INFORMATION NEEDS FOR MARKET ENTRY

This paper is a practical guide to the stages of brand market entry in overseas countries. It is written for the smaller exporter showing ho w to write an effective entry market strategy without the budgets of m ulti-national companies.The first stages are basically desk research. The penultimate stage is to go to the country to build an understandin g from bottom-up of the market to marry with the top-down analysis of Stages 1 and 2. The author concludes that understanding the rules and the opportunities can be clearly understood, but no amount of studies can substitute for the basic steps of observing, breathing and thinkin g the market.