To export products and services to a "foreign" market you have to ....

To export products and services to a "foreign" market you have to understand, research, be interested in that market or produce a product or service that your native/local market likes and be lucky that other markets "like" it too! Or be R&D driven & hope.

A company that does not "care" what people think about its products or services be unsuccessful in either foreign or "native" market(s

It can get "lucky" if its in a by nature or geography "captive" or oligopolistic market. Or someone grants it monopoly rights to a market.

Work for companies that produce products or services you like. Produce products and services for "people"/markets you like. Biz is not chore

Proximity to a foreign market is a competitiveness factor. Either geographical or "mental" proximity or both.

Is business (including exporting) about beating your competitors or about capturing the hearts and minds of potential consumers?

The mantra of top business schools has been the latter, for years now!

Yet how many CEOs and biz owners feel that way?

In effect, products and services must create "mental monopolies" in consumer minds!! Be considered :"the only one". Much like dating!!!!

Next Tuesday is Valentine's Day. But every day's Valentine's Day IRL! How many people think your product(s)/service(s) are "unique" to them?

How many people or companies think your products/services are unique in satisfying a certain need or want they have?

Or are you relying on old style mass media ad blitz to convince people that your product or service is something they "really" need or want?

Producing and delivering a product or a service is a creative, artistic, non chore like process! Or should be.

Marketing analysis: npthinking stats

1) npthinking tweets

Based on data about @npthinking compiled from http://www.twocation.com


On 16/8, with 1069 followers vs 2/9 with 1213 followers vs 11/9 with 1248 followers

12 countries had market shares higher than 1% on 16/8. 14 on 11/9.

USA

16/8: 29.50% x 1069 = 315

2/9: 34.90% x 1213 = 423 +118
11/9: 34% x 1248 = 424

UK

14.20% x 1069 = 152

12.90% x 1213 = 156 +4

13.30 x 1248 = 166

Greece

12.30% x 1069 = 131

13.10 x 1213 = 159 +28

14.10 x 1248 = 176

Belgium

11.00 x 1069 = 118

7.10 x 1213 = 86 = -32
6.10% x 1248 = 76

Ireland

4.00 x 1069 = 42.8

2.90% x 1213 = 35
2.90 x 1248 = 36

Spain

3.20%

2.90% x 1213 = 35

3.40 x 1248 = 42

Canada

3.20

4.20% 1213 = 51
4.00 x 1248 = 50

NL

2.10

1.30% x 1213 = 16
1.30 x 1248 = 16

France

2.10

1% x 1213 = 12
1.10 x 1248 = 14

Australia

1.90

2.40% x 1213 = 29
2.40 x 1248 = 30

Portugal

1.60

1.30% x 1213 = 16
1.60 x 1248 =

Germany

1.30

1.80% x 1213 = 22

2.10 x 1248 = 26

Sweden

2/9 1% z 1213 = 12
11/9: 1.10 x 1248 = 14

Italy

2/9: 1.10 x 1248 = 14

Mexico

0.50

0.80% x 1213 = 10

0.50 x 1248 = 6

Regional:

Norway 0.30% x 1248 = 4

Denmark 0.50 x 1248 = 6

Finland 0.30 x 1248 = 4

Sweden 1.10 x 1248 = 14

Total 28

Estonia 0.30 x 1248 = 4

Latvia 0

Lithuania 0

Total > 4

Hungary 0.30% > 4

Czech R. 0

Slovakia 0

Austria 0.30% x 1248 = 4

Switzerland 0.50% x 1248 = 6

Slovenia 0

Total > 14

Croatia 0 (I know of at least 1 though)

Bulgaria 0 (I know of at least 1 though)

Romania 0

Cyprus 0.30 > 4

Malta 0

BRICs

Brazil 0.80% x 1248 = 10

Russia 0.30 x 1248 = 4

China 4

India 6

Total >

Ukraine

Lux 0

EU analysis:

Greece 14.10 x 1248 = 176

Belgium 6.10% x 1248 = 76

Ireland 2.90 x 1248 = 36

Spain 3.40 x 1248 = 42

NL 1.30 x 1248 = 16

France 1.10 x 1248 = 14

Portugal 1.60 x 1248 = 20

Germany 2.10 x 1248 = 26

Italy 1.10 x 1248 = 14

Finland 0.30 x 1248 = 4

Estonia 0.30 x 1248 = 4

Cyprus 0.30 > 4

Malta 0

Austria 0.30% x 1248 = 4

Slovenia 0

Lux 0

Slovakia 0

>>>> Total Eurozone: 436 (35% of total number of followers)

