Market Study and Market Analysis

Reading and entering markets: how global marketers segment, target, and position;

quick-reference glossary. MASTER GUIDE TO BUS 622 WEEK 3 | COMPANION TO THE THREE WEEK 3 DELIVERABLE GUIDES

Week 3 of BUS 622 is titled “Market Study and Market Analysis,” and it is the week the course turns from describing the global environment to acting inside it. Weeks 1 and 2 built the analytical backdrop — the economic, trade, cultural, and political environments, and the information systems used to study them. Week 3 asks the operative questions that follow: once a firm understands a market, which customers should it pursue, how should it move goods across borders, and through what arrangement should it enter a foreign market at all. Three textbook chapters supply the frameworks, and three graded deliverables convert them into work you submit. The week carries two distinct registers. The two discussion forums and the textbook chapters are analytical — segmentation grids, entry-mode decisions, the export process. The third deliverable, the Personal Branding Activity Part 1 journal, turns the same marketing logic inward: it asks you to treat yourself as a brand and to build the LinkedIn profile and business card that present that brand to demanding employers. Both registers are graded, and the journal alone is worth more than the two discussions combined. Overview Table of Deliverables The table below reproduces the Week 3 deliverables exactly as the Canvas Overview page lists them. The two discussion forums weigh 3% each while the journal weighs 7% — together, the three deliverables account for 13% of the course grade.

Importing, Exporting, and Market Entry Day 3 (first post) Discussion Forum 3% Strategies Personal Branding Activity Part 1 Day 7 Journal 7%

business card, takes longer than its 7% suggests.

The Canvas Overview page lists four Weekly Learning Outcomes (WLOs). They are reproduced verbatim below, each followed by a note on what it actually requires of you and where in the week it is assessed.

Distinguish Tell the three trade activities apart and know the export process and its hazards. among Assessed in Discussion Forum 2. importing, exporting, and sourcing. Discuss Compare entry modes on control, risk, and commitment. Assessed in Discussion different Forum 2. global market-entry strategies such as licensing, investment, and strategic alliance. Examine the Apply branding logic to your own career identity. Assessed in the Personal importance Branding Activity Part 1 journal. of personal branding in the world of demanding employers. Read the four outcomes as a single arc. WLO 1 is about choosing whom to serve; WLOs 2 and 3 are about choosing how to reach a foreign market; WLO 4 reapplies the same discipline of deliberate positioning to your professional self. The course tags each discussion and the journal to specific WLOs, and graders check your work against the outcome it is tagged to — so naming the relevant concepts explicitly in each deliverable is cheap insurance.

The required text for the course is Green, M. C., & Keegan, W. J. (2020). Global Marketing (10th ed.). Pearson, available in full text through the VitalSource platform. Week 3 assigns three chapters; the Canvas Resources page describes each and ties it to a deliverable.

Importing, Exporting, and Sourcing. Payment methods used in trade Discussion Forum 2 financing; the stages a company moves through and the problems it is likely to meet as it gains experience as an exporter. Global Market-Entry Strategies: Licensing, Investment, and Discussion Forum 2 Strategic Alliances. The factors that contribute to the successful launch of a global strategic partnership. Readings for the Journal The Personal Branding Activity Part 1 journal draws on a separate set of career resources rather than the textbook. The Resources and Journal pages name two scholarly articles, a video, a UAGC career webpage, and two websites used to build the deliverable.

• Avery, J., & Greenwald, R. (2023, May/June). A new approach to building your personal brand. Harvard Business Review, 101(3), 147–151. Argues that everyone should think of themselves as a brand, whether for job applications, promotions, or relationships.
• Groysberg, B., & Lin, E. (2023, October 31). Research: Can a more detailed LinkedIn profile boost your salary? Harvard Business Review. Examines how a fuller LinkedIn profile can positively affect compensation.
• Business Insider India (2020, November 5). How to build your personal brand on LinkedIn? [Video]. YouTube.
• UAGC career resources. The “Job Resources and Career Assistance at Your Fingertips” webpage and the “Create an Effective LinkedIn Profile” checklist handout.
• Tools. Canva, for designing the business card; LinkedIn, for the profile itself.

