INTERNET EXERCISES

Chapter 20: Global Marketing

Exercise #1 - Success through Global Marketing
Exercise #2 - Becoming a Home-Based International Business

Exercise #1 – Success through Global Marketing

Vignette: Acadian Seaplants Limited of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia has found an exclusive niche market in Japan for its cultivated seaweeds and has been exporting to that country and many others for over eight years.

Global Marketing Can Be Rewarding
Acadian Seaplants specializes in cultivating, processing, and developing value-added seaweed and seaweed-based products. Through extensive market and product research, they discovered that 15 percent of the Japanese diet is seaweed, making Japan a prime market for their food products. In the middle 1990s, the company introduced its first product into Japan — a unique, cultivated pink seaweed. This was followed shortly thereafter by green and yellow food products. “These unique seaweed food products from Canada have met with exceptional Japanese market acceptance and demand,” explains Hiroki Nakamoto, Acadian’s Sales and Marketing Manager — Food Division. These and other Acadian products have also been well received elsewhere, with the result that the company now exports its products to over 65 countries. This Canadian company has achieved worldwide distribution and recognition as a diversified manufacturer of innovative and top quality products.

Activity

1. Tour the featured Web site for the Acadian Seaplants Limited. Note that they have a Japanese version of their Web site as well as an English version, indicating the importance of the Japanese market to this company
   

2. Read the articles provided on the site about the Canadian Innovation Award for Technology that the company received in 2001. Based on this information, does the technology developed by Acadian Seaplants provide Canada with an absolute advantage or a comparative advantage in the seaweed industry, or does it simply provide the company with a differential advantage versus its global competitors?
   

3. Figure 20.2 provides Statistics Canada data on the Leading Commodities in Canadian Foreign Trade. The seaweed industry that Acadian Seaplants competes in is part of the principal commodity called Agricultural & Fishing Products. Based on the information provided in Figure 20.2, is this an important or growing commodity for Canada? Does this chart suggest that Canada has an absolute or a comparative advantage in this broad commodity area?
   

4. Look at the information provided on Japan in Table 20.1 and Figure 20.2. Is Japan an important trading partner for Canada? Given the success that Acadian Seaplants has enjoyed there, does the information provided in these charts indicate that Japan is a good market for other Canadian companies to export to?

Resources

Information about importing and exporting goods:

Statistics Canada: - this portion of the StatsCan Web site contains trade data for Canada and abroad for people thinking about getting into international trade

Industry Canad: - Industry Canada's guide with regard to exporting goods out of Canada

Canada Customs and Revenue Agency:
– CCRA’s guide to importing goods into Canada

Global marketing support companies:

A.C. Nielsen: – the “world’s leading marketing information company”

Descartes: – a global logistics provider headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario; its extensive logistics capabilities are based on its “Global Logistics Services Network” which provides it with worldwide alliances and the ability to deal with a variety of logistics management solutions including ocean contracts

J. Walter Thompson: – the world’s first advertising agency, currently transforming itself into a “global brand communications company”

Euro RSCG Worldwide: – a global agency network made up of 176 agencies in 72 countries; this site includes case studies

Exercise 2 – Becoming a Home-Based International Business

Importing, Exporting, or Neither?
Importing and exporting goods is a complex business that most small businesspeople are not well equipped to handle. But PowerHomeBiz.com™, a U.S. site for small businesses, suggests considering an alternative international business that involves minimal start-up funding, no inventory, and no shipping, but can be profitable. The site recommends that a small businessperson consider becoming a home-based international trading agency.

Activity

1. Read the following articles available at PowerHomeBiz.com™:
   (a) “Starting Your Own Home-Based International Trading Agency”
   (b) “Laying the Foundations of Your Home-Based International Trading Business” (part 1 of a 2-part series)
   (c) “Your Home-Based International Trading Firm: Your Suppliers and Buyers Network Basics” (part 2 of a 2-part series)
   Think of all of the strategic components of a marketing plan (positioning, competitive advantage, target market, product, price, distribution, marketing communications). Which of these components does a home-based international trader have to take into account to set up his or her business?
   

2. Based on the information provided in these articles, how would you classify independent international traders relative to the six Modes of International Activity listed in the text?
   
   

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