UK 13.30 x 1248 = 166

Denmark 0.50 x 1248 = 6

Sweden 1.10 x 1248 = 14

Latvia 0

Poland 0 (altho I know at least 1)

Lithuania 0

Hungary 0.30% > 4

Czech R. 0

Bulgaria 0 (I know of at least 1 though)

Total non-EZ: 192

Total EU

436 + 192 = 628 (50% of 11/9 total)

2) npthinking blog:

Last 30 days
Of total pageviews:

USA 33.8%
France 4.2%
UK 3.9$
Germany 2.8%
Russia 2.8%
Greece 2.7%
Canada 1.6%
Israel 1.6%
Belgium 1.5%
Finland 0.95%

9 countries over 1%.
Top post of the month 4.1% of total pageviews

Marketing analysis for the npthinking tweeting and blogging

Based on the programme twocation.com which calculates where the followers of a Twitter account are located, I received (16/8/2011, followers 1069) the following raw data which I then compiled as follows:

(%)

USA 29.50 (No. 1 overall)
Canada 3.20
Mexico 0.50
-----------
Total NAFTA 33.20%

Eurozone17:
11 of 17 reported followers:

Greece 12.30 (native) (No 3 overall)
Belgium 11.00 (No. 4 overall)
Ireland 4.00
Spain 3.20
NL 2.10
France 2.10
Portugal 1.60
Germany 1.30
Italy 0.80
Austria 0.80
Finland 0.50
------------
Total Eurozone 39.70%

EU27 - Eurozone17:
5 of 10 reported followers:
UK 14.20 (No. 2 overall)
Sweden 0.80
Denmark 0.50
Latvia 0.30
Hungary 0.30
------------
Total EU-EZ 16.10%

Total EU (16 of 27) = 39.70 + 16.10 = 55.80%

Other Europe (7):
Serbia 0.50
Jersey 0.50
Switzerland 0.50
Holy See 0.30
Russia 0.30
Turkey 0.30
Armenia 0.30
------------
Total Other Europe 2.70%

Total Europe (26 countries >0): 55.80 + 2.70 = 58.50%


Other countries:
18 more countries:

Australia 1.90
China 0.80
India 0.50
Japan 0.50
Pakistan 0.30
Singapore 0.30
Costa Rica 0.30
Panama 0.30
Paraguay 0.30
Argentina 0.30
Brazil 0.30
South Africa 0.50
Indonesia 0.50
Taiwan 0.30
Thailand 0.30
Tunisia 0.30
Greenland 0.30
New Caledonia 0.30
--------------------

Total 8.30%

The total is 97.30%, which leads me to assume that only 2.70% was not attributable to a country/location. 23 European plus 21 more countries (3 NAFTA plus 18 other) show followers of @npthinking.

Note also:

BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) = 0.30 + 0.30 + 0.50 + 0.80 = 1.9%

PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain) = 1.60 + 4.00 + 0.80 + 12.30 + 3.20 = 21.90%

To adjust for native country effect, let's use for Greece the same as of Portugal (same population), then PIIGS(2) = 11.20%

EU Big 5 (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain) = 1.30 + 2.10 + 14.20 + 0.80 + 3.20 = 21.60%

1 of 5 followers are from the Big 5 EU member states, but 2/3 of that is from the UK.

Top 10 (excluding native country):

1. USA 29.5%

2. UK 14.20%

3. Belgium 11.00%

4. Ireland 4.00%

5. Spain 3.20%

5. Canada 3.20%

7. France

7. Netherlands 2.10

9. Australia 1.90

9. BRICs 1.90

Since 95% of the posts is all in English, let's see the native EN speaking share of the whole:

USA 29.50% + UK 14.20% + Ireland 4.00% + Canada 3.20% + Australia 1.90 = 52.80%

G7 (to be calculated)

G20 (to be calculated)

UNASUR (to be calculated)

Notably, these follower stats for @npthinking vary considerably from the page views stats of the npthinking blog (provided by blogger.com to each blog account for free).

Thus: To be continued!

