Research Project assignment (55%)

 Overview

Your Research Project is a simulated foreign market feasibility study for an Australian company and its product (a good, service or investment) into an overseas country market.  You are allocated your subject firm and product, and you choose the country which will be your target market for evaluation.

This represents an international marketing task of the kind that you might realistically be instructed to undertake when you work for an internationalising Australian company on graduation. 

To ensure that your research task is relevant and accurate you need to match the data or information you find and analyse to the circumstances of your company, the nature of its product, and its sources of competitive advantage which it will try to replicate in this new overseas market which you’ve chosen.  To keep these criteria in your mind while you write your Research project, you will first complete a short company analysis and estimate its sources of competitive advantage: this is your Project Introduction small online submission due within Week 1/2 (This is also called Connectivity Exercise).

Your project is completed in three parts, and follows the structure of the international marketing course.  The first part (due in Week 6) focuses on the various environmental variables of your target market which influence or determine how your firm will plan its marketing; the second part (due in Week 13) requires you to assess the marketing mix options for the company, based on what you found in Part 1. The third part (due in week 14) is an individual video in which you report to your boss how you marketed the product to an overseas company.

Your assignment (part 1 & 2) is written in report format, and will rely on the primary and secondary research that you conduct, the sources of which you will show.

A summary of the content and structure of your Research Project is shown in the table below.

Purpose:

The purpose of the Research Project is to test your knowledge and application of international marketing principles applied to a real company and product for an overseas destination, and to demonstrate initiative and discrimination in your research skills.  The reasoning for this exercise is found in the textbook Ch 1 pp22 – 26 and Appendix A pp547 – 550. 

Achieving this will require you to be resourceful and creative.  In the process you’ll use a variety of secondary data sources (primary data sources as well if available and appropriate) to help you complete your assignment.

This project will enable you to gain an appreciation and understanding of the following tasks required for success in international marketing:

1.      Analyse elements of the international environment and their inter-relationships, and understand their relevance to international marketing strategies;

2.      Identify some of the complications and obstacles involved in the international marketing of a particular product;

3.      Plan international marketing mix strategies;