MKT09401 International Marketing Assignment Brief 2026 | ENU

MKT09401 Assignment Brief

1. Choose ONE company from the following options:

House of Bruar - Scottish Country Clothing - The House of Bruar

Highland Spring - Ochil Hills - Home - Highland Spring

Nairn's Oatcakes - Welcome to Nairn's Oatcakes | Nairns Oatcakes

2. Evaluate the current operation and situation of this company by carrying out internal and external environmental analyses using appropriate international marketing theory. Using secondary research of the organisation/company and country, you are also required to evaluate the wider and competitive environments.

3. Based on the previous task, analyse, research and suggest ONE NEW foreign market of your choice (this means that the company does not currently operate in the country you select).  Use international market research theory and justify why this country is a good/bad market to enter.

4. Provide suggestions for segmentation, targeting and positioning of your chosen organisation, to allow the company to grow and sustain competitive advantage in the country identified in the previous task.

(This assignment is related to Module Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5).

Wordcount

The wordcount for this assessment is 3,000 words (+/- 10%)

(This includes tables/figures (everything in the main text. This excludes front page, contents page, reference list and appendices).

[Further details are provided in the following sections of this workbook and use the different pages in the workbook. Fuller details will be given in the dedicated  Assessment  Briefing Live Academic Session].

Referencing

Please use American Psychological Association (APA 7th) referencing. Guidance is on Library pages:  https://libguides.napier.ac.uk/APA

Assignment Tasks

The content of the assignment should include: 

Task 1 : Introduction

An overview of the company, portfolio and any recent international activity and its trading environment.

Give some background information on the company, as well as its portfolio. Outline the product/service portfolio and whether it is a standardised product/service/concept.

4Ps/7Ps and Porter’s Generic Strategies (i.e., competitive advantage) (Porter, 1980) may be used to highlight the company’s strategy.

Outline the countries and trading blocs the company operates in. At this stage, the chosen product/service as well as the new country can be highlighted as a potential new market, but reinforce that an audit (internal/external) must be carried out to determine whether this is viable or not.

It would be advisable to briefly summarise the report structure and purpose or objectives of the report.

Task 2 : Situational Analysis

The application of theory and practice in terms of assessing the company’s internal capabilities and external opportunities. 

You need to outline the internal capabilities of the organisation as well as an external analysis. Some of the theoretical models that can be used are highlighted in Live Academic Sessions.

Internal analysis: any models such as the PLC, or any other referenced models and sources related to an internal audit (number of markets, employees, financial situation, brand reputation, awards).

External analysis: The most common models used here are the company's home country PESTLE framework and Porter’s Five Forces model. Any information provided should be supported  by secondary research.

The SWOT analysis: (any referenced academic source) provides a summary of the previous internal/external information.

Further information related to the potential new country is undertaken in the next section.

Task 3 : Identification and Analysis of New Market

Outline and critically discuss the strategic concerns. 

Your choice of new market needs to be completely new to the company. Based on your previous analysis, what are the strategic concerns facing the company on entering the new country? This can be directly related to the SWOT analysis.

This may include assets, expertise, trading conditions, competition, market-entry, standardisation, alliances and so on. This section depends upon your previous analysis and what you find in the new country you suggest, so make sure it all links together, and there is an evaluation rather than a list of factors. This section should be highly referenced with links to theory and practice.

Task 4 : Conclusions and Recommendations

Based on all of the previous analyses, you need to provide recommendations relating to the segmentation, targeting and positioning (S-T-P) and marketing mix (4P’s/7P’s) for the new country.

Structure: 

A good academic report has effective use of the headings and sub-headings. The content should go in line with the tasks and tables and figures are properly captioned. If English is not your 1st language, make sure to proofread your essay before submission (readability of the report is also assessed in this section).

Referencing: 

All information must be referenced according to the 7th American Psychological Association (APA) referencing guide (see the APA referencing guide on Moodle). In-text citations must be in APA7th. The list of references MUST include credible academic journal articles.

Additional information

• All company information and theoretical models must be referenced.
• Use academic sources, not websites such as Marketing Tutor, Marketing91, SlideShare, Wikipedia and other poor-quality online sources.
• Provide a good blend of online/offline references – use references from module materials, textbooks, journal articles and credible websites.
• Apart from textbooks (including prescribed reading), you may use the lecture slides/notes/additional textbooks to understand the theories and models.
• Provide a good conclusion based on all the previous analyses.
• Use Appendices if needed, to expand on the information in the main report.

All company information and theoretical models must be referenced.

Use academic sources, not websites such as Marketing Tutor, Wikipedia and poor-quality online sources.

Provide a good blend of online/offline references – use references from module materials, textbooks, journal articles and credible websites.

Use the lecture slides/notes/textbooks to understand the theories and models.

Provide a good conclusion based on all the previous analyses.

Use Appendices if need be to expand on the information in the main report.