The Journal page also directs you to a webpage article, “How to Create a Killer LinkedIn Profile That Will Get You Noticed.” Canvas does not display its author or year; confirm the exact citation from the link before citing it. The Week 3 Journal Guide treats this in detail.

Chapter 7 develops the three-step discipline known as STP — segmentation, targeting, and positioning. No firm can serve every customer in every country equally well; STP is the structured method by which a global marketer decides which customers to pursue and how to occupy a distinct place in their minds. The three steps run in sequence: segment the market into meaningful groups, target the groups worth pursuing, then position the offering for the targeted group. Step One — Global Market Segmentation Global market segmentation is the process of identifying specific segments — whether groups of countries or groups of individual consumers — that share characteristics and are likely to exhibit similar buying behavior. Chapter 7 organizes the work around four major segmentation bases:

• Demographic segmentation divides markets by measurable population characteristics: income, population size and growth, age distribution, gender, education, and occupation. It is the most common base because the data is readily available.
• Psychographic segmentation groups people by attitudes, values, lifestyles, and personality, often using research systems built on activities, interests, and opinions.
• Behavioral segmentation sorts customers by their relationship to the product — usage rate (heavy, medium, light, non-user) and user status.
• Benefit segmentation groups customers by the specific value or benefit they seek from a product, focusing on the underlying reason they buy.

Two further ideas frame these bases. Geographic segmentation divides markets by location, and the chapter notes that some segments cross national borders — the basis of the search for a true global market segment. The chapter also discusses ethnic segmentation, which groups customers by ethnic heritage, a major and growing factor in diverse markets. Step Two — Target Market Selection and the Product–Market Grid Once the market is segmented, the firm assesses each segment and chooses which to pursue. Chapter 7 names three standard target market strategies: standardized (undifferentiated) global marketing, in which one marketing mix is offered to a broad market; concentrated global marketing, in which the firm pursues one narrowly defined niche, often across countries; and differentiated global marketing, in which the firm pursues several segments, each with a tailored mix. The chapter offers criteria for judging whether a segment is worth targeting — the segment’s current size and growth potential, the intensity of competition, and the fit between the segment and the company’s own goals and resources. To organize targeting decisions across a portfolio, global marketers use a product–market grid, a matrix that maps products against country markets so management can see where to commit resources. Step Three — Positioning Positioning is the act of locating a brand in the minds of customers in the target segment, relative to competing offerings. Chapter 7 describes several positioning approaches — positioning on an attribute or benefit, on quality and price, on use or user, and against the competition. For global marketers it adds two strategies of particular reach: global consumer culture positioning, which presents the brand as a symbol of a shared global culture or segment, and foreign consumer culture positioning, which deliberately associates the brand with a specific foreign culture. The recurring tension across all three STP steps is the one introduced earlier in the course — the choice between standardization and adaptation.

Chapter 8 covers the most basic ways a firm participates in international trade. Exporting is selling goods produced in one country to buyers in another; importing is the mirror image, buying goods from abroad; and sourcing is the strategic decision about where in the world to obtain the products, components, or services the firm needs. Distinguishing these three — WLO 2 — is the chapter’s first task: exporting and importing are flows of finished trade, while sourcing is a procurement decision that may be domestic or foreign, in-house or outsourced. National Policy and the Trade Environment The chapter situates exporting inside national policy. Governments both support exports — through agencies, tax incentives, and assistance programs — and restrain imports through tariffs and nontariff barriers such as quotas and discriminatory standards. The chapter introduces the vocabulary of trade duties, including ad valorem, specific, and compound duties, and explains the role of customs authorities. The practical lesson is that an export strategy is only as sound as the policy environment it must operate within. The Organizational Stages of Exporting A central idea of Chapter 8 is that firms become exporters gradually, moving through identifiable stages of involvement. A company may begin as a non-exporter that ignores or declines export opportunities; become a partial or experimental exporter that fills unsolicited orders; then develop into an experienced exporter that actively explores and commits to foreign markets. The stage model is diagnostic: the problems a firm meets, and the support it needs, depend on which stage it occupies. The chapter is candid that exporting is hard — firms encounter difficulties with financing, documentation, logistics, and adapting the product — and that experience is what resolves them. Export Financing and Payment Methods The Canvas Resources page singles out trade financing, and Chapter 8 devotes substantial attention to the payment methods used in international trade. These are best understood as a spectrum of risk shared between buyer and seller: cash in advance favors the seller; the documentary letter of credit, in which a bank guarantees payment once shipping documents are presented, balances the two and is widely used; documentary collections (drafts) place more trust in the buyer; and open account favors the buyer and exposes the seller. Each method allocates the risk of nonpayment and non-shipment differently, and selecting the right one is a real strategic decision for an exporter. Sourcing as a Strategic Decision Finally, the chapter treats sourcing as a deliberate choice rather than a clerical one. The decision of where to source — weighing factor costs, logistics, country infrastructure and political risk, exchange rates, and the firm’s need to protect quality and intellectual property — shapes cost structure and competitiveness. Outsourcing and offshoring are the recurring options, each with strategic costs and benefits.

