural resources, working conditions and unemployment rate, foreign currency exchange rate, foreign investments, the key industries, trade policies and restrictions, and international trade facts, technological skills of the labor force and general population;
Report the channel and media facts in the foreign country including number and size of retailers, wholesalers, methods of operation (cash/credit), import/export agents; facts of media including the types of media in the foreign country, the costs and coverage of different media and potential reach of each media.

SLP Assignment Expectations

Note that you should conduct thorough marketing research in order to identify the detailed information needed to complete this guideline. Refer to Module Background for secondary data sources you may use for your marketing research. Use proper citations and references to show the marketing research you have done for this section.