4.6 International marketing questions for IB Business Management

Sundara Batik

Sundara Batik (SB) is a private limited company in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, owned by Dewi Kartika and her brother Arif. SB employs 65 artisans who hand-draw batik patterns with wax on silk and cotton. Its main products are scarves and shirts, sold through two shops in Yogyakarta and Jakarta and through its own website.

Since 2023 SB has sold to customers in Japan through an international online marketplace. Japanese buyers value the craftsmanship, but some have complained about late deliveries and about colours that differ from the photographs on the website. Dewi wants to grow sales in Japan further.

SB has received an offer from Shirakawa, a Japanese department store chain with 22 stores. Shirakawa would buy 8 000 scarves a year, but wants a 45 % margin on the retail price, exclusive rights to sell SB products in Japan for three years and strict quality checks on every delivery. Arif prefers a different option: opening SB’s own concept store in Tokyo, which would cost IDR 3 500 million and require a five-year lease.

Table 1: SB’s sales revenue by market (IDR million)

Table 2: Selected Hofstede cultural dimension scores

Scores range from 0 to 100. A higher score means more power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation or indulgence (adapted from Hofstede’s published country scores).

Read the resources and answer the questions that follow.

Ofure Lights Ltd (OL)

OL is a social enterprise in Benin City, Nigeria, founded in 2019 by Ofure Igbinedion, an electrical engineer. It sells solar home kits (a lantern, two bulbs and a phone charger) to households with no connection to the electricity grid. Customers pay a deposit of NGN 4 000 and then small weekly payments by mobile phone for 12 months, after which they own the kit. OL reinvests 80 % of its profits. Its mission is “clean light for every off-grid home in West and Central Africa”. OL has 38 000 customers in southern Nigeria and wants to expand into neighbouring Cameroon.

Resource 1: News article, *Central Africa Energy Review*

Around 6 million Cameroonians live without electricity, most of them in rural areas, where families spend up to a fifth of their income on kerosene for lamps. Kerosene smoke causes breathing problems, and lamp fires injure hundreds of children every year. Mobile money is used by most adults, mainly through two large networks. Cameroon has two official languages: French is spoken in eight of its ten regions and English in the North-West and South-West regions, where an armed conflict since 2017 has made travel and business dangerous. Several foreign solar firms have entered the market, but few offer pay-as-you-go payment.

Resource 2: Email from Babajide Adeyemi, OL’s finance manager, to Ofure

Entering Cameroon will cost about USD 900 000 in the first two years: warehouse, staff, stock and marketing. We have two offers. An impact investor will lend USD 1.2 million at 8 % interest over five years. A foundation will give a grant of USD 400 000, but only if we report every quarter on the number of children who no longer use kerosene lamps. Remember that 9 % of our Nigerian customers fall behind with weekly payments, and the naira has lost value against the US dollar, which makes our imported solar panels more expensive.

Resource 3: Social media posts from OL customers in Nigeria

“My children now do homework at night without smoke in their eyes. Thank you OL!” (Esosa, Edo State)

“My kit stopped charging three weeks ago and I am still waiting for the repair man. I still have to pay every week.” (Chinedu, Delta State)

Resource 4: Email from Mme Ngono, director of Fondation Mbouda Santé, a Cameroonian NGO

Our 60 village health workers in the West and Littoral regions visit thousands of households every month. They know every family and are trusted. We would be happy to sell OL kits and collect information on kerosene use in return for 10 % of the sales value. Our workers speak French and local languages; very few speak English.

Resource 5: Selected data

Hallberg Oat Drinks

Hallberg Oat Drinks AB (Hallberg) is a Swedish public limited company that makes oat-based alternatives to milk. It sells in 14 European countries and has a strong brand built on sustainability: its packaging shows the carbon footprint of each carton.

Hallberg’s European sales have stopped growing as large supermarket chains launch cheaper own-label oat drinks. The board believes China offers the greatest opportunity, as shown in Table 1. Many Chinese consumers are lactose intolerant, and plant-based drinks are increasingly popular in coffee shops in large cities.

Hallberg plans a joint venture (JV) with Huaxin Dairy, a Shanghai-based company with factories, a national distribution network and strong relationships with coffee-shop chains. Hallberg would own 49 % of the JV and Huaxin 51 %. Hallberg would supply its recipes, brand and production know-how. Some Hallberg directors worry about losing control of the brand and its secret recipes.

Table 1: Retail sales of plant-based milk alternatives in China (CNY billion)

Read the resources and answer the questions that follow.

Awana Warmi (AW)

AW is a co-operative of 120 Quechua women weavers in Chinchero, near Cusco, Peru. Members spin alpaca wool by hand, dye it with plants and weave scarves, shawls and blankets using traditional patterns. AW was set up in 2012 so that women in the village could earn an income without leaving their families and land, and so that traditional weaving would survive. Most sales are made to tourists who visit AW’s workshop.

Resource 1: Email from Marisol Choque, AW’s coordinator, to the members’ committee

Tourist numbers in Chinchero rise and fall every year. Last year road blockades during protests kept visitors away for two months and our sales collapsed. Many members had no income at all. We need customers who do not have to come here. My nephew can build us an online shop, and we have also been contacted by an importer in the United States.

