An in depth analysis of Latvia is required here, bearing in mind the product. We will discuss the Four Risk Matrix and the BERI index as possible ways of undertaking a preliminary market screening. As the BERI index includes subjective judgments, then as much as possible you need to justify your scores with supporting information in the appendices. However, the BERI index examines only global factors, and not industry-specific ones, so you might want to undertake a Porters 5 Forces analysis to look at competition in the industry. You will also need to know about individual competitors, both direct ie other whisky companies and indirect ie providers of substitute products such as wine. To look at the competitive forces you should also look at the market share of competitors.
A market attractiveness/ competitive strength analysis can be used as a fine screening tool, although you do not know much about the company, so it will not be possible to complete the competitive strength part.
The decision on market entry could be ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘not yet’. Whichever one you decide on needs to be fully justified based on your previous analysis. If your answer is ‘yes’ the next step is to decide on an entry mode. This means you have to know the advantages and disadvantages of the various methods (Hollensen provides good summaries of these), but you need to consider the product and target market again in order to choose an appropriate strategy. You also need to bear in mind that the entry mode often determines the method of distribution as well.
If your answer is ‘no’, you need to go on and suggest a possible alternative country, based on you work in part 2 and some further limited research eg four risk matrix. (This is to make up for the fact that you are not doing the entry mode part of the question). You do not need to undertake a full analysis like the one you did for Latvia.
If your answer is ‘not yet’, then we need some timescales to indicate when you do think that it would be a good idea to attempt market entry. You also need to propose an entry method (but the situation would need to be monitored of course).
If your suggestion for an entry mode is one which will involve partners you need to research who this might be and include it in your recommendations.
Generally
You are not required to discuss the implementation of the launch of the whisky, therefore do not include anything on the marketing mix.
Remember that you only have time for headlines and highlights in order to stay within the word limits, but you may use the appendices for supporting material, however these should not be used to get around the word count. The appendices should be concise and relevant, and not more than about 5 pages for part 1 and 15 pages for part 2. As the appendices are supporting documents they are not marked separately, however, they will be taken into account in the overall marking scheme as they provide the substantiation and evidence for eg your BERI scores. This does not mean you should submit superfluous material for the sake of volume – irrelevant appendices or those exceeding the page numbers above will not be taken into consideration. Please ensure that you cross reference in the text with the relevant appendices. Unfortunately, any appendices not referred to will neither be read nor taken into account. The appendices do not form part of the word limit.
Please do not go over 1000 and 2000 word limits – there is no +/-10% discretion – and extra material will neither be read nor marked. Please put your word count accurately on the front sheet.
You are expected to evaluate, from the material contained in the appendices, what the key material is that needs to be included on the slides and the speakers’ notes.
You will need a writing style for the speakers notes which is not too academic (but slides and notes must be referenced), as it isn’t an essay or report, but also not too chatty.
You may make an assumption about the type of whisky that the company produces.
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