OVERSEAS MARKET

Singapore Companies with a mission to expand their operations in terms of growth and gaining an increased percentage market share, must implement a proper strategy to execute this. The strategy chosen must take all factors into consideration and adhere very closely to the planned methodology to ensure success. It is only logical that minor adjustments will be required for tweaking of strategy but a game plan is pertinent.

The 5 main actions any company can take to venture overseas or acquire foreignmarket share and clients are as follows:

• • • • Export

• • • • Licensing

• • • • Joint Venture

• • • • Direct Investment

• • • • Online Marketing

Each of these factors will be discussed separately but in formulating a strategy it should always be remembered that the type of market or product a company has must be analyzed in the most stringent manner and studying all environmental issues of the foreign state.

Export

This part of the strategy deals exclusively with the marketing functions and direct sales of the product into the foreign market. The function of exporting covers all aspects of marketing, advertising and sales to enable the product to become available in markets others than their original home base. The task is made easier due to the fact that goods need not be manufactured in the country selected for export and this means no direct investment for companies to invest in infrastructure or manufacturing facilities.

The role players involved with exporting a product into other countries and markets are mainly the following:

• • • • Not dependant on the company resources to produce results

• • • • There is a low internal expansion commitment

• • • • Avoidance of export related taxes

• • • • More acceptable from a government point of view

• • • • Offers protection against intellectual property

• • • • Cost effective solution

• • • • Minimal Risk

In short this is less risky and can be achieved a lot faster that other options available to enter a foreign market for your product.

Joint venture considerations

This method has been tried and tested in many countries with quite wonderful results. It is basically a business agreement entered into between two or more companies outlining the framework on which they will work together to create a new market for the product or services. It normally involves the below points :

• • • • Conflict over new investments

• • • • There could be mistrust regarding proprietary processes , methods etc.

• • • • Problems about performance issues

• • • • Support received or demanded from the company entering a foreign market

• • • • Issues and conflicts resulting from some cultural concerns

• • • • The length of the joint venture agreement and what happens at the end

• • • • Failure to implement and response to failure

Potential problems experienced could include the following:

• • • • Conflict over asymmetric new investments

• • • • Mistrust over proprietary knowledge

• • • • Performance ambiguity – how to split the pie

• • • • Lack of parent firm support

• • • • Cultural clashes

• • • • What happens if the relationship breaks down

• • • • How to develop shared resources

• • • • What controls are in place ensuring some form of control to each party

This method has seen many companies succeed and many a companies fail. One must be very cautious and have everything laid out in black and white because this strategy calls for a much larger investment than most of the other as it involves a lot of time and planning and time as they say is money.

Direct investment options into a foreign market

This method implies that the company expanding into a foreign market retains all ownership of their facilities and assets. It many cases they may either erect or transfer resources to get the operation on track. The company may also pursue acquisition options to speed up the process. It can be a faster way to penetrate the local market or even expanding the market share and control. It may translate to better economies of scale at times.

Having full control over the facility means high capital investments and resource usage but delivers more functional and effective control over the company. It may translate to savings in the long run.

This strategy is mainly the domain of large multinational companies that is strategically geared to have a international production and marketing network for their product or brand. This is in many cases done after initial exporting, licensing and joint venture options have proved beyond any doubt that a profitable market does exist for their offerings.

Online Marketing

Online marketing is one way of promoting products and services through the internet. When we talk about online marketing it involves a broad range of marketing strategies. Internet nowadays has been used for business marketing and it is known to be one of the easiest ways to promote your business. Business owners use it via search engines, blogs, email, social media sites (Facebook, twitter, Instagram etc). This can help you to have easy and better communication with your customers and also improve your customer service. It is also proved itself as a cost effective powerful tool to get customers and boost the Brand and business in today’s’ online world!

In our world today, there are a lot of businesses online. Entrepreneurs use e-commerce to promote and sell goods over the internet. Online marketing is also called Web marketing internet marketing or even cutely E- marketing. Other ways to boost your presence online include Search Engine optimization ( SEO ) and Search Engine Marketing ( SEM ). A popular channel of communication is SMO ( Social Media Optimization) and this is very potent as it helps Brands stay connected with consumers and clients.

Below are the benefits of online marketing:

• • Improved sales

• • Growth in potential

• • Decreased Expenses

• • Easy communication

• • Competitive advantage

• • Improved Control

• • Low cost of entry

• • Low barriers to entry

• • High Visibility

You can also hire an online marketing strategist. He or she will be the one to take care of your online business’ objectives, with proper planning, great content development and media tactics; these are the things needed to be able to achieve a good return of investments. Online marketing has continued to grow in the industry and has helped a lot of businesses grow their market share in today’s competitive industry.

Singapore companies using the MRA grant funded by IE Singapore can penetrate overseas using these methods and based on the capacity , nature and intent of the businesses, these methods can be adopted to grow their businesses. These methods are extremely powerful and proven. Small enterprises have become huge due to these strategies. Anyone can implement these 5 and grow HUGE!