Chapter 9 completes the entry picture. Exporting, from Chapter 8, is the lowest-commitment way to serve a foreign market; Chapter 9 lays out the alternatives a firm considers as its commitment deepens. The chapter’s organizing logic is a trade-off: each entry mode offers a different balance of control, risk, and resource commitment. Modes that demand little investment also yield little control; modes that grant full control demand the most capital and carry the most risk. The Spectrum of Entry Modes

Entry Mode

What It Is

produced goods into the foreign market. A contract Low commitment; income with little capital; risk of creating a Licensing granting a competitor and losing control of the asset. foreign licensee the right to use intellectual property — a patent, process, or brand — for a fee or royalty. A form of Low capital, fast reach; control maintained through the franchise Franchising licensing in agreement and standards. which the franchisor licenses a whole business format — brand, methods, and standards — to a franchisee. A shared Shared cost, risk, and local knowledge; potential for partner conflict. Joint venture / arrangement strategic alliance in which two or more firms pool resources to pursue a market together. Direct Highest commitment and risk; fullest control and profit potential. Foreign direct ownership investment of operations abroad, by acquisition or by building from the ground up (greenfield). Licensing and Its Hazards The chapter treats licensing carefully because its advantages and dangers are paired. Licensing lets a firm earn income from a market with little capital and little exposure, and it can be the only practical mode where investment is restricted. Its two recurring hazards: a licensee can become a competitor once the contract ends, and the licensor surrenders day-to-day control of how its asset is used. Franchising, a specialized form of licensing, manages the control problem through a detailed agreement and enforced operating standards — the model that built much of the global presence of the restaurant companies named in the Week 3 discussions. Strategic Alliances and the Conditions for Success The Canvas Resources page highlights Chapter 9’s treatment of the factors that contribute to a successful global strategic partnership. A strategic alliance — including the joint venture — lets partners combine complementary strengths, share the cost and risk of entry, and gain local market knowledge quickly. The chapter is equally clear that alliances frequently disappoint, and it identifies what separates the successful ones: partners that contribute genuinely complementary strengths, share a strategic vision, build trust and learn from each other, and structure the venture so that neither partner’s core advantage is quietly absorbed by the other. Market-entry decisions, the chapter concludes, are rarely permanent — firms revisit and change them as commitment, experience, and conditions evolve.

Week 3 has three graded deliverables. Each has a dedicated study guide that takes its prompt apart in full; the summaries below orient you and point you to the right companion document. 7.1 Discussion Forum 1 — Segmentation Analysis for Target Marketing Tagged to WLO 1 and CLOs 1, 2, and 5, and worth 3%. After reading Chapter 7, you select one company from a fixed list — Walmart, Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks, McDonald’s, or Target — to illustrate a segmentation variable, then turn to your own Week 2 mentor company to explain the variables it used to segment its market and to analyze its targeting and positioning strategy in the region you chose in Week 2. The post runs 250 words and must reflect at least two theories or frameworks from the text with in-text citations. The first post is due Day 3; two peer replies of 100+ words each are due by Day 7. See the Week 3 Discussion 1 Study Guide. 7.2 Discussion Forum 2 — Importing, Exporting, and Market Entry Strategies Tagged to WLOs 2 and 3 and CLOs 1, 2, 3, and 4, and worth 3%. After reading Chapters 8 and 9, you again select one company from the same five and explain direct and indirect exporting and licensing and franchising, and how that company used these strategies to enter the global economy — including the prior research conducted, how well it understood its target marketing environment, the marketing-mix decisions, and the lessons learned. The post runs 250 words; the first post is due Day 3, and two peer replies of 100+ words each are due by Day 7. See the Week 3 Discussion 2 Study Guide. 7.3 Journal — Personal Branding Activity Part 1 Tagged to WLO 4 and CLO 1, worth 7%, and due Day 7 through Waypoint. Part 1 of a two-part activity (Part 2 is the Week 5 journal), it has two sections: Section A, in which you create or substantially edit your LinkedIn profile to strengthen your personal brand, and Section B, in which you design a business card in Canva carrying a QR code that links to that profile. You submit a Word or PDF document of the business card. See the Week 3 Journal Guide — Personal Branding Part 1.

