Promotion
In a highly competitive, developed market, a new product will not just sell itself (you may think your product is new, innovative and the best value for the price, but it is what the buyer thinks that is important). Additional effort is needed to promote the product and to do so in a methodical and sustained way. Promotion refers to all the elements that will create awareness of your product and its distinctive features in the market and specifically amongst buyers.
Prior to considering promotional methods for a new export market, it is a good idea for you to review the promotional activities in which your company is presently engaged (or has recently used) to make customers aware of your products in the domestic market (or other export markets, if you have had that experience). Will such activities apply to the export target market? How are competitors advertising and marketing their products there now?
There are many ways to promote your product, ranging from the simplest thing such as your business card to the most sophisticated television promotion campaign. Regardless of the mix of promotion you use, it is essential that all materials maintain consistency, professionalism and quality across all mediums. These materials must be up-to-date, easily readable and understandable, culturally sensitive, and accurately translated where necessary (for example, if approaching the Quebec market in Canada, you would want promotional literature to be in French as well as English). It is worthwhile, if possible, to have a professional take a look at your current information packages to ensure that they are up to international standards and/or to make recommendations on improvements.
Awareness of the professionalism of your company begins with your business card. As they say “First impressions are lasting impressions” so be sure that it is neat, professional and clear and includes all the necessary information for people to get in contact with you. In addition to the usual address, telephone and fax number (include both country and area code!) also include your e-mail and website address.
Similarly, pamphlets, brochures, press kits and websites should be as sophisticated (yet clear and concise) as possible. Videos and other presentation materials in CD-ROM format have become popular but be sure the quality is good and that your message remains consistent (Note: the effectiveness of this depends on the receiver’s inclination towards viewing materials in this format.) Be sure to include pictures of your factory (interior and exterior shots) as well as your products in all of these mediums. Positive customer testimonials can also be very effective and should also be included in these and other forms of promotional material, where appropriate.
Websites have become a virtual necessity. It is one of the most efficient ways for a potential buyer to assess your company and its products. Some of the best sites are also the most simple. Although the use of effective audio/visual presentations can be useful, avoid unnecessary “bells and whistles” (for example, music that commences upon entering your site), that slow down the speed with a buyer can navigate through the site or otherwise distract from the purpose of showcasing your company and products. The inclusion of your production facilities is a must for companies in many industries, especially the food business. Be sure to include text description as well as pictures wherever possible. To gain repeat visitors, offer items of real value such as opt-in newsletters, trade events listings or market/industry news. Provide links to your site on as many other websites as possible. Seek professional advice on elements such as design, content, etc.
Promotion can also involve any or all of the following traditional tools: participation in specialized international trade fairs, trade fairs in the target market,personal sales visits to the market, exporter missions to the market to meet with potential buyers, buyer missions to your market and advertising using in-store promotions, in print*, radio or TV and possibly over the Internet.
*For print, obtaining editorial space in conjunction with advertising can be very effective and is often a negotiable part of a promotion package, depending on the publication.
Trade Fairs
Note: Find more detail regarding trade fairs in the “Participating in Trade Events” section of this website
Trade fairs are one of the most common means of promotion. With proper research and preparation, participation in a trade fair can be an excellent means of presenting your product in a new market (including the highly valuable personal presentation of a sales message), reaching new or unknown buyers, assessing buyers’ reaction to and interest in the product and assessing the competition.
While participating in a trade fair can be very effective in promoting and eventually selling your product, it can be a huge waste of money if your company is not ready to participate. Some issues to look for that indicate lack of readiness include: inopportune timing, unsuitable match between your product and the fair, lack of staff preparedness, inadequate funding for effective representation, insufficient development of promotional materials such as literature, display etc. and poorly located or designed/constructed stand (e.g. if you are among the last to book at a fair, you may receive the worst space and less support in setting up a proper stand).
Once you have determined that you are fully prepared to participate in a trade fair, a vital first step to take to get maximum impact from such participation is to setout clear objectives regarding what the company wants to achieve by its participation.
Some examples of such objectives may include:
making first sales of your product in a new market
increasing sales or market share
assessing the strength of the competition
assessing the acceptability of your product
finding an agent or importer
development of consumer awareness for your product
increasing the price you are getting for your product
With clear and meaningful objectives in mind and having established your company’s level of readiness, we turn to the process of assessing the suitability of a trade fair for your purpose in order to the select the best trade fair for participation (for either visiting or exhibiting). Some key considerations in this regard include:
Sales Visit
Before devoting extensive time, money and energy into participating in a trade fair, you may wish to consider other, potentially less costly, alternatives of promotion such as a sales visit to the target market. This could of course be timed to coincide with a trade fair taking place in that country.
