The product you chose may require further research that updates the information you currently have. Please make sure you keep that in mind. You may have to find additional data points. For the documen
IBM 4141: International Marketing
Mini research assignment through peer review (Modules 2-5)
As part of “learning by doing” commitment of this class, you will be carrying out some basic research on four countries. Three of these countries are randomly assigned to you, and the fourth is the USA. Why the USA? Even if you are unfamiliar with some of the measures, having a point of comparison helps to make sense of what you’re finding. You can compare your lived experience to that of the data points. If you are not from the USA/grew up in another country, feel free to replace it with your home country and just note that in your write-up.
This assignment will progress over three weeks (Module 2-4) of the class. Each week you will add to the knowledge you’re finding.
Please cite all your sources. Use either MLA, APA, or Chicago style. https://libguides.library.cpp.edu/citationtutorials
Suggested data sources
https://libguides.library.cpp.edu/ibm3001 The CPP library has pulled together a nice set of guides for research. I would recommend scrolling to the “other recommended resources”
CIA world factbook – gives basic information about each country
CountryWatch – country profiles give a detailed understanding about key factors such as political trends, and recent news
GlobalEDGE – A research tool that allows you to compare across a variety of indicators
https://data.worldbank.org/ The World Bank has a downloadable database of indicators – more detail than most other sources.
You may also like the DataBank, which allows you to select specific indicators: https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators
There are many other reputable data sources out there – go ahead and explore!
MODULE 2: Political and economic factors
Economic data
Out of the different pieces of economic data discussed in our readings and videos, choose FOUR. One type of data must be GDP per capita (in USD).
For each of your countries, pull the data for those indicators for 5-10 years (a longer time horizon is better).
Take your data and plot it together in four different line graphs, one for each indicator. Example (not real data):
![The product you chose may require further research that updates the information you currently have. Please make sure you keep that in mind. You may have to find additional data points. For the documen 1]()
Write 2-3 paragraphs summarizing:
Why you chose the indicators you used? What do they mean, and why are they important?
Did your countries have data points for all ten years? Take an educated guess as to why/why not.
What were the trends you plotted?
What is your response to what you found? Were you surprised at anything?
Political data
Political data is sometimes (but not always) less quantitative than economic data. I would suggest going to CountryWatch and find their political risk index. For each country, note their political risk and then do some research to try to identify why the number is what it is.
Pick another indicator, such as political stability, or freedom rankings.
You can do this in a table, like this example:
Country
Political Risk #
Second indicator
Reasons (often pulled from the news)
USA
9.5
Point one
Point two
Point three
Write 1-2 paragraphs about what you found.
How do the countries compare?
Is there anything you found that surprised you?
Did the reasons you could find in the recent news seem to support the indicator values you found? Do you agree as to the risk level for the countries?
What other questions do you have about these countries, now that you have completed some initial research?
Submitting and review
Please make sure your assignment is properly formatted and that you use paragraphs and full sentences. Save it as a document or a PDF.
Upload the assessment in Blackboard as an attachment.
Once the evaluation period begins, log back into Blackboard, and click back into the same assessment.
You will be provided two peer assignments to review. There will be criteria and points with which to grade them by. Make sure you provide your fellow students with useful feedback.
Note that I choose a random subset of submissions and feedback to check for quality of submission as well as review.
Here’s a video that might help:
How to complete a peer assessed assignment in Blackboard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv3cDy9gIp0
MODULE 3: Socio-cultural and technological factors
Socio-cultural factors
Choose four social indicators. Now that you have a little more experience with the research, go ahead and find ones that interest you. Make sure at least two are quantitative and can be plotted in a graph (similar to the economic work last week).
Describe the data you identified, and complete a short 2-3 paragraph write-up on the socio-cultural factors of the countries.
Tie these back to business – what does this make you think about starting a business in these countries?
Technological factors
Choose four tech indicators. Research them for each of your four countries.
Describe the data you identified, and complete a short 2-3 paragraph write-up on the technological factors of the countries.
Tie these back to business – what does this make you think about starting a business in these countries?
Bringing it together
Write 1-2 paragraphs about what you found.
How do the countries compare?
Is there anything you found that surprised you?
Did the reasons you could find in the recent news seem to support the indicator values you found? Do you agree as to the risk level for the countries?
What other questions do you have about these countries, now that you have completed some initial research?
Submit and review
Use the same process as last week.
MODULE 4: International strategy
Presentation
Choose one product or service from the list provided by Professor Ong. You are going to decide if there are any possible markets for this in the three countries (e.g. not the USA) you have been studying.
Review the work you have done up to now researching these countries. Are there any gaps in your research, especially given the choice of the product/service? If so, complete some additional research to bolster your case now that you are more familiar with data sources.
For example, if you chose an electronic product, checking % of the country that has access to the internet or electricity might be useful.
Develop a brief PowerPoint presentation (plan for it to be under 5 minutes) which goes over the following:
Product/service you are focusing on
PEST analyses on the three countries (one per slide)
Summary slide(s) describing which country/countries are the most attractive proposition for the product/service you chose, with reasons why. Give some brief strategy ideas as to how to market the product in that new country context. How might there need to be shifts in the marketing in order to make this work? Will you focus on a different target market than in the USA? Why?
Submit and review
Submit the PPT presentation to the group.
Use the same process as last week to review.
Note – your final assignment in Module 5 will be to polish up this presentation (given the comments from your peers and your own work and ideas), and then record yourself giving a short (4-5 minute) presentation. You will submit this and I will grade this presentation.
Use all your peer review time wisely so that you can have an excellent presentation. 7
MODULE 5: International Marketing
This week’s assignment will not be peer reviewed. Instead, you will submit it directly to Professor Ong and she will grade it.
Take the work done so far and polish any rough edges, and fill in the gaps noted by your peers. Make sure your story flows logically.
Practice giving this presentation. I want it to be confident and clear.
Record yourself giving the presentation, and submit it as an assignment. You are responsible for all technology related to presenting it, so please practice beforehand so you are not scrambling!
Newer versions of Powerpoint have ways to record your screen https://support.office.com/en-us/article/record-your-screen-in-powerpoint-0b4c3f65-534c-4cf1-9c59-402b6e9d79d0
You can host your own session and record it via Zoom https://www.cpp.edu/studentsuccess/documents/zoom/how-to-host-your-own-zoom.pdf
Screencastify is a Google Chrome add-in https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/screencastify-screen-vide/mmeijimgabbpbgpdklnllpncmdofkcpn?hl=en
