Organizing research on external markets. Choosing strategies on entering global market.
The external environment of an organization are those factors outside the company that affect the company's ability to function. Some external elements can be manipulated by company marketing, while others require the organization to make adjustments. Monitor the basic components of your company's external environment, and keep a close watch at all times.
Customers
Your customers are among the external elements you can attempt to influence, via marketing and strategic release of corporate information. But ultimately, your relationship with your clients is based on finding ways to influence them to purchase your products. Market research is used to determine the effectiveness of your marketing messages, and to decide what changes can be made to future marketing programs to improve sales.
Government
Government regulations in product development, packaging and shipping play a significant role in the cost of doing business and your ability to expand into new markets. If the government places new regulations on how you must package your product for shipment, that can increase your unit costs and affect your profit margins. International laws create processes that your company must follow to get your product into foreign markets.
Economy
As with the majority of the elements of your organization's external environment, your company must be efficient at monitoring the economy and learning how to react to it, rather than trying to manipulate it. Economic factors affect how you market products, how much money you can spend on business growth, and the kind of target markets you will pursue.
Competition
Your competition has a significant effect on how you do business and how you address your target market. You can choose to find markets that the competition is not active in, or you can decide to take on the competition directly in the same target market. The success and failure of your various competitors also determines a portion of your marketing planning, as well. For example, if a long-time competitor in a particular market suddenly decides to drop out due to financial losses, then you will need to adjust your planning to take advantage of the situation.
Public Opinion
Any kind of company scandal can be damaging to your organization's image. The public perception of your organization can hurt sales it's negative, or it can boost sales with positive company news. Your firm can influence public opinion by using public relations professionals to release strategic information, but it is also important to monitor public opinion to try and defuse potential issues before they begin to spread.
There are a variety of ways in which a company can enter a foreign market. No one market entry strategy works for all international markets. Direct exporting may be the most appropriate strategy in one market while in another you may need to set up a joint venture and in another you may well license your manufacturing. There will be a number of factors that will influence your choice of strategy, including, but not limited to, tariff rates, the degree of adaptation of your product required, marketing and transportation costs. While these factors may well increase your costs it is expected the increase in sales will offset these costs. The following strategies are the main entry options open to you.
Direct Exporting
Direct exporting is selling directly into the market you have chosen using in the first instance you own resources. Many companies, once they have established a sales program turn to agents and/or distributors to represent them further in that market. Agents and distributors work closely with you in representing your interests. They become the face of your company and thus it is important that your choice of agents and distributors is handled in much the same way you would hire a key staff person.
Licensing
Licensing is a relatively sophisticated arrangement where a firm transfers the rights to the use of a product or service to another firm. It is a particularly useful strategy if the purchaser of the license has a relatively large market share in the market you want to enter. Licenses can be for marketing or production. licensing).
Franchising
Franchising is a typical North American process for rapid market expansion but it is gaining traction in other parts of the world. Franchising works well for firms that have a repeatable business model (eg. food outlets) that can be easily transferred into other markets. Two caveats are required when considering using the franchise model. The first is that your business model should either be very unique or have strong brand recognition that can be utilized internationally and secondly you may be creating your future competition in your franchisee.
Partnering
Partnering is almost a necessity when entering foreign markets and in some parts of the world (e.g. Asia) it may be required. Partnering can take a variety of forms from a simple co-marketing arrangement to a sophisticated strategic alliance for manufacturing. Partnering is a particularly useful strategy in those markets where the culture, both business and social, is substantively different than your own as local partners bring local market knowledge, contacts and if chosen wisely customers.
Joint Ventures
Joint ventures are a particular form of partnership that involves the creation of a third independently managed company. It is the 1+1=3 process. Two companies agree to work together in a particular market, either geographic or product, and create a third company to undertake this. Risks and profits are normally shared equally. The best example of a joint venture is Sony/Ericsson Cell Phone.
Buying a Company
In some markets buying an existing local company may be the most appropriate entry strategy. This may be because the company has substantial market share, are a direct competitor to you or due to government regulations this is the only option for your firm to enter the market. It is certainly the most costly and determining the true value of a firm in a foreign market will require substantial due diligence. On the plus side this entry strategy will immediately provide you the status of being a local company and you will receive the benefits of local market knowledge, an established customer base and be treated by the local government as a local firm.
Piggybacking
Piggybacking is a particularly unique way of entering the international arena. If you have a particularly interesting and unique product or service that you sell to large domestic firms that are currently involved in foreign markets you may want to approach them to see if your product or service can be included in their inventory for international markets. This reduces your risk and costs because you are essentially selling domestically and the larger firm is marketing your product or service for you internationally.
Turnkey Projects
Turnkey projects are particular to companies that provide services such as environmental consulting, architecture, construction and engineering. A turnkey project is where the facility is built from the ground up and turned over to the client ready to go – turn the key and the plant is operational. This is a very good way to enter foreign markets as the client is normally a government and often the project is being financed by an international financial agency such as the World Bank so the risk of not being paid is eliminated.
Greenfield Investments
Greenfield investments require the greatest involvement in international business. A greenfield investment is where you buy the land, build the facility and operate the business on an ongoing basis in a foreign market. It is certainly the most costly and holds the highest risk but some markets may require you to undertake the cost and risk due to government regulations, transportation costs, and the ability to access technology or skilled labour.