The project is an individual assignment, which encompasses a marketing proposal for a new, or an existing
product or service, to be marketed in a new country. The international marketing term project is designed to
provide the students with experience in analyzing a country’s cultural and economic environment and experience
in developing a marketing program for a specific product. The assignment consists of two parts: Part I is a
cultural analysis of a country; Part II is a complete marketing plan for the product in the selected country. Please
consult: “The Country Notebook—A Guide for Developing a Marketing Plan”, (Cateora Book, Part VI,
text, p. 651) for a more detailed discussion of each of the parts of this project.
Your International Marketing Term Project should not exceed 15 pages of text (double-spaced, 1” margins, 12-
point Times New Roman font). You may add as many exhibits in an Appendix as you like. All exhibits must be
referred to in your text.
The learning objectives for the international marketing term project are as follows:
o To familiarize the student with the cultural environment of a country as the subject of the project and to
facilitate cross-cultural understanding.
o To provide the students with the opportunity to prepare a marketing plan for a product which is being
considered for marketing in a country they have selected.
o Understanding the environment as an essential step preceding the preparation of a marketing plan.
o To effectively reinforce key concepts covered in this and other courses.
o To stimulate students to expand their learning horizons through the identification of materials required to
complete the project.
Guideline for Cultural Analysis—Part I
It is suggested that the students select a country in which they have some specific interest. While industrial products
currently account for more than 50 percent of international trade, and their importance is appropriately stressed in
class, the focus of this project is exclusively on consumer products.
Students have a lot of latitude in selecting the country that will serve as the focus of the project. Students typically
select countries ranging from the most economically developed to the most recent developing nations. Therefore, it is
advisable to have two products the students can select from for detailed marketing consideration. One product should
be consistent with the needs of large numbers of consumers in developing nations while the second product should beof interest to consumers in industrialized countries. Meeting this requirement does not preclude either product from
consideration for marketing in industrialized or developing nations.
Two additional factors should be considered. First, the product should have obvious cultural overtones to provide a
strong cultural impact to the project. Second, the product should be one that students know something about. Products
meeting these criteria, and which have been used successfully in the past include: baby food, disposable diapers,
powdered milk, contraceptive pills, high-protein diet supplements, prepared foods such as dry soups, portable washing
machines, soft drink mix, children’s toys, instant noodles, franchise outlets and early pregnancy tests.
While students frequently encounter difficulties in obtaining cultural information, the problems almost always can be
overcome in a satisfactory manner. The information suggested in the outline provided in (Cateora, p.651) of the text
deals with some of the key aspects of the culture and is relevant to the latter part of the project involving the
development of the marketing plan. Throughout the culture paper, the students are encouraged to report the facts
which they have identified and to analyze the facts in terms of likely marketing implications of such information.
While completion of this part of the project does not constitute a complete job of acculturation, it does reinforce in the
minds of the students the necessity of understanding the culture of the country in which they will be marketing
products and the difficulty associated with attaining this understanding.
Guideline for a Preliminary Marketing Plan—Part II
After the students have completed the cultural analysis part, the emphasis of the project shifts to the second learning
objective, that of preparing a marketing feasibility study or marketing plan for a specific product. Specific
requirements for this part of the paper are found in the Appendix of the text (refer to Cateora book, starting from page
651)
Since the sources of information available to students are primarily secondary, it is typically necessary to modify the
requirements of the situation analysis for students to try to identify such information about a foreign market.
Two strategies are used to make this objective more attainable. The first is to select a product, which is basically a new
product. In this way, that part of the situation analysis, which deals with the industry and competition, is simplified. If
a new or relatively new product is selected, then the students are asked to do an analysis of its innovativeness. This
includes an analysis of the product in terms of the five characteristics which influence the rate of diffusion. This
represents a trade-off with one type of analysis being substituted for another. However, given the information
problems associated with identifying the needed information for the typical situation analysis, this is a reasonable
departure.
The second strategy focuses on those pieces of information in the typical situation analysis, which are still required. In
developing a marketing plan for a product in an international market, it is necessary to have the necessary information
or assume about what the information would be in order to complete the situation analysis. Thus, some of the critical
elements of the situation analysis are still included.
The structure of the project is such that the students are asked to prepare an analysis of the feasibility of marketing a
product in the country they have selected.
