A Week Visiting Four Countries (Feat. Overseas Business Trip)

My company has unexpectedly assigned me to an international business trip.

The purpose is to conduct user interviews in new markets we're considering entering, to decide whether to proceed before officially launching.

Initially, I questioned whether it was appropriate for me to join this trip since I wasn't involved in the initial market selection 
process. However, I've often faced significant challenges when the product team sets major directions without our input—like crafting marketing action plans without fully understanding or agreeing with the new strategy, or explaining unclear 
directions to our interns. This time, I wanted to witness everything firsthand and contribute my marketing insights.

Honestly, the idea of going on an overseas business trip made me feel somewhat important (perhaps it's been a personal dream). While it's exciting to contribute directly and fulfill a dream, I'm giving up three days of my vacation (one day from the Chuseok holiday and two weekend days). Therefore, I have a strong desire to make the most out of this experience.

With only two days left before the trip, I'm contemplating how to make it as meaningful as possible. 

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Here's my plan:

1. Reaffirm the Purpose of the Trip
First, it's essential to ensure I fully understand the trip's objectives and align with the team members who will accompany me.

Questions to Clarify:

• Why is Indonesia, an existing market for us, included among the four countries we're visiting? Is it to directly observe competitors' influence?
• For the other three countries, are we deciding on market entry based solely on user interviews? If they don't meet both MAU (Monthly Active Users) and revenue criteria, will we drop them?
• What specific role is expected of me? Is it to effectively take notes during user interviews and provide marketing perspectives?

 

2. Thoroughly Review the Desk Research

Our interns have prepared desk research on each country's K-12 education policies. I need to thoroughly understand this material to better comprehend user feedback. It's quite extensive, but I'll aim to review it multiple times.

 

3. Define My Marketing Objectives
This is perhaps the most challenging part. In a situation where the current marketing direction isn't clearly defined, 
I'm expected to continuously envision future strategies.

To recap:
Our marketing tactics revolve around two main strategies:

1. Performance Marketing via Various Channels
2. Influencer Marketing

Data-driven decision-making is essential, so we can't avoid performance marketing. However, we aim to create diverse advertising content because I believe localized ad creatives are increasingly important in each country. Delving deeper into this would make this post too lengthy (haha), so I'll save it for another time.

In any case, I hope we can establish clear criteria for prioritizing markets (e.g., determining budget allocations between MAU-focused countries and revenue-focused countries). Discussing how to differentiate between product launches and marketing launches would also be beneficial. Managing the existing five markets is already quite demanding, so I sincerely hope we can streamline this process.

With all these plans in mind, I'm ready to embark on this journey and look forward to returning safely, enriched with new marketing insights.💪

 

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