Dear Friends:
In order to be effective in the business of international marketing, it is essential to develop an understanding not only of the present market conditions, but of the anticipated future market conditions. Futurism should be of very serious interest to any company interested in survival. Some of the components of a comprehensive futurism analysis might include an examination (e.g., some good projections) of the following elements as they relate to your product or service and its global potential:
- demographics
- demand and consumerism
- competition, existing and emerging
- technological change and new, alternative products
- the regulatory environment
- international trade policies and restrictions
- foreign exchange rate fluctuations
- country credit risk
Sources for this type of information can be found in the archives of this blog at U.S. EXPORTERS' RESOURCE CENTER, which was just updated as of 3 March, 2007.
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For a fascinating and entertaining glance at some amazing international statistics, I invite you to visit http://www.scottmcleod.org/didyouknow.wmv. It is quite a show, and is indeed worth seeing. In fact, you can even invite the kids to watch it with you.
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TWO USEFUL NEW RESOURCES which were recently added to the RESOURCE CENTER include:
COMMUNICAID LANGUAGE SOLUTIONS, http://www.communicaidinc.com/, an amazing firm (actually an international agency) which provides international translation and interpreting services. Mr. Kip Madden, my contact there, is extraordinarily knowledgeable regarding every significant aspect of technical document translation, on-site interpreting, courtesy ambassadorship accommodations, as well as with a wide variety of other international communications and connections tools which will give your firm crucial advantages over its prospective competitors. Communication (especially in your customers', suppliers', contractors' or co-venturers' native language) can be the defining difference between a profitable encounter leading to a long-term relationship with an overseas party, or an expensive and humiliating disaster. To truly be masterful globally, you must make it your business to know your counterpart's current language (even popular idioms), and customs. This will demonstrate your diligence and respect, and will aid you in winning your counterpart's admiration, and hopefully, some good business.
21st CENTURY TECHNOLOGIES, INC., http://www.21stsoft.com/, and MERCURY LEADS, http://www.mercuryleads.com/, are two very special firms which provide web design, sophisticated programming and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). My contact there, Mr. Michael Cordova, is absolutely the person to speak with if you are interested in establishing a "virtual export department" in the form of a website, or if you would like your company to rise to the top of the search engine listings in order to achieve greater market prominence and more site visits. This latter service is becoming increasingly necessary, as consumers become increasingly reliant upon search engines as a primary referral source. Your search engine ranking can mean the difference between feast or famine (everyone loves a cliche!) for sales of your product or service.
Although both Kip and Michael are cerebrotonic and are predisposed to speaking rather rapidly (they also both seem to take a great deal of pride in using frighteningly large words, some of which contain more than my customary four letters -- and may even be, in fact, polysyllabic!), I have found them to be a wealth of practical information, as well as uniquely resourceful. Both gentlemen are natural-born problem solvers, and take the time to seriously consider and answer questions. Keep a dictionary handy anyway.
Faithfully,
Douglas Castle, Internationalist
p.s. If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of this post (apologies, as there is quite a bit of wasted space), you will see an envelope-shaped icon in the lower right-hand corner. If you wish to automatically send an email of this post to a friend or business associate, simply click on the icon, and follow the prompts.
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