International Opportunity
BLENDING IN
Developing Your Business Internationally
We develop new business opportunities for clients in Europe and the US for their home markets, but also for those wishing to break into international markets. We thought we’d share some of our views on building business overseas.
Business Imperatives
Calculating the balance of opportunity versus cost is important before you begin international prospecting, and is usually quite different compared with activity in the UK. Overseas travel, subsistence and other expenses require that a definite brief exists, and that all qualification and speculative discussions have been taken care of remotely and prior to any trip occurring. This means you should expect fewer opportunities from your prospecting resource but that they should be of a more predictable outcome.
Rate Roulette
You will need to evaluate other possible barriers; how expensive are your services in that country versus here? You will need to gamble on which direction the exchange rate is travelling. In Campaign Bob Willott wrote an article on holding companies’ international plans. The piece concluded that the dollar weakening in the US, for example, meant that US based groups thrived over those overseas – with Publicis, WPP and Havas being among the worst hit. He calculated that if the dollar exchange rate had remained constant, the profits of Publicis and Bcom3 would have grown by 66% rather than 22%, and WPP + Grey would have grown by 39% instead of 8% in the same period (which would have measured well against US group Omnicom’s 44%. European groups must be sacrificing to the gods of business for a dollar recovery.
Jurisprudence
Have your solicitor advise you so that your contract (which we’d advise is ALWAYS in UK Law - or refuse to take it on) is enforceable in the target country and properly defends your interests. It is safer that you form a separate limited company for each country or region, so that if you do fall foul of litigation your exposure may be fire walled from your UK operation. You may find you are liable for tax at multiple points on overseas revenues and need to set up a dollar or other local currency account. Obviously your accountant will advise. UK companies can get latest advice on doing business overseas from the Government at: -
Department of Trade & Industry
Tailoring The Tone
Whilst it’s extremely important to communicate a consistent brand for your agency in terms of the overarching principles involved, you should of course tailor the tone as appropriate to the country you’re targeting.
Accentuate more corporate notes or perhaps play on the strengths of people’s London-based design creds, for example. It’s not a good idea to be dogmatic about your left field personality when addressing a more conservative region – they may later warm to the left field once you’ve met with them and given them the fuller picture. Allow your overseas communications to take on a slightly more corporate, international flavour than you would use in the UK. To be different here, may mean being seen as risky or too alien overseas. Before you commence prospecting, you should research what the precise meaning of your name in the vernacular - be it word, phrase or acronym - consider adjusting as appropriate.
Mother Tongues
Whilst it’s fortunate our mother tongue is the international language of business (it could easily have been Spanish or French), it’s imperative you deploy at least a minimum level of skill in the target lingua franca. This will enable you to identify and capture accurate contact information on the decision-makers, the precise nature of the decisions they are involved in and the skills to access them efficiently (getting beyond reception and PAs). Once speaking with the decision-makers, most European companies - certainly with those with international brands - will employ people that speak good enough English for you to make straightforward progress.
Bear in mind some countries positively enjoy trying out and developing their English skills. This is true of Nordic countries, where (always) very nice people may be happy to get chatting, but may have no pressing commercial grounds for doing so - so beware of wasting time setting up speculative international opportunities – these can be very expensive - and always qualify carefully. In the case of Asia-Pacific, it goes without saying that you’ll need relevant languages to a high standard in order to understand, be understood and to be culturally on the ball with the business idiomatic aspects. UK companies that lack the right language skills can focus on the growing economies of India and South Africa, where English is widely spoken. Indeed, don’t forget India. Although there is a great deal of attention on China, according to The Wall Street Journal, Chief Executive Publicis Groupe Maurice Levy is “keen to expand in the fast growing economies of China and India”.
Greeting and exiting a prospect conversation correctly in the language you’re targeting, is useful practice to remind the opposite party of your commitment and credibility. You must convince them you can service their needs in the locale and understand their customers, customs and culture. Get someone with expertise to advise you on the glossary of business idioms you’re likely to encounter. It’s easy to get things 180 degrees in the wrong direction otherwise…
It's important to tailor your written communications as well as verbal ones. Business letters, case studies, PR, viewpoints, research insights etc. all need to relate to the territory in question (i.e. New York rather than the whole of North America) or it will be too vague for credibility. If you're a US company targeting Europe, we’d suggest taking the emphasis off US case studies in favour of the more international ones you have to talk about. If you are approaching the US, UK companies should use US spellings, unless you’re offering to service US business in the UK, in which case the more anglicised the better. Your business letters and collateral should be translated into the target language wherever possible and adopt flexible, simple and modular formats so that the copy may be easily changed depending on which country or more likely, region you are targeting.
Local Credibility
Make sure your prospectors scan the Internet versions of the business press. In effect, the Financial Times often suffices. Better still use a quality press filtering system like Pearlfinders to pick up the major international leads. You must also focus on the major popular press for each country you are targeting. There’s often an English translation, or use the web-based translator services available. For example, in Scandinavia, we use the biggest-selling paper not only in Sweden but also across the Nordic region, Stockholm-based tabloid, Aftonbladet. In classic tabloid format, it gives you celebrity news; sport, sex and crime – all of which will help you gain a little local credibility whilst warming up the dialogue. Input all public holidays into your diary, especially noting longer national holiday periods as in France and Italy – best not to start prospecting in this case in August!
You will need to run a shift system to enable dedicated prospectors (obviously essential) to cover international prospecting throughout the working day with the US and Asia/Pacific.
Cleared For Take-Off
You should of course co-ordinate with any wider group or international representation arrangements you may have. Each group or network operates different rules as to what constitutes constructive synergies on the one hand or poaching someone else’s trade on the other. Some groups with international partners encourage this kind of enterprise others prefer not to rock the boat. You’ve got to make your business case and let the logic/figures determine the scope of your overseas remit. Obviously if you have a offering which complements a partner overseas then they should be actively assisting you to enable your new business activity in their country/region.
Setting up an Embassy
This is a critical question, answered only by your particular model. How much can be done remotely? How much must be carried out in the field? Do you really need a full office with name above the door in the heart of the business district? Or can you reasonably camp out in someone else’s office initially or with a network partner while you get on your feet? What kind of presence do you need there – 365 days a year, or initially only occasional?
Research
You’re going to need to re-evaluate your competitor set – it’s a whole new territory out there. You may have a USP and competitive advantage here, but is this still the case over there? It’s unwise to play assumptions about this. Examine the expressions and tone of voice of the major players in that region. What can you learn from this? In terms of starting dialogue – you should find the FT (and The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times in the US) useful. You will also need to research the decision-maker pathways carefully. There are often different meanings and phrases for different titles at different levels. It’s best not to trust cleaning this information and investigating who is responsible for what, to anyone other than your dedicated new business people; they’ll have a vested interest in getting this information right. In terms of deciding which countries to target, that depends in large on your offering, but a foundation guide will always be based on size of economy plus rate of growth.
Of course you’ll want your new business team to keep a close eye on travel opportunities to conferences and industry networking events in the target country. For example, you might like to ensure you attend, MAPIC and MIPPIN every year for retail and branded environment design in Cannes. Providing that pre-prospecting/relationship building activity has been carried out diligently before these events, you may find them highly fruitful for new business and partner marketing ideas as we have done.
Best Practice Seminars
Rainmaker pioneered accurate insights into what clients look for in new business approaches by marketing agencies. These provide the backbone for our seminars. Contact Charlotte Fletcher for more information.
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