BUS 622 is built to converge on a single summative deliverable: the Global Marketing Plan Part 2, submitted in Week 6. Each week before it contributes a layer. Week 1 established the economic and trade environments; Week 2 produced Global Marketing Plan Part 1 — the mentor-company environmental analysis and the country strategy — and introduced the firm’s information systems. Week 3 adds the next layer of the marketing plan’s logic: how to segment and target a market, and how to enter it. The continuity is concrete, not thematic. Discussion Forum 1 explicitly asks you to analyze the segmentation, targeting, and positioning of the same mentor company and region you selected in Week 2. The segmentation grid you build and the entry mode you reason about this week are precisely the kind of analysis the Week 6 plan will require in finished form. Treat the Week 3 discussions as rehearsal for sections of that final paper: the thinking is reusable, and doing it carefully now reduces the Week 6 workload. The Personal Branding Activity runs on a parallel track. Part 1 this week — the LinkedIn profile and business card — is completed by Part 2 in the Week 5 journal. It is the course’s applied, careerfacing thread: the same marketing discipline used on companies, turned on your own professional identity for the benefit of, in the Overview page’s phrase, “demanding employers.”

Global Marketing Plan Part 1: mentor company, environmental analysis, country strategy; Week 2 plus global information systems. Segmentation, targeting, positioning; importing/exporting/sourcing; market-entry Week 3 strategies. Personal Branding Part 1. Later elements of the global marketing mix; Personal Branding Part 2 (Week 5 journal). Weeks 4–5 Global Marketing Plan Part 2 — the summative plan that integrates the whole course. Week 6

The terms below are the Week 3 vocabulary most likely to earn or lose points in the discussions. Each is defined in one line, as Chapters 7–9 use it.

Segmenting by measurable population traits — income, age, gender, Demographic segmentation education, occupation, population size. Segmenting by attitudes, values, lifestyles, and personality. Psychographic segmentation Behavioral segmentation Segmenting by the customer’s relationship to the product — usage rate and user status. Segmenting by the specific benefit or value the customer seeks from the Benefit segmentation product. The choice among standardized, concentrated, and differentiated approaches Target market strategy to the chosen segments. A matrix mapping products against country markets to guide targeting and Product–market grid resource allocation. Locating a brand distinctively in the minds of target customers relative to Positioning competitors. Selling home-produced goods abroad / buying goods from abroad. Exporting / importing The strategic decision of where in the world to obtain products, components, Sourcing or services. The firm handles export activity itself, dealing directly with foreign buyers or Direct exporting intermediaries. The firm exports through a domestic intermediary that handles the foreign Indirect exporting sale. A bank guarantee of payment to an exporter once specified shipping Letter of credit documents are presented. Contractually granting a foreign party the right to use intellectual property Licensing for a fee or royalty. A form of licensing in which an entire business format — brand, methods, Franchising standards — is licensed. A shared arrangement pooling the resources of two or more firms to pursue a Strategic alliance / JV market together. Direct ownership of foreign operations through acquisition or greenfield Foreign direct investment investment. Deliberately managing how one’s professional identity is perceived by Personal branding employers and networks. Master guide to BUS 622 Week 3. Companion to the Week 3 Discussion 1, Discussion 2, and Journal study guides. All assignment facts — prompts, dates, points, word counts, rubric criteria, and competencies — were taken from the Canvas course shell; verify any citation details against the UAGC Library before submission.