International Marketing Research

Report Preparation Guide (40%)

Assignment two requires each of you to develop an International Marketing Research

Report (IMR) – the fundamental step to make key decisions regarding entering and
operating a foreign market. The IMR will be used to develop international marketing
plan in another course. This will save you a lot of time and work down the road. You are
to use the template to be provided to write the research report. Your performance will be
evaluated based on the marking scheme indicated in the table at the end of this document.
Organize your International Market research as follows.

 Cover sheet mentioning your name, the product and the two countries you
intensively researched, date of submission, course name as well as the name of
the instructor.
 Your report should be between 20 and 25 pages of text (double-spaced, 1”
margins, 12-point Times New Roman or any other normal fonts). This is
excluding your exhibits. You may add as many exhibits as you like. All exhibits
must be referred to in your text. Penalty for extra pages.
 Use the templates provided as a guide to complete your market research report.
The following templates are already posted or will be posted later depending on
the progress of your market report
o Country Attractiveness Analysis matrix
o Research Proposal (will be later used as part 3 with minor modification)
o Data Colelction sheet (used to complete section 4)
o Guide to work on strategic issues
o Final findings presentation guide
 Make sure you use proper formating (example APA), links to proper APA
formating listed.
 Pay attention to the time lines given below. The required report should be
completed and submitted on time. Failing to do so will hurt your grade.
 Use the following outline. It is important that your report has each of these
sections and that the sections are accordingly titled.

1. Table of Content
2. Executive Summary
3. Research Description
4. Country Analysis
4.1 Country Profile
4.2 Political Characteristics & Governance
4.3 Physical Characteristics
4.4 Commercial Infrastructure
4.5 Canadian Experience in the Country
4.6 Target Market Profile
4.7 Product/Service fit With Customer Preferences
 4.8 Demand Characteristics
4.9 Regulatory Barriers
5. Strategic Issues
6. Recommendation and Action Plan
7. Appendices
8. Bibliography

Timelines

Activities Timeline (specific date will Outcome

Company description
Select 5 countries and
narrow your selection to
two countries.
Prepare research proposal
and share this with the lead
researcher
Gather relevant data and
information for the market
analysis
Prepare the marketing
research report and submit
first draft
be given)
September 30th, 2009 Company background
paper
October 9th Country attractiveness
matrix
October 16th Research proposal (brief)
October 1st – 16th Data collection sheet plus
summary
October 16th – November 13th Draft report using the
outline suggested by the
instructor

Submit final report and November 27th Final report using the
present your findings templates and presentation
to larger audience
 Marking Scheme
Inadequate, Minimum Well- Very Maximu Remarks
doesn’t meet required done well m
requirement done Marks
(%)
Research 10
description
Country analysis 40
(Data Collection)
Strategy & 10
tactical issues
Competitive 10
analysis
Recommendation 5
& action plan
Documentation 5
Document 5
organization
Essay Format 10
Presentation 5
Total 100