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This research presents a competitive analysis to be used as one of the bases for an international marketing plan. The product group involved is comprised of highquality, premiumpriced writing instrumentsball point pens and pencils. These writing instruments are manufactured in both pocket and desk formats, and they are packaged both separately and as sets. The exporting firm is located in the United States, and the writing instruments to be exported are manufactured in the United States. The target country in the international marketing plan is Portugal.

The findings of this competitive analysis are presented in six separate discussions. The topical areas of these discussions are as follows: (1) marketing resources and skills of the exporting firm; (2) production resources and skills of the exporting firm; (3) financial resources of the exporting firm; (4) managerial resources of the exporting firm; (5) structure of competition in the target country; and (6) trends in the competitive structure in the target country.

Marketing resources and skills are considered in the contexts of product, service, and pricing. Each of these factors is addressed separately in the following discussions.

The exporting firm possesses extensive knowledge of the product group, and expertise in the marketing of this product group in the United States. This knowledge and expertise arereadily transferrable to the economies of Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and more developed economies of Western Europe. The exporting firm's knowledge and expertise, however, are less easily transferred to upper middleincome countries,1of which Portugal is one.2 Thus, for the marketing of highquality, premiumpriced writing instruments in Portugal, the exporting firm will establish a formal relationship with an indigenous Portuguese distributing firm, with an established expertise in the distribution of highquality writing instruments.

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