alfred griffioen business in europe.pdf · choose your export country start selling optimise your...
TRANSCRIPT
Doing business in Europe
Alfred Griffioen
Alliance experts is a global network of business development specialists
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We help companies to enter new markets profitably
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Choose your export country
Start sellingOptimise your profit
• Country data• World Trade Analytics• Market Quick Scan• Market Research
• Orientation Visit• Business partner
search• Online sales• Own sales team
• Business case check• Negotiations &
agreements• Country management
One Europe, many countries
Focus on France
Prepare for the international market
Selling to Europe
Test your products in France
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Contents
One Europe, many countries
One Europe, many countries
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Germany: strong as ever
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France: concentrated in Paris
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UK: open economy, but for how long?
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Italy: something went wrong...
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Netherlands: tulip paradise as ever
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Cultural differences (roughly)
North/West
• Focus on the business
• Short lunches
• Direct communication
• Limited price negotiations
• Business and private separated
South/East
• Focus on relationship
• Long lunches
• Indirect communication
• Price negotiations possible
• Business and private combined
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Doing business in Germany
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Longer term economic developments
• Population growth is limited, population is ageing
• Eastern Europe is still developing and will get closer to the level of Western Europe
• EU will remain dominant and will include more countries
• Economies are mostly stable: no new Greek situations
• Western Europe will remain strong in innovation and productivity enhancements
• Tourism to Europe will continue to grow
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Brexit: short term gain, long term pain
Focus on France
Geography and Population
Location: Western Europe
Time zone: CET (= GMT+1 / +2 in summer time )
Capital: Paris
Surface: 550,000 km²
Population: 64 million
Density: 116 /km²
Language: French
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*Figures for metropolitan/mainland France
Significant Facts France has two coastlines: Atlantic and Mediterranean France has borders with 7 countries (clockwise): Belgium,
Luxemburg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom
France has a natural population growth and a very high life expectancy (over 82 years)
Main regions and major cities
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10 major urban areas population1. PARIS 12.32. LYON 2.23. MARSEILLE 1.74. TOULOUSE 1.35. LILLE 1.26. BORDEAUX 1.27. NICE 1.08. NANTES 0.99. STRASBOURG 0.810. RENNES 0.7
… and over 35,000 townships!
Phone # begins with01 ILE DE FRANCE02 NORTH WEST03 NORTH EAST04 SOUTH EAST05 SOUTH WEST
Economy and international trade
GDP: $2,600 billion (#6)
GDP per capita: 40,000 € (#20)
Currency: Euro (€)
Exports: $580 billion (#6)
Imports: $640 billion (#6)
Inflation rate: 0.5 %
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Significant Facts Government spending is high but it protects the purchasing
power of the population in difficult times France is a net importing country located within the European
Union and the Eurozone The transportation and communications networks are among
the best in Europe.
Agriculture: 1.7% Industry: 19.8% Services: 78.5%
Industries and companies
3,14 million companies
31 companies within FG500 (#4)
FDI stock is over 1,000 billion USD
Strong industries: food, cosmetics, aeronautics, automobile, health, banking, insurance, fashion, culture, tourism, distribution, internet and high-tech
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Significant Facts
22,000 foreign-owned companies (FOCs) operate in France
FOCs employ 13% of the working population
FOCs generate 1/3 of French exports
FOCs undertake 20% of French R&D
Every year, 80 million tourists come to France!
Major French global companies
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How to do business in France?
The language issue
Be formal and professional
Be eloquent and logical
Watch your manners
Be curious and share opinions
Take your time and enjoy
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Prepare for the international market
Rule #1: Make sure your product stands out
Coming from abroad you will always have a disadvantage compared to local producers. So make sure that your offering either is:
• Unique (so you won’t have any competitors)
• Better (or being perceived as better), and/or
• Cheaper
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Estimated costs to enter a new market (before any substantial revenue comes in)
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Nr. Offering / Market Simple Average Complex
1 Simple product 20,000 USD 50,000 USD 80,000 USD
2 Service from abroad 30,000 USD 50,000 USD 80,000 USD
3 Product with service 70,000 USD 100,000 USD 150,000 USD
4 Customised product 70,000 USD 100,000 USD 150,000 USD
5 Customised service 100,000 USD 150,000 USD 250,000 USD
Hours based on a all-inclusive cost-based rate of 100 USD/hour, travel on economy flights and 4* hotel
Importance of branding
Why branding
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$
A well chosen Western brand name is necessary
• Milward Brown research:
– Only 23% of Western consumers could name a Chinese brand
– Only 32% said they had faith in product made in China
• Don’t take the literal translation of your company name
• Choose a name that may resemble your name but has the right sounds and elements in it.
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Iran brands are not well known in the rest of the world
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‘Persia’ has higher brand value
• Associations with Persia are have to do with ‘warm’, ‘romantic’, ‘ancient’, ‘mysterious’
• Using this in your brand of product name gives a positive connotation
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Important things about branding
• What, How, Why
• What’s your story?
