MODULE TITLE: International Marketing Management - (IMM) PROGRAMME: MBA - Part Time SUBMISSION METHOD/MODE: Online via turnitin, ASSESSMENT TYPE: individual assignment Assignment Question: You are a newly appointed business consultant for an organisation in your domiciled country that specialises in overseas markets for products (or services). Your client is considering venturing into one of the countries of The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) a trade agreement signed on 4 February 2016 in Auckland, New Zealand among twelve Pacific Rim countries (Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the United States, and Vietnam). Choose only one country. After exploratory research you have identified a number of areas that you consider require further, more in-depth analysis and research. Your specific task is to present a report to the management of your chosen B2B marketing company on the main issues identified. In particular you must address the following points:- 1. Provide a critical evaluation of the main risks that may confront your client company venturing into international B2B markets within the chosen country (market). Examine and discuss what management can do to take such risks into account and to minimise the effects of such risk? [Students should demonstrate that companies can reduce the risk or at least take such risk into account through efficient handling of a number of factors. Conducting a good l risk analysis is the first step. This is an attempt to forecast instability to help management identify and evaluate scenarios and their potential influence on current and future international business decisions. Answers should be company, market and country specific. (1,000 Words – 25 Marks) 2. Explain and critically discuss how your client Company can use a comprehensive marketing mix to enhance the perceived value of their products and/ or services within this market region. Use specific examples of individual products and /or services from your client's portfolio to illustrate the points made in your answer. [Students should be familiar with the marketing mix issues and the impact of these issues on international marketing firm's strategies, particularly product and service development strategies for international or global markets. Answers should be company, market and country specific. (1,000 Words – 25 Marks) 3. Using a 'flow chart' or diagram, critically explain and develop a step by step approach to the international brand building process that can be used by marketing firms for international growth and development. In addition, discuss and examine the activities involved at each of the stages specifically for your client firm in your specific chosen market. Answers should be company, market and country specific. [The actual content of the answer provided would depend on the precise model or paradigm chosen for a vehicle for discussion, of which there are many. Any recognised brand building sequence is acceptable as long as it is specifically international or global in nature and covers the salient points. Students should explain that the international branding process sequence is similar to the domestic sequence, although obviously many additional international aspects have to be considered in each part of the sequence. (1,000 Words – 25 Marks) 4. As marketing often involves the use of personal contact, critically explain how practicing international marketing management considers the concept of culture when engaging in personal, face to face negotiation in overseas business to business markets. Use examples relevant to your client in your answer and be country or region specific. [Students should appreciate that the concept of culture is of fundamental importance to understanding markets and customers and cross-cultural analysis. Students should use specific examples of engaging in personal, face to face negotiation in overseas business to business markets in their answer. Answers should be company, market and country specific. (1,000 Words – 25 Marks) ---------------------------------- Assessment Requirements: • The submission of your work assessment should be organized and clearly structured in a report format. • Maximum word length allowed is 4000 words, excluding words in charts & tables and in the appendixes section of your assignment. • This assignment is worth 100% of the final assessment of the module. • Indicate the sources of information and literature review by including all the necessary citations and references adopting the Harvard Referencing System. • Students who have been found to have committed acts of Plagiarism are automatically considered to have failed the entire module. If found to have breached the regulation for the second time, you will be asked to leave the course. • Plagiarism involves taking someone else's words, thoughts, ideas or essays from online essay banks and trying to pass them off as your own. It is a form of cheating which is taken very seriously. Report Structure Title Page Table of Contents Abstract Introduction Body Conclusions References Appendix - Notes on Plagiarism & Harvard Referencing Plagiarism Plagiarism is passing off the work of others as your own. This constitutes academic theft and is a serious matter which is penalized in assignment marking. Plagiarism is the submission of an item of assessment containing elements of work produced by another person(s) in such a way that it could be assumed to be the student's own work. Examples of plagiarism are: • The verbatim copying of another person's work without acknowledgement • The close paraphrasing of another person's work by simply changing a few words or altering the order of presentation without acknowledgement • The unacknowledged quotation of phrases from another person's work and/or the presentation of another person's idea(s) as one's own. Copying or close paraphrasing with occasional acknowledgement of the source may also be deemed to be plagiarism is the absence of quotation marks implies that the phraseology is the student's own. Plagiarised work may belong to another student or be from a published source such as a book, report, journal or material available on the internet. Harvard Referencing The structure of a citation under the Harvard referencing system is the author's surname, year of publication, and page number or range, in parentheses, as illustrated in the Smith example near the top of this article. • The page number or page range is omitted if the entire work is cited. The author's surname is omitted if it appears in the text. Thus we may say: "Jones (2001) revolutionized the field of trauma surgery." • Two or three authors are cited using "and" or "&": (Deane, Smith, and Jones, 1991) or (Deane, Smith & Jones, 1991). More than three authors are cited using et al. (Deane et al. 1992). • An unknown date is cited as no date (Deane n.d.). A reference to a reprint is cited with the original publication date in square brackets (Marx [1867] 1967, p. 90). • If an author published two books in 2005, the year of the first (in the alphabetic order of the references) is cited and referenced as 2005a, the second as 2005b. • A citation is placed wherever appropriate in or after the sentence. If it is at the end of a sentence, it is placed before the period, but a citation for an entire block quote immediately follows the period at the end of the block since the citation is not an actual part of the quotation itself. • Complete citations are provided in alphabetical order in a section following the text, usually designated as "Works cited" or "References". The difference between a "works cited" or "references" list and a bibliography is that a bibliography may include works not directly cited in the text. • All citations are in the same font as the main text. Examples Examples of book references are: • Smith, J. (2005a). Dutch Citing Practices. The Hague: Holland Research Foundation. • Smith, J. (2005b). Harvard Referencing. London: Jolly Good Publishing. In giving the city of publication, an internationally well-known city (such as London, The Hague, or New York) is referenced as the city alone. If the city is not internationally well known, the country (or state and country if in the U.S.) are given. Examples of journal references are: • Smith, John Maynard. "The origin of altruism," Nature 393, 1998, pp. 639-40. • Bowcott, Owen. "Street Protest", The Guardian, October 18, 2005, accessed February 7, 2006.