1. What did Hannah do to make a first cut in the list of potential countries? How did he get from 200 to less than 35 potential new markets? Which variables seemed more important in his decision-making? Which unused variables might have been useful?

Hannah created a criterion that included the factors that played an important role in Ruth’s Chris success and used that to narrow down the potential new markets. These factors were beef-eaters (i.e. the market has their primary customers as beef eaters), legal to import U.S. beef (Ruth’s Chris only used USDA Prime beef therefore it had to be exportable to the new country), Population/high urbanization rates (restaurants needed to be in densely populated areas), high disposable income (fine dining restaurant with an average cost over $70), trend among people to eat out (more the people go out to eat, more are the odds they will come to this restaurant), and affinity for U.S. brands (overtly anti-US countries would not accept Ruth’s Chris and eat there).
Ruth’s Chris target market should definitely consist of densely populated markets where a large percentage of the population eats steak. When identifying a new potential market, the company makes sure there is a large enough population to expand the business by opening multiple stores. After identifying whether the per capita consumption is high enough to support a steakhouse, they need to ensure the population can afford to dine in the high end establishment. If the market passes these tests, Ruth’s Chris will have a potentially good location and can build a restaurant.
The factors discussed above are worth considering every time before entering a market. There can be some other factors which can be considered like country’s current political conditions and also some research about consumers’ current trends and likings so that by the time it comes to implement a