Export marketing - relationships, not numbers

When exporting products to other countries, this article recommends building personal relationships with importers is more efficient and effective than the data-driven, standard approach.

Export marketing - relationships, not numbers

Tim Ambler

Exporting is important – to individual companies and to the economy. Tim Ambler looks at the conventional data-driven practices recommended by textbooks and government bodies and concludes that building personal relationships with importers is a more efficient and effective approach.

In an increasingly global world, one might expect the focus of marketing to switch from domestic to international – particularly in light of the government's focus on exports as the salvation for the economy – but this does not yet seem to have been the case. Many commentators, including HSBC chief economist...

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