CHAPTER 9
Preparing for Market Entry SEIZE
OPPORTUNITY BY THE BEARD, FOR IT IS BALD
BEHIND.
— BULGARIAN
PROVERB
completely open or completely closed. Every market presents wouldbe entrants with an enormous number of possible doors through which to pass. Some of the doors are unlocked and as clear as glass, while others may be as solid as steel, equally opaque, and tightly bolted. Ease of entry doesn’t guarantee profitability and often, the gatekeeper government is keeping its most lucrative markets well-secured for itself and local business. Other times, doors are left open and unguarded in an attempt to lure unsuspecting investors or traders to a pitiable and profitless fate. Lucrative doors may suddenly swing wide for just a moment, while others must be cajoled for years, even chivied, into opening. Many portals need only to have the name of the right person dropped on their threshold to gain entry. In all cases, a marketeer’s ability to properly analyze the information available will determine which door to approach and what product to present when the door opens.
MARKETS ARE NEVER
Segmentation: How to Subdivide Opportunity The procedure whereby marketeers determine how large or how small of a group to approach with their products is called market segmentation. Opportunities for segmentation in international marketing may seem endless. The world can be treated as a single marketplace, or it may be seen as composed of billions of single-member markets in the form of individual human beings. Any groupings in between these two extremes can be considered a market segment. The degree of segmentation is determined by the appeal of a product to a general market and by the ease with which that product can be adapted to increasingly specific markets. For this reason, most companies start off with as broad an appeal as possible, then sharpen their focus as more insights are gained. Initially targeting an entire country can be risky, especially when the geography is expansive and the population diverse. Marketeers must determine how consumers in any particular group respond to the marketing mix—that is, the product, its price, promotional efforts, and the means of distribution. Information gathered during research will be used to make this initial determination, which over time will be increasingly refined. This doesn’t necessarily mean that a company will change its focus from the market segment it originally targeted. Even when the segment remains the same (e.g., Hulinese executives between the ages of thirty-five and fifty with large disposable incomes), in time it will be further dissected into smaller and smaller niche groups as consumer tastes are perceived more precisely, or as they change.
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