• Authenticity is key
• You have to develop key values first that fit your company
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Spending money on branding
• For retail products, the right packaging can ensure up to 5 times higher prices
• Also for TV-commercials, development costs are 10-20% of the total costs
• Knowing your target group is where it all starts, so it starts with research
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Do you want to export to a new country? Go there first for orientation
• Especially if you have never done business there before or if you are introducing a new product or service
• What we mostly do:
• After the visit you will have a better understanding how much you can sell and what your investments will be
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Day 1:• Business environment & trends• Review of your product and
marketing materials• Visiting potential clients/retailers• Competition analysis
Day 2:• Meeting with parties who can
play a role in the distribution• Discussing the best approach to
enter the market• Defining next steps
Selling to Europe
First question: what product or service?
• West-European market is moving to
– more design
– more sustainable
– more individual choices
• Cheap mass-market products are still sold, but at low prices, so also low margin for the manufacturer
• Services are mostly local: but opportunities should be there with Software-as-a-Service
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Selling to Europe: where to start?
• Germany
• UK
• France
• Italy
• Spain
• Netherlands
• ...
Country selection: from general to more specific
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General country data:like spending power, country size and ease of doing business
World Trade Analytics: trading information for your specific product category, based on the HS-code
Market Quick Scan: an insider’s view on the chances of your product or service in a country.
Market Research: in-depth insights, numbers, distribution channels and competition analysis
Finding distributors for products
• Agent or distributor?
– Agent receives a commission but is no part of transaction
– Distributor buys your goods and resells them
• Distribution structures differ per country
– Germany: per state, or per major city
– UK: focus on London, then the smaller cities
– France: everything controlled out of Paris
– Italy: start in the north, work to the south
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Example: Ecocam
• Kodak and Minion branded webcams, with cloud storage
• Product already sold in the US through Wallmart
• Focus in Europe on France and Italy, because they already had an agent for Germany
• Alliance experts did partner search and the first meetings with large retailers
• Their products can now be bought at FNAC, one of France’s largest retailers
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Example: Iprosport
• Sportsdrink, isotonic, no sugar
• Good reception in the UK
– deals with the army
– sports sponsoring
– advertising
• Have appointed an agent for the Middle East, who wanted to start in Turkey
• Turkish distributor should do all the marketing
• Still nothing sold in Turkey
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Example: Bona
• Swedish family company
• Provides a complete range of maintenance products for wooden floors
• They train their distributors to become the local specialist in wooden floor maintenance
• Distributor gets extensive marketing materials and they co-fund advertising
• Alliance experts found them distributors in Thailand
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How to stand out from the crowd?
• A Western brand name
• Website and product materials in English, and in Western style
• Good customer/distributor support
• Reaching out: trade shows or approaching distributors directly
• Brand positioning and brand marketing
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If you go to trade shows, what are your targets?
• How many people will you speak? 40 people per day is the max.
• How many people will grab your materials?
• How many of these people are the right people?
What are your targets?
• Do you want to reach customers?
• Do you want to find agents or distributors?
• Do you want to create brand awareness?
Trade shows versus direct approach
Trade shows
• High fixed costs
– Booth easily 10,000 USD
– Flights + hotel 3,ooo USD
– Staff time & costs
• Results
– 40 chats per day
– only 10 interesting
– 2 or 3 potential (small) distributors
Direct approach
• Partnering profile: what do you want and offer?
• Long-list of over 20 potential distributors
• The local Alliance experts partner approaches them
• This way we work towards a short list of 3 to 5 interested and suitable companies
• You can then come over and meet them in a few days
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Example: Joysun vacuum pumps
• Joysun is located in Shanghai
• Joysun has assimilated advanced German vacuum pump technologies
• Alliance experts did partner search in India, Iran, Russia and Brazil
• Defining the partnering profile was an important step directly related to their export strategy
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An all-inclusive e-commerce and fulfilment solution to test your products on the French market
Test your products in France
What is E-Marketest France?
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E-Marketest France is an integrated “all-inclusive” solution to test your products on the French market, which includes:
Warehousing solutions
E-marketing solutions
E-commerce solutions
Fulfilment solutions
Only 2 weeks* to
set up!
* from Europe
What does Emarketest means for you?
• You send a batch or pallet of your goods to France
• We place them on a website with the right pictures and descriptions for the French consumers
• We arrange all sales processes, logistics and return
• You’ll get clear feedback how you product is doing. We can experiment with pricing and descriptions.
• All costs our being covered out of our sales commission, you only have set-up costs of 2000 Euro.
Different products on the website
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Product listings
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Cross selling suggestions
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Questions
We help companies enter new markets, profitably!
Please contact us for any questions!
Mahdi Hayatbakhsh
+98 912 618 6855
Alfred Griffioen
+31 6 2477 6865
Arnaud d’Halluin
+33 6 66 32 59 59
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