Chapter 12 – Assessing International Markets
Answers to Questions
1. Select a country and a product that you believe your firm can market there. Make a list of the sources
of information you will use for each screening.
Sources are found in the Global path Ahead, Chapters 12 and 14.
2. What is the basis for the order of screenings presented in the text?
3. A firm’s export manager finds, by examining the UN’s International Trade Statistics Yearbook, that the
company’s competitors are exporting. Is there a way the manager can learn to which countries the U.S.
competitors are exporting?
4. Do a country’s imports completely measure the market potential for a product? Why or why not?
A country’s imports don’t completely measure market potential for many reasons: lack of foreign
5. What are some barriers related to the political and legal forces that may eliminate a country from
further consideration?
6. Why should a firm’s management consider going on a trade mission or exhibiting in a trade fair?
The company representative will learn firsthand about the market, meet important customers face to face,
and make contacts with customers interested in representing the firm in the local market. The cost should
7. What are the two principal kinds of complications that researchers face when they collect primary data
in a foreign market? Give examples.
Cultural problems (foreign language, interviewing wrong people, receiving wrong answers from
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Chapter 12 – Assessing International Markets
8. Consider the market segment screening method. Take a lifestyle segment—say, people who like
do-it-yourself home decorating. How would the segment screening method suggest that you go about
identifying potential foreign markets?
These consumers may reside in different countries and speak different languages but they have similar
needs for the product or service. From this perspective age, income and psychographics (lifestyle) are
9. You are a consultant to the developers of the Spiderman computer game. You will tell the CEO where
the likely overseas markets are. What do you do?
The first thing one might do is look into the demographics of the countries, as the main target will be the
younger generation. In this situation we will be interested in estimating the market based on age, income
10. Assume that your academic unit (probably a college of business) wants to open a campus in a foreign
country and that the dean has asked you to prepare a list of possible countries. How would you go about
fulfilling the dean’s requirement?
The analysis will begin with studying the number of business colleges/number of business students that
Minicase:
Questions from the case:
1. Is chocolate being exported?
Yes, chocolate is exported and based on the analysis of total exports between 1998 and 2001 it
2. What are the six largest importing nations?
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Chapter 12 – Assessing International Markets
3. Which of these are growing markets?
globalEDGE
Exercise One
The Market Potential Index (MPI) is an indexing study conducted by the Michigan State
University Center for International Business Education and Research (MSU-CIBER) to compare
emerging markets on a variety of dimensions. Provide a description of the indicators used for this
index. Which of the indicators would have greater importance for a company that markets MP3
players? Considering the MPI rankings, which developing countries would you advise this
company to enter first with such a product?
Answer
http://globaledge.msu.edu
Exercise Two
You are working at a firm that operates discount department stores across the U.S. and Canada.
Top management has decided to expand to one of the following markets: France, Germany,
Japan, Mexico or the U.K. As part of the market analysis, you are asked to identify potential
competitors in each market. Locate the National Retail Federation’s Stores magazine’s ranking of
the Top 250 Global Retailers by annual sales and provide a list of the top 10 companies for the
latest year available. From this list, which companies (with a discount department store format)
have operations in each of the markets you are assessing? Which countries are these companies
from?
Answer
http://globaledge.msu.edu
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Chapter 12 – Assessing International Markets
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