Market & Marketing Research

How much do you know about your existing domestic business? Quite a bit, we suspect.

How much do you know about your existing or intended export business? Probably a lot less.

And potentially, could world demand be greater than home demand? More than likely.

Your proximity to the domestic market usually means that your market knowledge is updated without thinking about it, from feedback from your customers to reading the trade press. Overseas, it is a different matter.

Try doing a SWOT, once for domestic and again for overseas - you may be surprised how many gaps you have got!

We work very closely with Government agencies to help you get the information you need, from potential agents and distributors for your products and service to statistics on market consumption and trends within your industry. What is more, these schemes are either heavily subsidised at source or come with an enabling grant of up to £20,000.

Export Market Screening

Where do you start? On average, a company will have at 10 or 12 countries in mind.

Depending where you are based, these are typically: USA (big and English speaking), France (close), China (booming economy), Germany (like quality), Japan (like unique things), Australia (evens out seasonality), UK (liberal attitude) Middle East (wealthy) and New EU accession countries (new money.

And then there are the favourite holiday destinations... All good reasons, possibly, but what about the practicalities of dealing with any of them let alone all of them? - Distance, language, payment, standards, approvals, PPP (purchasing power parity), business practices, cultural differences etc etc.

Using our experience, we will work with you on a simple and straightforward process to produce a workable and realistic shortlist of the best markets at which to aim. Bearing in mind how much focused effort has gone into establishing a successful domestic operation, it is far better to have one winner than several non-starters.

For more information click here to email or phone 01798 874925.