Gene Borstel has the following suggestions for any company looking at international markets:
Have the capacity to serve domestic customers and be committed to overseas expansion. Often, a company pursues the international market when its capacity exceeds the domestic demand only to leave the internatinal business dangling when domestic demand rises.
Be prepared for challenges.
Shipping a product on time to a customer in Des Moines will seem easy after you've shipped the same product to Bombay, India.
Don't jump into to many markets.
Borstel encourages his clients to find one market, say Latin America, that seems like a good fit before expanding into Europe or Asia. "You're going to dry-run a lot of issues in yoiur forst international market, and a lot of these skills will be transferable."
Find a niche market where your product has a clear advantage.
There is no reason to bring an imported product into a country with a plentiful supply of established domestic suppliers, Borstel says.
by Dan McMillan, Business Journal, March 21, 1997.
Global Marketing,
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