Visiting the market to conduct a market study and meet with buyers is an excellent way to promote your company and products. If arranged efficiently, such visits can be more targeted and allow time with each potential buyer. However, such activity necessarily entails significant preparation and, most often, reliance on outside assistance (usually at cost) for making the necessary arrangements (especially meetings). Seek assistance from your country’s trade representative abroad, a trade promotion organization, bilateral chamber of commerce or any other avenue of assistance. There are companies that provide the service of arranging meetings etc. in the target market for a fee (often on per meeting basis). You can find such companies by searching the internet or by asking your country’s trade missions abroad.
One important factor to consider with regard to conducting a sales visit on your own is that you may need an invitation from someone in the target market in order for you to obtain a visa or other entry documentation. This is often the case for travel to Canada (depending on bilateral immigration status between our countries – visit http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/visas.asp to see your specific requirements). If needed, you must be sure that you can obtain such an invitation – preferably from an interested buyer – prior to solidifying other arrangements.
Note: TFO Canada does not issue invitation letters to private enterprises under any circumstances.
Exporter Missions
An Exporter Mission can also be an excellent way of promoting and selling your products in the target market. While the main objective of an exporter mission is to establish contacts which lead eventually to firm commercial cooperation with buyers,another important objective is to learn more accurately about the market, and how to approach it, by experiencing it firsthand. Indeed, participants should approach a mission with a view to the long term and focus on market research, developing your market plan and establishing working relations with Importers and industry members. Visiting the market enables you to learn about the current situation and conditions for your product – the competition, trends, the retail picture, etc. – so that you can better evaluate how to market your product, where your product fits in and whether there is need to rework, adapt, market differently, or otherwise rework your product and marketing approach.
Exporter Missions are often organized by Associations, Trade Promotion Organization (locally or internationally) and/or the trade office of your local Embassy, High Commission in the target market. Often they are organized in conjunction with a trade event taking place in the target country. Be sure to register your company and objectives with these entities (get yourself on their active contact/mailing list if possible) to be aware of any such activities that might be taking place regarding your product sector. There is usually, but not always, some sort of cost sharing involved so be sure to accurately identify all such costs in advance and make provisions accordingly (even participation in missions that are “entirely paid for”, say by an international trade promotion group, will eventually incur some costs to your business).
There are also private companies located in target markets (possibly in your domestic market as well) that organize trade missions. You can find such companies by searching the internet or by asking your country’s trade missions abroad. It might be useful to contact such companies to find out the costs involved in organizing an exporter mission. You may consider organizing a group of companies (from your country) together to share the costs, but care must be taken to avoid direct competition by the mission participants. It is best if the products are complementary but not targeting directly the same market segments.
In any case, you should be prepared for extensive advance preparation and to cooperate fully with the organizing partner. Some of the things that you will need to attend to include the following:
Note: Some of these items will be coordinated by the organizer but you will still have to be involved at some level to facilitate the preparation process.
Travel
Visas: Visitors often need visas for entry and stay in a foreign country (for Canada, investigate requirements at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/). These must be obtained prior to departure via the Embassy of the country being visited (for Canada, find the Canadian embassy in your country at http://www.international.gc.ca/cip-pic/embassies-ambassades.aspx?lang=eng). Organizers of the mission will likely advise you of these requirements and obtain documentation on your behalf, but you should be aware of what is needed.
Organizers of the mission will likely advise you of these requirements and obtain documentation on your behalf, but you should be aware of what is needed.
Flights & Accommodations: Mission Organizers will need personal information from you such as passport, visa, etc.
Local travel: It is advisable to provide some budget for local travel.
Samples: Customs clearance, shipping
Each company should have adequate samples to accurately represent their full line of products. These samples should be faultless. It is not necessary to bring a large number of each type of product as you will be able to follow up with sending samples to interested buyers after the mission is completed. It may be advisable however to bring more than one sample of the product(s) which you believe have the best chance of sales in the target market.
Participants are advised to either send samples via mail/courier prior to the event (usually to the national embassy or consulate located at point of arrival) or bring them along with them.
