Write a report on your selected country and answer the following question.

Determine if a reasonable opportunity exists in the foreign market;

Determine the general level of risk in that market and whether that risk is acceptable given the potential opportunity;

Select your recommended strategy for Mode of Entry if the answers to “A” and “B” above is ‘yes’ and your company gives the ‘Green Light’;

Selecta recommended strategy for Positioning the Product in the foreign market taking into consideration “B” and “C” above.

Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model plus One does not require an actual assessment, at least not numerically. It is more a list of definitions and criteria for you to consider. This assessment maps mostly to the ‘Competition’ criteria of the Framework for Country Market model. It does touch on ‘Ease of Doing Business’ as well, but in a small way.

Once you have completed the Framework for Country Risk and Porter’s Five Forces Model, then complete the Framework for Country Market.

Try your best to score each area based on research and having kept up on current events in that country. Understand that assessments are somewhat subjective based on one’s knowledge and experience, as well as culture. But you should be able to defend your selections in some reasonable way.

Mode of Entry and Product Positioning Strategies

Understand that ‘Strategic Alliance’ is not really an Entry Strategy; it stands alone and can be used with either general mode of entry. Understand too that you need to sufficiently develop the strategy in your mind; i.e. it must be sufficiently detailed in how that strategy might be implemented if done today:

1. What does it mean to partner with another company?

a. What type of company might be suitable? (Not always in the same industry but maybe a compatible one.)

b. Partner how, in what way?

2. What form of JV would be ideal for us?

a. What is most important for us in a JV? What would might we offer? What do we get in return?

3. If an acquisition, horizontal or vertical? Upstream or downstream?

You must also envision IF and HOW this strategy may change, say 10 years outinto the future. And why this might be needed or just merely a good thing?

b) Product Positioning (General Marketing) Strategy

1. Markets are usually quite competitive, though some are more than others. Here we are concerned with how to position our product for sale in the foreign market – positioning it in the consumer’s mind. This strategy can be radically different from that used in the home market.

For example, Budweiser Beer is seen as a premium beer in several markets, including China. Similarly, General Motors’ Buick brand is seen as a luxury line in China while still being seen as middle-to-slightly upscale in the U.S.

For this strategy you will be using Michael Porter’s Generic Strategy Model.

Be sufficiently specific and detailed, being able to explain why you feel this is the necessary way to go as well as how might the competition respond.

2. How might we execute the Product Positioning Strategy? What would it involve? Be careful here as it is influenced, in part, by your chosen Mode of Entry Strategy.

What we are concerned here with are really The 5 Ps of Marketing. Keep in mind that how things are done in the U.S. may not / probably aren’t the same in a foreign country. The French, as a country and a culture, seem to abhor the cultural pollution that is Disney Paris. Then there are the influences of government regulations, such as food / drug labeling laws, as was as cultural practices of roles between genders and between generations.