Page 81 - DMGT546_INTERNATIONAL_TRADE_PROCEDURE_AND_DOCUMENTATION

International Trade Procedures and Documentation

Notes 3. Similarities and differences in relation to home market

4. Language and other cultural considerations.
Market Access, Limitations on Trade
1. High tariff levels, quotas

2. Documentation and import regulations
3. Local standards, practices, and other non-tariff barriers
4. Patents and trademark protection
5. Preferential treaties
6. Legal considerations for investment.

Product Potential
1. Customer needs and desires
2. Local production, imports, consumption

3. Exposure to and acceptance of product
4. Availability of linking products
5. Industry-specific key indicators of demand
6. Attitudes toward products of foreign origin
7. Competitive offerings.

Indicators of population, income levels and consumption patterns should be considered. In
addition, statistics on local production trends, along with imports and exports of the product
category, are helpful for assessing industry market potential. Often, an industry will have a few
key indicators or measures that will help them determine the industry strength and demand
within an international market. A manufacturer exporter of medical equipment, for example,
may use the number of hospital beds, the number of surgeries and public expenditures for
health care as indicators to assess the potential for its products.
Source: www.zeromillion.com

Task Prepare an export-marketing plan for an exporter like Charms & Co., illustrated in
this unit.

4.2 In-depth Market Research

Sounds heavy but is essential to uncover the macro and micro characteristics of the potential
markets abroad. One of the fundamental decisions and possibly the most critical one that faces
a company intent on making forays into the export markets is the selection of the target market(s).
It requires a careful study of the potential markets and matching their needs either with the
existing products or modified/new products. An exporter needs to undertake a great deal of
primary as well as secondary research to define and understand the nature and dynamics of the
target market(s).
A thorough analysis of the target market will include customers, suppliers, substitute products
and services as well as present and potential competitors. The future competitors may not be
those that we know and see today; the newcomers may well enter by changing the rules of the

76 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY