As part of your initial market research, you will need to establish that your product is basically suitable for the export market you have chosen. You will have checked local studies, but you should also compare the product with the competition and gain feedback from potential customers in your new market.
Four Options for Export Products
These are four approaches you can look to as options:
- Sell the standard products you make for the Irish market in as many foreign markets as will accept them.
- Adapt your standard Irish products to meet foreign market needs more closely.
- Adapt your products to meet both foreign and domestic market criteria at the same time, i.e. create a universal product.
- Invent new products to satisfy both your domestic and foreign markets.
These choices may seem obvious. But as you move down the list, the complexities of decision-making, planning and risk will escalate. Of course, it will be necessary to ensure that any alterations to your product or packaging will not cost so much as to make the whole export venture uneconomical.
Product Policy and Market Needs
Most firms will find it easier and less risky to develop variations on existing products than to establish completely new product types. Product adaptations can include one or more combinations of the following:
- Colour
- Size
- Taste
- Design
- Style
- Materials
- Performance
- Technological specification
Such adaptations may be much more feasible than devising completely new product types. Adaptations should be based on market preferences identified through market research. Product adaptation will obviously be more economical in markets where preference are close to the domestic market norms, changes may then be minimal.
Another possibility is to choose a cluster of two or three markets with similar preferences. In this way, similar adaptations are possible for more than one market, which might help with longer runs of standard adaptations.
Packaging Considerations
Another aspect of the export product is its packaging - both presentation packaging and packing for shipment. The packaging design should be based on the customer needs. In industrial products the pack should be considered for its usage and for its amenability to storing, pouring, re-use, etc. For consumer products the pack might have various functions: protective, informative, merchandising and conforming to legal requirements and buying habits (e.g. Americans tend to buy less frequently than Europeans, so the largest size is more popular in the United States).
Your labelling and packaging may have to alter to comply with the country's labelling or environmental regulations. Presentation of your product is very important particularly for consumer goods. The retail pack should be well designed and instructions, etc. should be translated into the local language.
Quality packaging for shipment is vital, even in this day of containerisation and air-freight systems. Poor quality packing can mean poor quality product, costly delivery and storage, and failure to meet legal requirements.
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