Marketing approaches for international business tutoring services

Marketing

There are a number of factors that affect the location of an international business. Among them are governmental factors, market factors and environmental factors. In terms of governmental factors, these include taxation rates, rules on foreign ownership, the regulatory environment (eg. The amount of red tape) and the level of government corruption in the economy. Each of these will impact the cost structure of the country, which impacts how favourable the country is. For example, many countries have low corporate taxes in order to attract new business investment. Foreign ownership is a major issue in some countries -- from France to the UAE to China there are restrictions of foreign ownership of important industries. Countries with high levels of corruption, like Nigeria, are less attractive than nations with low levels of corruption, because the cost of bribes and baksheesh is high.

The market factors include the size of the local market; how receptive the market is to your company or product; the income level of the market; the route to market (distribution options); the amount of competition and the growth rate of the market. Environmental factors include the availability of what are known as factor inputs -- labour, raw materials, capital (i.e. how good is the banking system?). Nations with strong banking systems (such as Canada or Australia) are more favourable than nations where banks are subject to collapse or financial trouble (such as Iceland or Greece). Nations with low labour costs (China, Vietnam) are sometimes preferable for investment than nations with high labour costs (France, Germany). However, access to resources is also important, which explains why so many paper companies operate in forestry-rich places like British Columbia or Finland.

2) There are a few different ways for a company to estimate the opportunities and threats in the environment. The easiest way is by simple observation. This requires a significant amount of insight on the part of management. There are other, more systematic ways as well. One is to analyze competitors in the industry and see what opportunities they are exploiting, and what is causing them weakness. Ford can learn about the auto industry's opportunities by analyzing the actions of Toyota. Another way is to analyze other lines of your company's business. For example, Nestle can examine its baby formula business in order to gain insights into its chocolate business.

A company can also analyze ongoing trends in order to learn about the macroenvironment. A company can study trends in the macroeconomic environment, because central governments in Western countries typically publish a wide range of economic data. For example, rising interest rates can signal the end of a housing boom, a threat to construction companies. Rising GDP, however, can be a good sign to retailers. Analyzing other trends can also hint at threats and opportunities. Demographic trends, for example, can be valuable. An aging population hints at opportunities for retirement homes or golf courses, while an increase in Spanish-speakers in the United States might provide opportunity for Spanish-language newspapers where none currently exist.

3) The most important factoring shaping the Internet age is the democratization of information. Take Wikipedia as an example -- people can learn whatever they want to learn, very quickly. This results in greater access to knowledge about all subjects than ever before. The advantage is that greater knowledge means more savvy customers, but the disadvantage is that some sources are poor, so there is increased need for information literacy.