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.

Also note that this Session Long Project is cumulative. What you learned in later sections of the course will build on what has been learned earlier. So you should consider revising earlier sections of the SLP as you progress through the course. Thus for SLP2 the paper will consist of the sections you submitted for SLP1, plus those required for SLP2. In addition, your professor will review the preceding sections in the each following SLP when assigning the grade for the assignment. This practice would allow you to indicate how your learning from the project has improved both through your own thinking and via the feedback provided.

Excluding your title page and the prior sections (which you are required to include) your report for this SLP is to be approximately 3-4 pages long. Use double-spaced, black Verdana or Times Roman font in 12 pt. type size. Thus the entire marketing strategy when completed will be about 12-16 pages long, excluding title page, references and any appendices. Please check the outline for international marketing plan here for the details.

Note that the letters “A, B, C and D” above are used to show the major issues you need to include in your paper, but should not be used to format your paper. Use keywords bolded in the description as headings or subheadings. What you write should be organized, succinct, and professional.

The following will be assessed in particular:

Your demonstrated understanding of the concepts used in the project. Generally formal definitions are not required as understanding can usually be demonstrated by the way you apply or interpret the concepts.
It is expected that you will select appropriate framework s for analysis from the Background materials and demonstrate your understanding of them through your application of them to the project
You should conduct marketing analysis appropriate to the project. It is also expected that you will use information from the background readings as well as any good quality sources you can find to deepen your understanding of the project. Look at different sources, especially credible and reputable ones such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, and The Economist, to find the information for your paper. Also use Trident University’s online library databases such as ProQuest and EBSCO, as well as IBISWorld to find information for your project. Your discussion on each topic should be a synthesis of the different sources. Taking shortcuts on the number and quality of your sources will result in a poor-quality marketing plan that will be of no use to your client.
The criteria used for assessment will include the breadth and depth of your discussion, the critical thinking, the appropriate written communication skills and the proper use of citations and references.

Resources:
Cherunilam, F. (2010). Chapter 5: Market selection. International Marketing: Text and Cases. Mumbai, IND: Himalaya Publishing House. ProQuest ebrary.

Cherunilam, F. (2010). Chapter 6: Market entry strategies. International Marketing: Text and Cases. Mumbai, IND: Himalaya Publishing House. ProQuest ebrary.

Gülsoy, T., Özkanli, Ö., & Lynch, R. (2013). Effective international expansion strategies of emerging countries: The strategies that helped arcelik. Management Research Review, 36(1), 4-32.

Huber, F., Lenzen, M., Meyer, F., & Weihrauch, A. (2013). Brand extensions in the platform countries of Asia – effects of fit, order of market entry and involvement. Journal of Brand Management, 20(5), 424-443.

Kim, W. C., & Hwang, P. (1992). Global strategy and multinationals’ entry mode choice. Journal of International Business Studies,23(1), 29.

Madden, N. (2003). China’s power brands eye global expansion. Advertising Age, 74(2), 12-13.

Omar, M., & Porter, M. (2011). Reducing risk in foreign market entry strategies: Standardization versus modification.Competitiveness Review, 21(4), 382-396.

Shipley, M. F., Johnson, M., Pointer, L., & Yankov, N. (2013). A fuzzy attractiveness of market entry (FAME) model for market selection decisions. The Journal of the Operational Research Society, 64(4), 597-610.

Tan, D. (2009). Foreign market entry strategies and post-entry growth: Acquisitions vs greenfield investments. Journal of International Business Studies, 40(6), 1046-1063.