International Strategy

The potential in the global marketplace is huge. By 2007, 1 billion people will have access to the Internet; 70 percent of these people will speak a language other than English. In fact, there currently are 128 million Chinese-speaking Internet users alone. This number is predicted to double within the next five years. Studies show these Internet users are just like the rest of us: They heavily rely on Web sites in their native language to perform most tasks. What does this mean for marketers trying to reach these markets via the Web? Something many companies are not paying enough attention to: localization. To

Question: What tactics should international direct marketers employ to maintain the integrity of global data? Answers: • Seek resources and expertise specifically addressing the complexities of international data. This can include training your in-house data capture staff on the particular details of international data, using industry experts and resources to improve data capture and data management practices, and/or working with suppliers that have significant experience with international data. • International data often contains foreign accent characters, diacritics or local-language text characters that are not supported by most domestic computer systems. Be aware of the large number of different international data encoding standards that

The Canadian dollar’s strength makes marketing by catalog to Canadians a prime expansion opportunity for U.S. catalogers these days. For many, it’s a logical way to grow, provided the prospecting universe is sufficient for the offer. Mailing and distributing merchandise into Canada has become almost seamless thanks to services such as the one offered by Canada Post Borderfree. Here’s what you can expect, and how you can get started test marketing and building a Canadian housefile as part of your overall circulation strategy. Sizing Up the Market There are approximately 33 million people and 12.5 million consumer households in Canada. Similar to the

Taking your catalog to global markets is a major decision that involves a rather large investment in translation services and time. The project’s expense and level of difficulty will vary depending on how well you design your English-language catalog and how carefully you prepare it for translation. Following are nine tips that can help with such a project. 1) Test with a smaller catalog. If this is the first time you’re mailing a catalog version to other countries, test the market with a smaller version of your book that includes just your bestsellers. 2) Understand translation costs. Translation services often are quoted per

Direct importing of merchandise may be a way for you to increase margins and improve your bottom line. Both financial institutions and overseas vendors are becoming more accustomed to working with importers and exporters. This, along with advanced technology, often can simplify the importing process. Following are key elements to help you decide if direct importing is right for your catalog company. Sourcing vs. Importing If you currently buy imported goods from domestic suppliers, distributors or resellers, you may be offering products at good value to customers, but you won’t enjoy the higher margins that come from importing products directly. But before

A weakened U.S. dollar, the presence of global traffic on U.S. Web sites and a competitive domestic market with little room for growth have combined to pique U.S. catalogers’ interest in overseas markets. Adapting your catalog for an international market often involves rewriting and translating copy into a foreign language, pricing in local currency, and offering customers the ability to pay in their local currencies. “All of this requires a significant investment of time and money, and very rarely do catalogers make this type of investment for a test,” says Mark Bridges, vice president and director of the international division of Mokrynski &

Paul Fredrick Sacher is one of the five premier catalog merchants of menswear — primarily dress shirts, neckties and cufflinks. If he had 100,000 customers like Franklin Watts, he would be in hog heaven. Frank Watts was a hard drinking, wildly irreverent and funny traveling book salesman who founded a children’s publishing company in 1945 that bears his name today. The son of a Baptist minister, Watts once said that from his earliest boyhood he was made to wear a shirt and tie every day to be presentable in case a parishioner came to the rectory. All of his life, the only time Watts

Domestic markets have become saturated, and finding new customers abroad often is considered a path to growth and new profits. Many U.S. catalogers have scored good response rates by adapting their domestic catalog and mailing it abroad. However, this requires more than changing the language and currency to match the preferences of your target market. Conduct a detailed analysis to avoid a false start and the possible loss of investment. Your research should include available and accepted media, the direct marketing infrastructure, sales promotions, product ordering methods, standard payment options, creative standards, postal and legal necessities, and the target country’s culture. I’ll

Whether you’re a global cataloger pricing in each market’s local currency or a domestic cataloger who gets a trickle of international orders, it pays to issue refunds in your customer’s local currency. It’s one thing to ask foreign customers to buy drafts in U.S. dollars to pay for their orders; it’s another to expect them to go back to a bank to clear a check issued in a foreign currency. This inconvenience discourages repeat business. And even if you’re reimbursing in local currency, you can have a problem if the draft isn’t drawn from the banking system of the country where your customer resides.

The nations of the European Union enjoy well-developed mail-order markets; much of the continent now shares a common currency; and the Internet’s rise has dismantled many of the perceived barriers to international trade. U.S. catalogers have much to offer Europeans, too. American catalog executives well understand the power of branding and have developed niche offerings that are only now beginning to be exploited across the Atlantic. That said, however, there are differences between the two regions that can make your navigational efforts difficult. Below, we’ll identify those challenges and explore ways around them. Creative Challenges While language differences are more apparent when