President Bush and I visited London during the same week in November. But whereas he was greeted by protesters irate over the U.S.’s entry into Iraq, I was speaking with Aad Weening about why more U.S. catalogers don’t enter overseas markets.
Weening is secretary general of the European Mail Order and Distance Selling Trade Association (EMOTA), a Brussels-based organization representing 18 European national trade groups. As such, he’s up on which markets have a high penetration of established direct marketers (Germany, for instance) and which markets offer plenty of opportunities — markets like Russia.
Weening spoke about Russia the way Horace Greeley had enthused about the American West. Between 2001 and 2002 alone, mail order sales in Russia had increased 160%. That’s all the more impressive when you consider that the Russian Guild of Mail Order Companies has fewer than 20 members. Among the catalogers that have entered the country during the past few years are French mailers Yves Rocher and 3 Suisses, and German marketers Quelle and Neckermann. So far as I’m aware, though, U.S. catalogers aren’t following suit.
Granted, there are plenty of reasons not to try to break into the Russian market: The language is tough, clearing customs can be complicated, postal reform is ongoing, creating a database can be costly. But as Weening wrote in a follow-up e-mail to me, “Now is also the time that we see that due to the reforms set into motion, companies have excellent possibilities to tackle this huge market with the aid of a reliable partner who can guide them on the basis of knowledge of the market, the consumer, and the legal conditions.”
Of course, given that most U.S. catalogers don’t even mail into Canada — with which we, for the most part, share a language and a culture — promoting Russia as a source of growth is akin to asking an acrophobic to play Spiderman for a day.
But while entering a foreign market is not for the faint of heart, neither is launching or growing a business domestically. Of course, as a catalog owner or executive, you already know that.
PS — Have you registered for the Annual Catalog Conference yet? It’s May 3-5 in Chicago. Highlights include the Catalog Power Forum Brunch, featuring new Brylane CEO Eric Faintreny, Moore Medical CEO Linda Autore, and J.C. Whitney president Tim Ford among the panelists. For more information about the event, visit www.catalogconference.com.