Resource 2: AW’s sales (PEN, Peruvian soles)

Resource 3: Email from Threadline Trading, a fair-trade importer in Portland, USA

Our 300 retail customers love authentic handmade textiles. We would like to order 4 000 scarves a year at PEN 95 each. To sell through our stores, scarves must come in three standard sizes and six colours that we choose each season, and must carry fair-trade certification. We pay 90 days after delivery.

Resource 4: Reviews on a travel website

“The most beautiful shawl I own, and I met the woman who made it. Worth every sol.” (visitor from Germany)

“Tried to order a blanket online after my trip. No reply for two weeks and shipping to Canada cost more than the blanket!” (visitor from Canada)

Resource 5: Extract from an article on Peruvian textiles

Shops in Lima and abroad sell machine-made scarves labelled “alpaca” for a fraction of the price of handwoven pieces. Many contain little or no alpaca. Buyers abroad often cannot tell the difference online, where storytelling and certification are what persuade them to pay a higher price.

Somesha Learning

Somesha Learning is a Nairobi-based technology start-up founded by Wanjiru Mwangi and Kiprono Langat. Its mobile app helps secondary-school students in Kenya revise mathematics through short videos and quizzes that follow the Kenyan curriculum. Students pay a monthly subscription of KES 350 through mobile money.

The founders want to enter Nigeria and Ghana. Both countries follow a different curriculum and exam board, and Nigeria’s market is much larger than Kenya’s. A Lagos-based investor has offered finance but has warned that internet data costs, payment systems and competition from free video platforms differ between the countries.

Table 1: Selected market data, 2025

Sacha Leaf S.A. (SAL)

Read the resources and answer the questions that follow.

Sacha Leaf S.A. (SAL) is a social enterprise in Tena, in Ecuador’s Amazon region, founded in 2015 by Paola Andrade and Wilson Grefa, a Kichwa community leader. It buys leaves of guayusa – a rainforest tree whose leaves contain caffeine and have been brewed for centuries by Kichwa families at dawn gatherings – from 1 200 Kichwa farming families who grow it among other forest trees rather than clearing land. SAL pays 30 % above the local market price, dries and packs the leaves, and sells loose tea and bottled iced guayusa in Ecuador. Sacha means “forest” in Kichwa. SAL now wants to sell abroad.

Image: a glass bottle of pale golden iced tea with dewdrops on it, beside a handful of glossy green guayusa leaves on a wooden table. Label: “Sacha Leaf Guayusa – the Amazon’s morning drink. Natural energy, living forest”.

Resource 1 – News article from *Andean Trade Monitor*

Amazon leaf eyes a place in the world’s energy drinks

Consumers in North America and Europe want “clean energy” drinks with natural caffeine and no added sugar, and guayusa has attracted interest from drinks companies. But some Indigenous organizations warn that big brands may use their traditions in advertising without sharing the benefits. Exporters must also meet each market’s labelling and food-safety rules and, in Europe, show a long history of safe use.

Table 1: SAL’s guayusa sales (tonnes of dried leaf)

SAL’s farmers could supply up to 300 tonnes a year. Ecuador uses the US dollar.

Resource 2 – Social media posts from Nina Grefa, a Kichwa student and SAL farmer’s daughter

Every morning my grandmother brewed guayusa before dawn and told us stories. Now people in Quito drink it too, and my family earns enough for me to study at university. Our forest is still standing. [1/2]

But I saw a foreign brand selling “Amazon Shaman Energy” with a fake picture of an Indigenous man. If SAL goes abroad, it must tell our story truthfully – and our communities must share in the money. [2/2]

Resource 3 – Internal email from Paola Andrade to SAL’s board

From: Paola Andrade, CEO

To: Board of directors

Subject: Three routes abroad

A. USA – licensing: TrailMark Natural Foods would make and sell bottled “Sacha Leaf” iced guayusa in the US using our leaf. It would buy 150 tonnes a year at USD 9 per kg and pay a 4 % royalty on its sales (it forecasts USD 8 million of sales a year). TrailMark would control recipes, prices and advertising.

B. Germany – exporting: Teehaus Brandauer, an organic tea importer, would buy 60 tonnes a year of certified organic, fair-trade loose tea packed in SAL’s own brand, at USD 22 per kg. Packaging costs us USD 2.50 per kg and certification about USD 45 000 a year. EU approval would take about 12 months.

C. China – joint venture: a Shanghai tea company proposes a 50/50 joint venture selling guayusa online. SAL would invest USD 400 000. No forecasts yet.

Our direct cost of dried leaf, including the farmers’ premium, is USD 5.50 per kg.

CONFIDENTIAL: this email and any attachments are intended only for the named recipients.

Resource 4 – Results of consumer taste tests (200 people in each city)

Resource 5 – Statement from the Napo Kichwa Federation

“We support SAL because it pays our families fairly and protects the forest. Any export agreement must: use Kichwa culture only with our approval; include a community fund of at least 5 % of SAL’s export revenue; and never allow guayusa to be grown on cleared land. Guayusa is part of who we are, not just a product.”

Resource 6 – Hofstede scores for selected countries (0–100)