Update 24/8 (+8 days)
1117 followers from 1069

Updated stats:
USA 31.10% up
UK 14.20% stable
Greece 14.20% up
Belgium 8.40% down
Canada 4.20% up
Ireland 3.90% down 0.10
Spain 2.40% down
Australia 1.80% down 0.10
Portugal 1.60% stable
Netherlands 1.60 down
France 1.60% down
Germany 1.30% stable
Mexico 1.10% up

---------------------------------------------------------

Update No 2 > 28/8 (+12 days, 4 since last)
1182 followers +65 since 24/8, +114 since 16/8 (+10.7%)
13 countries (same as 24.8) with shares >1% but most are down (as %) compared to 24/8.

Updated stats:
USA 33.90% up x 1182 = 400,6 followers
UK 13.70% down x 1182 = 161.9 followers
Greece 13.40% down
Belgium 7.80% down X 1182 = 92.1 followers
Canada 3.80% down
Ireland 3.20% down x 1182 = 37.8 followers
Spain 2.60% down
Australia 1.90% up 0.10
Portugal 1.60% stable
Netherlands 1.60 stable
France 1.10% down
Germany 1.60% up
Mexico 1.10% stable

Reminder, on 16/8, with 1069 followers, the % where:
12 countries had market shares higher than 1%
USA 29.50 x 1069 = 315,3
UK 14.20 x 1069 = 151,7
Greece 12.30
Belgium 11.00 x 1069 = 117.6
Ireland 4.00 x 1069 = 42.8
Spain 3.20
Canada 3.20
NL 2.10
France 2.10
Australia 1.90
Portugal 1.60
Germany 1.30
(Mexico 0.50)

That means
+114 followers from 16/8 to 28/8
+86 US followers, from 315 to 401
+10 UK followers from 152 to 162
-26 followers from Belgium based followed from 118 to 92.
- 5 Ireland followers, from 43 to 38.

I love maths, stats, the full monty. I miss it (used to do a lot of that number crunching in the old days). So I am going to input some of the data so far into a spreadsheet and take the marketing analysis 1 level up from this very basic one. Will be fun!

OK then, bottom line today, +10.7% followers in 12 days, the ranking of the top 12 has been the same in spite of changes in the market shares (Mexico went from 0.5% to 1.10 by 24/8, that making the number of countries with market shares above 1% 13)

In absolute numbers, USA+UK account for 96 of the 114 net gain in followers (on Twitter).
22% of the Belgium based followers have been lost in those 12 days. Potential causes? Could be the wider content of @npthinking since the revamping, approximately 1 month ago, that now includes not only EU and other policy but applied philosophy, music, poetry, etc. which was also communicated via the @change of the username from the old @nppolicyanalyst. In the 30 days since these changes, the pageviews for the npthinking blog have gone up (more stats on that in the coming days) and the volume of followers of npthinking on Twitter has jumped from approx. 820 to 1182, ie 362 (+44.1%!!). As you can see from the graph at the top of this post, this jump improved on an always significant rate of increase in the last 3 months. Eg from 665 on May 27.
In effect @mpthinking following has "naturally" (no "fertilisers") grown 77.7% in 3 months (May 27 to August 28)!

To some extent, the growth of @npthinking followers in the last 30 days is due to the attempted merger of two accounts which was not executed as well as planned and which led initially to a 20% or less move of the followers of the second account to @npthinking (note: there was though a significant number of overlaps in the followers of the two accounts). One week after the merger (via deletion of the second account and notices to followers to move to the other one), from Aug 24 to Aug 31 the following of @npthinking had increased by a less than 25% of volume of followers of the other account, ie from 825 to 964. A gain of 139 "only" (considering the merger). Now, a month after the merger, the gaiu stands at +362 (+139 + 223). And on non-systematic inspection of the usernames of the new followers, it seems that most did not come from the other account).

The US was and remains the No1 market not only for my tweets but my blog posts as well.
US has 34.9% of the pageviews in the last 30 days (according to free blogger.com stats that come with the blog). That share is close to the US share in Twitter followers (both around 1 on 3).
No2 share of pageviews comes from the UK, but with 4.6%. The spread in npthinking blog pageviews in the last 30 days is wider across countries than thar of @npthinking tweets.

Strategy: The relevant market(s)

Originally written: 11/2001
Updated: 15/8/2011

1) National/Niche:
Are some national markets too small for niche orientated strategies?

