North Campus

Final Exam Spring North Campus - 2021

Subject: International Business Saturday / 5th June: 3:00-5:30

Instructor: Mohammad Farooq Tahir Submission Duration: 2.5 Hours

Program: BBA Max. Marks: 15

Department of Business Administration

Please follow the instructions carefully:

1. Write your answers in a Word file and upload the file before the due time on BlackBoard.

2. Write your name and registration ID on the first page of your Word file.

3. Answer scripts can be uploaded on BlackBoard within or before its deadline. Therefore, do
not wait for the last hour to avoid any unforeseen problems.

4. Submission of answer copy(ies) will be considered acceptable through BlackBoard only.

Therefore, do not submit your document through email or any other medium.

5. Use 12 pt. font size and Times New Roman font style along with 1-inch page margins.

6. Follow the requirements of the word limit and the marking criteria while writing your answers.

7. Provide relevant, original and conceptual answers, as this exam aims to test your ability to
examine, explain, modify or develop concepts discussed in class.

8. Do not copy answers from the internet or other sources. The plagiarism of your answers may be
checked through Turnitin.

9. Recheck your answers before the submission on BlackBoard to correct any content or language
related errors.

10. Double check your word file before uploading it on BlackBoard to ensure that you have uploaded
the correct file with your answers.
Exporting Desserts (15 Marks)
The opening line of the “About” section of Lulu’s Dessert’s website—www. lulusdessert.com—
is “pull up a chair and join in the festival of flavors with Lulu’s Gelatin Desserts,”* Taking basic
ingredients and creating a myriad of flavors has led to worldwide exporting success for Lulu’s
Dessert Corporation. Started in 1982 in a 700-square-foot storefront in Torrance, California,
followed by exporting to Mexico in 1992, the company is a gelatin dessert business with core
customer target markets in the United States and Mexico but with exporting to several countries
worldwide. Lulu is the nick- name of the founder, Maria de Lourdes Sobrino.
“Lulu” thought of the idea of ready-to-eat flavored gelatin desserts when she was looking for the
popular dessert in local stores. At the time, she was living in the United States, but originally she
came from Mexico. The ready-to-eat flavored gelatin desserts were a staple in her native Mexico,
but the concept was a novelty when she introduced it to American grocers. Today, Lulu’s
Desserts can be found in a variety of well-known stores (e.g., Albertsons, Safeway, and
Walmart).
Back in the early 1980s, Lulu identified and recognized a need for gelatin desserts, filled it with
what has now become 45 ready-to-eat Products of different sizes and flavors, and transformed
the food industry by creating the first ready-to-eat gelatin category based largely on her mother’s
recipes. The business concept has become quite a “spoon spectacular” since Lulu first began,
with a catch line for the company of “more fun for your spoon.”
The party started out very small with just Lulu making her mother’s gelatin recipe desserts, with
an initial production of 300 cups of gelatin per day. Ultimately, the party grew so big that Lulu
could not handle it by her- self and had to negotiate help from established markets and wholesale
distributors. Lulu wanted everyone within reach to enjoy her festival of flavors. In going
international, Lulu spent some 10 years trying to gain international sales but continued to run
into all kinds of problems and issues. After the trial-and-error decade, she found assistance from
the U.S. Export- Import Bank services and now has deeper confidence in her abilities to export
products worldwide.
Over the years, Lulu has kept making more and more varieties of her gelatin desserts. A carnival
of colors of three-layer gelatins, fruit parfaits, and festive containers of wild new colors and
flavors have become identifying marks. This exporting innovation led Bill Hopkins of USA
Today to call Maria de Lourdes Sobrino “the queen of ready-to-eat gelatins and a force in the
surging number of Hispanic Entrepreneurs.” Hal Lancaster of the Wall Street Journal also
recognized her as an innovator and very successful entrepreneur in “getting out and selling
customers your dream.”
Today, with its exporting worldwide but especially to Mexico and sales across the United States,
Lulu’s Dessert’s core focus is on five product categories, including the original Mexican gelatin
cup, rice pudding Mexican-style cup, the original creamy gelatin cup, parfait treats gelatin cups,
and caramel flan cups. The flavors include such exotic descriptors as Fruit Fantasia, Orange
Blast, Creamy Vanilla with Cinnamon, and Sugar Free-De-Light.
Questions:
1. Desserts are often much localized in taste. Beyond the United States and Mexico, where
do you think Lulu’s Dessert products would be favorable received by customers?
(3 Marks)
2. Lulu’s Dessert used the U.S. Export-Import Bank services to help with knowledge and
market segmentation for her desserts as a part of exporting the company products. The
Ex-Im Bank receives lots of positive and negative reviews in the United States; do you
think it is helpful that the United States has an export-import bank to assist U.S.
companies? (4 Marks)
3. Do you think franchising is a foreign market entry option for Lulu’s Dessert? Why or
why not?  (4 Marks)
4. How would you use business analytics to identify exporting opportunities for Lulu’s
Dessert? (4 Marks)