The Trade and Consumer Press is highly developed in all advanced countries. It is a treasure trove of detailed market information. By its nature it is always up to date. Because it is produced by people in constant touch with the market, its overall authority cannot be challenged. By studying the contents over a period of time, likely future developments within the market can be foreseen. It also contains valuable clues into the organisation of the public sector, its interactions with the private sector, and leads into the administrative machinery of the country, both at national and local level. Any particular local concerns, e.g. environmental, will be aired in its pages. Compared with other sources, it is very cheap and yet extremely effective.
There is a simple test to establish the relevance of the foreign trade press to the current or prospective exporter. If your organisation makes use of the British Trade or Consumer Press in any way, such as advertising in it, providing editorial, following market trends, sourcing new customers or suppliers, why should not the same reasons apply for other countries?
Even if the detailed work of serving a particular market is left to local representatives, it can do no harm to keep a weather eye on developments. A wise supplier will hold regular meetings with local representatives. Being well briefed brings two benefits: it is easier to monitor the representative's performance, and the latter will have more confidence in the supplier's commitment to the market. The Trade Press provides the necessary independent information.
At its most basic level, the Trade and Consumer Press can help answer the following questions:
Reading the advertisements in the Consumer Press is an invaluable source of information on the local pricing and availability of complementary or competing products. A visit can be planned to allow for a shopping trip to buy samples, or they can be purchased by mail order. The local Yellow Pages are an invaluable help in planning such trips. Before setting out, suitable shops can be called and asked if they have the desired item in stock.
A major but often neglected problem in general management is to ensure that the export function is properly internalised within the organisation. Salesmen and women visit markets, managing directors declare how important the export effort is towards the health of the organisation, but the people who produce the product and dispatch it to the customer do so in an intellectual vacuum. Circulating suitably selected parts of the Trade Press can help to fill this void. Purchase of samples of existing competing products will help the production and design side of the organisation to undertake any adaptations necessary. If, for instance, there are any special labelling requirements, the products already on the shelves will provide very useful clues.
Titles and their publishers are listed in standard reference works available in several major libraries. As an example, the DTI library has copies of the local equivalents of British Rate and Data for many countries. Often even the identity and publishers of local freesheets can be established. Once identified, the publishers can be contacted. As far as the trade press is concerned, a sample copy can usually be obtained without charge, but further copies have to be paid for.
By its very nature, the trade and consumer press is published in the local language. If the reader does not have a reading knowledge of the language, it may seem that this source must remain out of reach. This is not so. Techniques, described in the article 'Market Mapping', exist that overcome this difficulty. They enable the publications to be passed to someone knowledgeable in the language, but not necessarily in your particular business, and the desired information extracted. The same techniques can be used to monitor the performance of external market research services.
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