30 Sep This assignment will be the first of a series with similar prompts. First, choose a country within a trading block (see list posted on D2L). It can be any country you are interested
This assignment will be the first of a series with similar prompts.
- First, choose a country within a trading block (see list posted on D2L). It can be any country you are interested in, that you would like to travel to, or conduct business in. The choice of foreign country will not be graded (there are no wrong options) but try to avoid your own country, or a country in which you are near-native. On the other hand, it may help later on if you know someone from this country but this is not required.
- For this assignment, you must submit a marketing country report on your country of choice. This country report will be informed by your own research on the country itself. Keep also in mind the trade block it belongs to, because that will be useful for the Economics section.
- The structure recommended is to have separate sections for Demographics, Economic and Cultural facts. In total, it should be a short (approx. 2 single-spaced pages) bullet-point report of facts, one or two visuals are welcome if relevant.
- At the end, summarize the main points in the form of a PEST Analysis table. As a reminder, here you will list uncontrollable factors important to the success of any foreign business in that country.
The challenge of this assignment is in summarizing an entire human community and reducing it to a considerably short list of sentences, numbers and visuals. You will be graded on how comprehensive but concise your report is, how marketing-relevant and insightful your data is, and how much the report demonstrates effort put into researching and understanding the foreign culture.
Write your answers in a Word document or another text processing file and submit the file here.
| Association of SouthEast Asian Nations (ASEAN) | Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines, Myanmar |
| BRICS | Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa |
| European Free Trade Association (EFTA) | Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland |
| European Union (EU) | Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Cyprus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia |
| Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) | Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates |
| Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) | Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Paraguay, Uruguay |
| Canada-US-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) Formerly NAFTA | Canada, U.S., Mexico; |
,
Country reports build off each other. In each submission, you add information and make the assignment more complete. In some circumstances and following my feedback, you may remove information that was in your previous submission if it does not fit with the assignment.
Thus, your country report will become longer and more comprehensive with each submission. Each one of the three is still an independent assignment that is graded by its own merits.
Country reports should be:
Country report #1 2 single-spaced pages of actionable, relevant information with 1-2 visuals
✔ Country report #2 3-4 single-spaced pages of
actionable, relevant information with 2-3 visuals
✔ Country report #3 ~5 single-spaced pages of
actionable, relevant information with 4-5 visuals
✔
In addition to all the other information that you collect on the country and deem relevant, make sure that you include the following components:
Country report #1
Country report #2
Country report #3
A complete PEST table ✔ ✔ ✔ Clearly stated product to be marketed in the
country ✔ ✔ Demographics ✔ ✔
Values or consumption patterns. Relevant to the product chosen and expressed quantitatively. ✔ ✔
Traditions (rituals, beliefs), symbols or aesthetics. Relevant to the product and illustrated with visuals or explained with sufficient detail. ✔ ✔
A complete OT table based on the updated PEST analysis ✔ ✔
A detailed list of references ✔ ✔ One relevant table or figure from Passport
or About 10 quotes or findings from an interview
with a national of the chosen country. ✔
Estimation of market demand for the product chosen in the country following one of the
methods learned ✔ Proposed Country-as-segments
✔ Proposed Consumers-as-segment expressed as an
international customer persona ✔ A complete OT table based on the updated PEST
analysis ✔
Some references as a starting point for Country reports (We will go deeper during the Market Research module):
Passport Euromonitor (access through DePaul Libraries) https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/ https://data.worldbank.org/ https://www.countryreports.org/ https://www.doingbusiness.org/en/rankings https://www.transparency.org/en/ https://www.hofstede-insights.com/product/compare-countries/