Requirements for bringing in samples vary by products but generally include accompanying documentation such as Certificates of Origin, Customs Invoices and Commercial Invoices. The latter two documents and more specific information regarding bringing samples in tot Canada can be found at www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca
Company/Product Information
Upon request, you will have to supply the organizer with all the company and product details they need to include in promotional materials and for scheduling appropriate meetings for the mission;
Participants should bring enough company/product materials including brochures, profiles, pictures, price lists etc. to provide to each interested buyer they meet. In addition, computer lap top demonstrations can be highly effective, especially if the company has a good functional website. CD-ROMs presenting company/product information (slide show, video or other format) may be useful but are not a necessity (there is little consistency in terms of how these forms of presentation are regarded from one buyer to the next).
Other
Note: Although most of the following items are normally part of the organizer’s planning and execution, it is important that you are aware of these various activities that should be in place in order to create the most effective exporter mission possible.
Event Promotion to Canadian Buyers
Prepare list of buyers to be invited to meet;
Sending invitation letters and advertise in trade journals and newspapers.
Local Ex-pat Community Involvement
Contact members of the local community with affiliation (cultural, business or otherwise) to your national interests in order for them to be part of the event and also to assist wherever possible (e.g. wider business contacts, support, etc.).
Schedule
A detailed schedule that identifies in detail (time, addresses, contacts, etc.) activities from when you leave to when you return home should be provided to you in advance of departure.
Orientation/briefing
A practical briefing (not ceremonial) on what is going to transpire over the course of the mission event should be provided by the organizer at the commencement of the Mission (before departure or after arrival depending on the nature of the programme);
In addition to briefing on meetings, etc. all participants should be provided with details on how to contact the organizers at any time plus additional orientation materials (local retail information, hotel booklet with contact info, local map, room numbers of organizers and other participants, etc.).
Importer Missions
Importer Missions provide a rare opportunity to exporters: the chance to promote their company and product in a most cost-effective manner from the advantageous position of their own home base. While these missions do not usually include as many potential buyers as an exporter mission, each exporter has the opportunity to increase the amount of time spent with each importer that is interested in their products.Ideally, part of this time should be spent by the exporter visiting your factory or facility. Such visits represent a great opportunity to showcase your company, products and production facilities (make sure all preparations, including orderliness and cleanliness, for such a visit are well taken care of!).
A related benefit of the Importer Mission is that the exporter is provided with exposure to the target market without having to leave home. The result is a more cost-effective way of developing your Marketing Plan and other facets of your export strategy. The exporter is afforded the invaluable experience of face-to-face discussion and negotiations with a potential buyer of their products; experience that is very hard to come by without actually visiting the target market.Under ideal circumstances, visiting buyers may be willing to discuss and share practical steps for the exporters to be better equipped to sell their products in the international marketplace. Don’t be shy; ask them about current trends, product development, sourcing raw materials, packaging and labelling issues and so on. By engaging in this manner during meetings, exporters are able to benefit from the expertise and insights of the Importers with regard to selling into the target market, regardless of whether or not they actually end up selling to a particular buyer being met.
Similarly to exporter missions, importer missions are often organized by Associations, Trade Promotion Organization (locally or internationally) and/or the trade office of Embassy, High Commission (in this case, either your representatives abroad or foreign representatives in your country – to find Canadian trade representatives in your country visit http://www.international.gc.ca/cip-pic/embassies-ambassades.aspx?lang=eng) so be sure to contact these organizations (registering your company/products and identifying your interests) and find out about any pending visits. Importer Missions are often organized in conjunction with a trade event taking place in your country. Private trade development enterprises also organize these activities.
Finally, because importers will sometimes visit markets in a less structured manner (i.e. not as part of a formal Importer Mission), regardless of any impending buyer missions, it is important to register your company and interests with foreign trade representative offices in your home country, bilateral trade organizations, etc. and make them aware of your interest and availability to meet with any incoming visitors in your field. Write to any importers you know will be visiting and invite them to come to your facilities for a meeting.Place advertisements with full contact details in your own country’s export promotion publications so that any buyers that are planning to visit and may be studying the market will be exposed to your company right away.
Other
Once a product has been introduced into the market, many companies consider some sort of advertising of the product to be essential. In most cases, this will become the responsibility of the importer or other type of partner you have chosen to work with (see more under “Place” below). Indeed, this is one of the most important factors in deciding whether or not to pay for the services of a local partner or representative. Through experience, these partners will know the most cost effective means of advertising your product whether in a specialized trade publication, on-line or in rare cases on radio or television.
In-store promotion can be highly effective in introducing a new product into a new market, but it is often difficult and time consuming to obtain the cooperation of a large chain or department store. As part of in-market promotion it is likely to be one of the most important tasks of your local partner.
In the next section we take a look at the different ways of getting your product to the consumer (the channels of distribution) and the type of partner you may choose to hire to be your company’s in-market representative.