Internationalization strategy of a Brazilian enterprise: Neymar

Original text in Portuguese by Evodio Kaltenecker 

Translation: Albany Estrela Herrmann

A follower of this blog challenged me: apply the analysis of business strategy in everyday affairs. The idea sounds very interesting to me, but with a certain risk involved. Daily issues are often developed emotionally and they have often little rational answers. Even so, I accepted the challenge and decided to use it for a better understanding  how strategic options of a well-known product in the domestic market works: I took the soccer player Neymar in order to exemplify it. I also took this opportunity to evaluate it based on the point of view of the internationalization strategy, which companies can use as possible business paths.

What would be the options for this player, when we analyze him like a corporation? Yes, as the “Neymar Corporation” with a market (which can be expanded or not), competitors (other talented players), shareholders (player`s registration, the football team he plays for) and strategic objectives. Let’s discuss the options for this company / athlete:

• Brazilian Market: Neymar is already a market leader with a dominant market share position concerning the Brazilian market. Currently there is not much more space to increase its market share and it could soon become what we call in the business “a big fish in a shrinking pond”. In this case, the risks are the saturation of this product, the slow decrease of its market share, or the abandon of the status of best player in Brazil, for example. Thus, it is quite natural that investors would try to sell this “brand” in other markets. It is necessary to analyze out markets and to evaluate positive and negative aspects of each one of them.
• English Market: Neymar would be a very unique product in this market (regarding his playing style), but would have to face very strong entry barriers to it (difficulty to adapt itself). Additionally, as a mature market, the company would need to change its product. For example, Neymar would need to play defense more often and to play more collectively.
• Spanish Market: Neymar Corporation could have better acceptance in this market because of the low barriers to enter it and the great appreciation of his skillful  style. However, it would have to face the presence of many competing products and athletes with a similar style such as: Iniesta, Xavi and Messi, just to mention a few names.
• Italian Market: This market seems to be a combination of the previous two markets. The product Neymar may have initial difficulties of adaptation (he plays more focused on the collective) and may suffer with some competition from other high level athletes (competing products) and high media exposure. Moreover, the design of the product Neymar (his playing style) would be greatly appreciated.
• German Market: Mature market with big barriers to enter it and some difficulties in terms of adaptation. Several Brazilian companies (other players) have struggled to adapt.
• Asian Market: This market is a little ripe but with an incredible potential. Neymar, as a product, is an option to develop this market and to be the first truly global brand linked to this area. However, it is a risky decision to make because of the short visibility given to the brand named Neymar.

I have developed the following table summarizing opportunities and barriers for each decision:

	Brazilian Market	English Market	Spanish Market	Italian Market	German Market	Asian Market
Is Neymar an unique product?	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
Are there any barriers to enter it?	NOT APPLICABLE	HIGH	LOW	AVERAGE	HIGH	AVERAGE
Would Neymar find any competitors? (other world-class athletes)	NO	YES	YES	YES	MAYBE	NO
Market`s size?	AVERAGE	BIG	BIG	BIG	BIG	SMALL (WITH A GREAT  POTENTIAL)
Is the market regulated/mature, which would impose rules would change his playing style?	NO	YES	NO	MAYBE	YES	NO

Of course this post has no intention to exhaust the discussion on the strategic options available to the “Neymar Corporation”. However, this situation exemplifies the real difficulty in determining the best strategy for internationalizing a corporation. Finally, the analysis shows that strategies can be used in our everyday lives and is also the reason why this blog is named so – Strategy for All.
As I am used to,  let me start provoking…

1 . “Neymar´s Corporation” must define its strategy before or after the World Cup in 2014?

2. What are the possible impacts of the World Cup in Neymar`s Corporate strategy? Remembering that competitors (other players) will also attend the same event, which will allow comparisons among all players.

Evodio Kaltenecker - Academic Board Professor at the Executive MBA Program

Scholarships, Honors and Awards:

Harvard University, Harvard Business School (1999-2001);
Emory University, Goizueta Business School (1999);
Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business (1999);
University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business (1999);
Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC), full scholarship for Engineering program (1987);
National Council of Research and Development, Brazilian Government - CNPq (1987-1991);
Brazilian Agency for Technological Development, CAPES (1992-1993)

Production Management Development Program - PMDP (1996) - The Coca-Cola Company. Winner of Business Plan Contests MegaCoke I and II