Priority assessment research

Determining priority export markets in terms of promotion and communication

In 2001, GEMEX, a consortium of Emmental exporters, planned to carry out new operations to promote this product abroad.

Sopexa was asked to determine priority countries in order to advise the client in its promotional investments. It was also requested to recommend communication actions for the targeted countries.

Sopexa's solution

The four most strategic countries were selected according to their share of total French Emmental exports: Germany - Belgium - Spain - Italy. The following criteria guided Sopexa's decision-making process:

quantitative:

• Market potential (economy, consumption, importation, etc.).
• Competition (competitive pressure on importation and on the consumer market, pressure from the media particularly in terms of access cost).
• France's position (market share for consumption and importation, brand awareness).

qualitative and strategic:

• Retail (super-store chain internationalisation and brand positioning when competing against "Own Name" Brands).
• marketing strategies (image of French products).

Results

• This research highlighted parallels that could be drawn in terms of market types and enabled planned investments for these countries to be optimised.
• GEMEX decided to plan communication operations for Spain and Belgium in 2002 and 2003.