HOW TO IDENTIFY POTENTIAL FOREIGN MARKETS FOR YOUR PRODUCTS

Selection of markets is the first stage and most important decision in international marketing. . The global market, made up of well over 200 independent nations with their own distinctive characteristics is too vast indeed. It costs lot of money and efforts to find a suitable market for a product. It would be better to focus on a few fruitful markets than to spread everywhere. Market concentration can lead to better debt collection. First the firm should establish in one market before moving on to other markets. As Dr. Bhattacharje, former Chairman STC, pointed out, “it is easier to increase business where you have a stronghold rather than increase business in new areas.” Moreover, the company resources may not permit the operation in a large number of countries. There are of course companies which operate in majority of the countries of the world. These companies have not achieved such a massive expansion overnight. It has been a gradual expansion achieved over a long period. Further, all types of business do not lend themselves for such substantial international expansion. Market selection is based on a thorough evaluation of the different markets with reference to certain well defined criteria, given the company resources and objectives. Marketing research therefore becomes necessary to obtain the data required for evaluating the markets. The top five major factors identified that may strongly influence international location decisions generally were: costs, infrastructure, labor characteristics, government, political and economic factors. Ten key sub‐factors identified were: quality of labour force, existence of modes of transportation, quality and reliability of modes of transportation, availability of labour force, quality and reliability of utilities, wage rates, motivation of workers, telecommunication systems, record of government stability and industrial relations laws.