2) National/Mass:
What are the key corporate/business competences for succeeding in the mass market of a small as opposed to the key corporate/business competences for succeeding in the mass market of large country/economy?

Yet:

3) Existential:

Do the above questions make sense when there is "free" (near) global (WTO rules based) trade for most goods? When there is a single market exists in the EU for almost 20 years now?

(A: In spite of the above, a national market is still a national market, and in some cases a local market is still a local market, ie "native" companies still have concrete/real "advantages" over "alien" ones).

4) National champions playing in the EUropean or the world league:
How are the key corporate/business competences for succeeding as in a national mass market relevant to those needed for succeeding in a wider regional, European or global mass market? To what extent and under what conditions are they compatible? And vice-versa.

The sensitive warrior

There are 30" left in the game. The opponents are leading. The team is determined to win. Armed with years of training and experience, loyalty to the team and to the home crowd, and a lot of "HR Capital", they know they can do it. They are true warriors.

Salvaging all their strength, they go for the "extra yard". They win because they want to win more badly than the opponents.

They are now given the trophy under the cheering of the enormous crowd. They are the champions. They are winners, and to the winners the "spoils".


For many, business was and still is like "war". Just like football, just like "love". They do business, they play football, they treat the opposite sex as a battle.

To win, they study the opponents, they get motivated, they fight, they beat them. They treat the market just like they would treat the target territory. Fight and conquer.

In human relationships, this kind of "lover" has long gone out of "fashion". Nowadays it is the sensitive "lover" who builds relationships, who is chosen, isn't he.

He does not worry about beating any opponents. He focuses on understanding the opposite sex, feeling the emotions of the persons he is interested in.

Isn't the same principle applicable to business today?

Does
a) the competition matter, or
b) feeling the 'clients', building relationships with them? Keeping them (the target market) happy. Understanding and satisfying their needs and wants.

Some would agree with (b).

Others claim that this is nice in theory, but beating the competitors, the other "suitors", does matter too.

It is a matter of balance between the two, hence the need for a "sensitive warrior"?


Written: 2003

"Think Local, Act Global" or ... whatever!

I wrote this post in my old blog 3+ years ago (June 19, 2007). Read it and see to what extent it remains current. IMO, it's even more current and relevant today than in June 2007!

Dynamics: "Think Local, Act Global" or ... whatever!

The management/business mantra used to be "Think Global", then it evolved to "Think Global, Act Local", then we sort of lost .. direction (somewhat like the people in the TV series). "Think Local, Act Global", or whatever!

Maybe "Think localglobal and act global-local"?

I kind of like the "global-ethnic" idea/strategy among others. Ie create and market a "product" which has 50% specific and identifiable and globally attractive "couleur local" and 50% global elements. Or, alternatively, is 50% "exotic" (to the local consumer) and 50% "known" and "familiar": Balance the foreign/xenon and the familiar/standard.

It's like the debate as to whether people are "all the same" or "each is unique". In my mind, each person is both unique and just like all other humans.

Some multinational business strategists call it "having local relevance". Hm!

But how on Earth can a company, even the most "global" or "multi-national" be relevant (and en plus, a "good neighbor", but that is a Public Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) issue) in the 100, 150 or 200 national markets it operates in? Or does this apply mostly to "large" or otherwise "key" market? Eg China, India, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, USA, Brazil, South Africa, etc? "Relevant" to the national pop culture?

Assuming there is a unified "national pop culture" that is, instead of an amalgam of various ones!

Are some societies or national pop cultures more "global" than others?

Which country, economy, society, pop culture is the most "global" these days? The US, the UK, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Monaco, Canada? Or should one better use the notion of "cosmopolitan"?

Or should one look at locations/regions (pockets of cosmopolitanism or globalism) rather than cosmopolitan/global countries/nations? Eg CA or LA, NYC, London, Paris, Southern France, Mykonos, Ibiza, Cancun, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, the Italian or Spanish or English football league, the NBA, Geneva, DC, Brussels, Singapore, Hong Kong, some areas in India and China, Berlin, etc?

Like Athens was in the 5th century BC, or Carthage (until the Romans literally levelled it), or Alexandria (after the death of Alexander), or Minoan Crete until the Thira volcano's tsunami, or Cairo, or Babylon, or Rome ("when in Rome"), or Constantinople (for at least 1000 years), or Florence in the 15th plus, or Paris in parts of the 20th century (for artists), etc?