Discussion - Selecting Foreign Market Indicators
This discussion will help to develop your skills in selecting appropriate foreign market indicators that would be used to rank the attractiveness (potential) of foreign markets. Your ability to do this will be important during your team products, in which you will be selecting indicators for your company. Through this exercise, you will better understand what makes a good indicator, and what may be a poor choice.
Selecting foreign market indicators is a bit art, and a bit science. It takes practice. But developing this skill will help you in both international and domestic marketing challenges. In the Johansson text, this process is discussed on pages 111-114.
For the discussion, pick one of the following companies / products, and then list the top five to seven indicators you would use when researching the attractiveness of particular foreign markets:
Opus One Winery exporting expensive California wine
Whirlpool Appliances exporting expensive side-by-side refrigerators
State Farm selling auto insurance
Disney World setting up theme parks in foreign markets
As you list each indicator, explain why you picked it and what you hope to learn from that particular indicator. For example, you might choose "Per Capita Income" explaining that your product would appeal only to the wealthy so one would need to know the income level in a particular country to determine if demand will be there.
List some of the indicators you may have thought about, but did not choose and explain why.
MICROSOFT WORD, APA FORMAT, SCHOLARLY REVIEWED CITATIONS.