You are employed as the Marketing Development manager of an Australian Automative component manufacturing company. The recent Announcement by Ford Australia of the closure of its Australian manufacturing operations in Geelong (VICTORIA) in 2016, and the cloud over the long term future of General Motors and Toyota, has sent shudders through the senior management of the company. With the future of motor vehicle manufacturing in Australia under a cloud, management have decided that the future viability of the company rests with the development of business opportunities off-shore.

You have been asked to commence preliminary research to assess the feasibility of expanding the company’s business into foreign markets. Initial research will focus on assessing the broader implications of globalisation for the company with further research evaluating opportunities for the business in specific overseas markets.

Opening Statement (Introduction)

2:       Executive Summary

3:       Business Opportunity

4:       Country Scan

5:       Industry Scan

6:       Market Scan

7:       Competitor Analysis

8:       Organisation Analysis

9:       Business Risk Profile

10:     Marketing Strategies (Current)

11:     Conclusions

12:     Recommendations

13:     Bibliography

14:     Appendix

KEY SECTION EXPLANATIONS

Section 4: Country Scan

How would you describe it’s make-up? It is not sufficient to simply say the ‘Economy’ or ‘Society’. You need to outline such aspects as the economy, culture, social institutions, education system, political structure, legal system, religion, language, etc. This is also where a PEST analysis is undertaken.

Section 5: Industry Scan

No business exists in isolation. It is part of a larger industry or group of industries. You should acquaint yourself as to how that industry operates, its state of health and future prospects. Having knowledge of the industry could reveal opportunities or forewarn of potential risks. This is also where Porter’s 5 Forces analysis is undertaken.

Identify the industry to which your proposed business belongs.

Identify the dominant operators (businesses) in this industry.

Determine the size of the industry (in terms of revenues/profits generated by the industry, number of operators, number of people employed in the industry).

Discuss the future prospects (trends) for the industry.  This section of your analysis is designed to assess the future viability of the industry in terms of its growth potential. Are there any causal influences at work here?

Describe the extent to which technological change, new product innovation, and improvement are likely to affect the industry.

List at least three general predictions you can make about the future of the industry.

Section 6: Market Scan

The market scan is an analysis of the factors that impact on the market within a particular industry. It highlights foreseeable opportunities, influences and threats relative to market conditions, customer segments, in particular perceived target markets, consumer attitudes and trends associated with these target markets.

Research tips: try searching for information on market segments, customer profiles, SWOT analysis.