Expansion and globalization

UNIT 4.

Bar codes: there are different bar codes depending on the countries and you need to do an international bar code.

You need to be registered to sell in pharmacies.

Environmental legislation, go to the supermarket and start looking at them.

Be sure to have the nutrition facts. STICKERS

Some countries require to put the best before date plus the production date.

-How to do put the boxes in pallets. It is different depending the weigh of the product and also take in account the hours the package will be travelling (some boxes could be destroyed). Also take in account when designing the boxes to fix the pallet and the trucks.

-The minimum stocks you have, the minimum expensive. Think very good the language to use in the package, if it is an international word is better because you can use exactly the same package in different countries.

-Take lot of care with translations and names in products because it can mean something different in other countries. You also have to take care about the registration of the brands because the names can be already taken. BE CAREFUL and register the brand.

-Put the telephone number in the product? No because users expect someone speaking their language.

-Go to local consultants, lawyers, etc.

In the foreign trade you have to be very careful because you will need information about politics of the country etc. Have an overview of the culture and the history of the country. Take in account the way of thinking of the people there. If you know how to connect, you will do good business always. You have to be aware of the difference between communities. If you go a place where nobody is going then you will sell more. Try to think out of the box.

Things to consider: the income and the properties. Population equality is more or less the same than in the US. You have 30% of the population: who are them? Where do they live?

I am not interested in the per capita income. You have to research and find out the amount of people who are rich, the amount who are middle class, the aspires to be middle class and the deprived. Now that you have that, depending on your product, you can know which your target is. Be careful when using big macroeconomic figures such as the per capita income. Be sure to go to the detail of the classes: banks have it.

Then, the distribution of population has to be considered. You need to know the differences in society:

• When you come independent and stop eating from your parents.
• When people have regular works.
• When do they usually get married.
• When they retire.

The more developed is a country, the late the people enter to be consumers.

You have to cross information and try to make different segments and put them together. See the demographics and how population diverges, because the consumption patterns change.

People with European ancestry but colored have a different self-perception and thing they are different. More important than the color of the people, or the religion, is their own perception. Imagine you assume they speak zulu because they are colored, when the reality is that they speak afrikaans. Using maps of where people with money lives is good because then you can know where to put advertisement. If you put your product in a bus stop is not good because it can be related to low quality or cheaper product because people with money does not take the bus.

Within the blacks there are categories and we have to take that in account.

The prof will give us webs that are good to get information.

Leasons learned:

• Real facts
• Selfperception
• Geography density
• Hinterland
• Detail by neigbourhoods
• Population segments
• By income, by age groups, by behavior, by location, by purchasing habits.

USEFUL WEBSITES

1. The CIA World Factbook.

If you want to have information about a country, you will see the map there with introduction, biography, people and society, languages, etc.

Take care with trillions and billions and the translation in Spanish.

Ex.: What airport can I use for e-commerce? In Brazil there are 34 airports but just 2 that take international products bought by internet.

You have to be very careful with general information, instead, you have to find out how people do business in that country.

2. ICEX

You type ICEX and the name of the country (ficha) and then you get general information.

Shadow economy: how can it be estimated? It is the part of the economy that the government is not dealing with. It is an interesting point.

Inequality map: you can see that there are two really different countries with the same inequality. You need to know how to read information and cross information to read all the information together. You have to mix all the data. When chosing a new country for trade, that map could be useful but it is only one tool, you will need more information and cross it.

Unemployment: the concept of unemployment if something of the western world.

Be very careful when using the concepts of a western world in an emerging market because it is completely different.

Exchange rate: you never know what it is going to happen. First you need to know the evolution of the exchange rate and if it has been stable. However, you need to find out the forecast of the exchange rate too. Why? Because if now you sell a car for 10.000e to argentina and in one month the peso decreases, then the car in argentina will be 40.000e there and people would not buy it.

XE.com 🡪 currency converter.

3. ITC Trademap 🡪 trademap.org

You can see all the import and export worldwide.

Harmonized system: commodity codes and in Europe we call it TARIC codes. If I want to sell bags in south Africa I put in google: bags taric code. Codes with 6 digits are worldwide, if they have 8 means there is a difference.

Analyse the list of imports and exports to find out the markets that are more attractive to export. In some cases the exports are highly concentrated. Here take in consideration the exchange rates, etc. Americans now are buying more expensive than before because American dollar has appreciated.

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