Your SLP assignment in MKT502 is to develop an international marketing strategy for a business which you will (hypothetically) manage. That is to say, you are to assume that you will start a business and are to examine yourself, develop a business concept (for profit or not – the choice is yours) which you will provide, and develop an international marketing strategy for it in one or more international markets. You can assume that this will be a one-person business consisting of you alone, or that you will employ others.
In doing this project your fundamental goal is to demonstrate your understanding of and learning about what is being taught in the course.
Over the session you will conduct the necessary marketing analysis for your international marketing strategy and present this in your SLP. In each module you will complete a section of the marketing strategy, building on the sections previously completed in prior modules. What you are to submit in each module is as follows:
MOD01:Title page, MOD01 section (see below), References & Appendices.
MOD02:Title page, MOD01 + MOD02 sections, References & Appendices.
MOD03:Title page, MOD01 + MOD02 + MOD03 sections, References & Appendices.
MOD04:Title page, MOD01 + MOD02 + MOD03 + MOD04 sections, References & Appendices.
MOD05:Title page, MOD01 + MOD02 + MOD03 + MOD04 + MOD05 sections, References & Appendices.
Thus in Module 01 the marketing strategy paper submitted only consists of the sections indicated below. For Module 02 the paper will consist of the sections you submitted for Module 01, plus those required for Module 02. For Module 03 it will consists of the prior sections for Modules 01 and 02 plus the new section for Module 03, and so on.
We expect your learning in this course to be cumulative, and this should be reflected in the SLP. What you learn in later sections of the course will build on what has been learned earlier, as you progress through the course you should consider revising earlier sections of the SLP.
Your work will be graded when first submitted, AND THEN THE FINAL GRADE WILL BE AWARDED IN THE LIGHT OF IMPROVEMENTS MADE TO THE ENTIRE SLP AS SUBMITTED IN MODULE 5.
Thus, your professor will assign SLP grades for each module but when grading the complete SLP in MOD05, he/she will also review the preceding sections and may adjust upwards the Final Course grade to take account of improvements in the sections for MOD01-04. Note that the final section of the project allows for 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) each of the parts of your SLP is to be approximately three pages long. Thus the entire marketing strategy when completed will be about fifteen pages long, excluding title page, references and any appendices.
You should review the entire SLP by previewing the requirements of Modules 01 through 05 inclusive when you start the course. The entire SLP and a presentation providing detailed notes regarding each section are provided for you in the Background Info section. These required readings should be studied before starting the project.
1. NAME, LOCATION & NATURE.
The name of your prospective (hypothetical) international business and
its probable HQ location.
A brief description of the nature of the business.
2. MARKET ENTRY OPTIONS: INTERNATIONAL MARKETING ENVIRONMENT. Excluding any factors which are not important or which are analyzed in other sections (e.g. competition), analyze the other major Marketing Environment factors which need to be taken into account in the development of your international marketing strategy. Do this analysis as a prelu determining which particular foreign market you will enter. For this project you are to enter only ONE foreign market.
3. MARKET ENTRY: ANALYSIS OF PRIMARY COMPETITORS IN THE POTENTIAL FOREIGN MARKETS:
In a table identify the competitive situation within the various alternative foreign markets you could enter, indicate whether they aredomestic or foreign and provide a brief summary of how each competes. For example, does the competitor use low-price, reliability, reputation, high quality or some other basis for positioning itself in the market?
4. To complete sections 2 and 3 you should do MARKET RESEARCH, i.e. conduct research and gather data to get some relevant information for your business idea. Explain what you did and indicate the sources you have used.
Note that basicaly what you are doing in MOD01 is background analysis prior to making a choice as to which foreign market to enter, a decision which you will report in MOD02.
You should review all of the sections of the SLP before starting. A copy of the entire SLP, (rather unoriginally entitled “The Entire SLP”) is provided in the Background Information page of MOD01.
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 teaching materials and demonstrate your understanding of them through your application of them to the project
Your ability to conduct marketing analysis appropriate to the project. Some sections above require simple description, (e.g. name and location) while others require analysis (the rest). Graders will place more weight on analysis than description.