Marketing to Foreign Markets
by CJ, Purve.com
It's no secret that I am deeply passionate about the world as a whole, rather than America as the world. Being from an Island, stuck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and viewed by the world as a tourist destination to be used, abused and destroyed, we are exposed to a variety of cultures and marketplaces. Combine all this with my love for the Internet and travel, and you will understand my need to seek out and learn as many of the world's cultures as I can.
My country is a little confused. Geographically, we are part of a region called 'Australasia' which bunches us together with a few thousand other islands, and the bits of Asia that fell off. Most of the souvenirs we sell our visitors have had the 'Made in Taiwan' stickers removed. We have embraced the Internet - which we feel is currently ruled by American culture. Our television stations are a mix of American, British and our own breed of home grown entertainment. We are still a monarchy, ruled by the Queen of England, a Governor General, and a Prime Minister.
Yet, we have managed to retain a culture and language that is purely unique to our little part of the world. We are barely 19 million people, with a land mass the size of North America, an overall annual turnover of a few cents, and yet you can all name ten things uniquely Australian, name a few of our famous faces and attempt to imitate our accents.
I have always believed that I am very lucky to be a foreigner in a global medium, claimed and mostly owned by the United States (for now). My foreign status has given me an early advantage, to remain receptive to the global environment. I can tell you things about the United States that many of you probably have never bothered to find out. I know most of the countries in Europe, and can tell you what language they speak. I also know the current Internet situation in most Asian countries, plus the things that are restricting their growth.
How do I know all these insignificant things about foreign countries? I asked.
Our little continent is greatly influenced by many factors, such as corporate America, the royals of England, and the mass production of Asia. Every insignificant event in each of these cultures has the ability to touch me in some way - whether to grow my business or induce a decline, affect the businesses of my clients and associates, or to change the direction of a whole industry within my world.
I think it's very important to begin this article with some very basic statistics.
TOTAL NUMBER OF INTERNET SURFERS
(As of November 2000)
Source: www.nua.ie
World Total 407.1 million
Africa 3.11 million
Asia/Pacific 104.88 million
Europe 113.14 million
Middle East 2.40 million
Canada & USA 167.12 million
Latin America 16.45 million
Although the United States and Canada account for 167.12 million of the world's Internet users, the Asian/Pacific region accounts for 104.88 million, and Europe accounts for 113.14 million. While America has been lucky enough to be the first country to really grasp and commercialize the Internet, many other countries have been a little slow to pick up the slack. 2000 brought the turn-around of Internet trends, with the European and Asian markets booming, and picking up over half of the world's market share between them.
The three barriers preventing an earlier growth in these regions have been, (a) cultural differences, (b) language, and (c) online transactions. For the average Korean or Swedish person, English is either a second language, or a language which figures very minimally in their daily lives. They may not be interested in blonde teens in schoolgirl outfits or common fetishes, as we know them- such as mature big breasts, etc. Finally, only a very small percentage of these people own a credit card that can be processed by current third party processors.
For the past two years, we know there has been, and will continue to be, significant growth in foreign Internet users, specifically the two regions we are discussing: Asia/Pacific and Europe. However, we have not had the tools to market, process, and convert these surfers into a dollar value. American media has recently picked up on the growth, and there is a minor hysteria occurring at the amount of potential revenue not being targeted.
Question: How do you begin to look at a group of individuals, who differ from you in every principle you have been taught, and attempt to sell them a product or service?
Answer: If you can separate and acknowledge the differences, everything that's left must be the same or similar!
For fear of ending this article abruptly, I'll go a little deeper into this simple solution to the world's marketing problems. All marketing principles relate to finding the specific interests and unique demographics of segments of people. However, this process is extremely expensive, and at this point it's doubtful that the markets are large enough for American Internet developers, to begin to produce sites exclusively for Korea, Singapore, or Finland.
Currently, the countries with the largest Internet growth, mostly those within Asia, are quite happy to develop their own Internet sites and to surf them without the need for the rest of us to build something for them. Our arrogance in the past has always led us to believe that foreign countries all want to be like us, when the truth is that most are happy just the way they are. Remember the golden rule, my travel mantra: It's not wrong, its different!
My belief is that trying to specifically target groups of people is not cost effective or a viable solution, for the world growth of the Internet market. Continuing to build the same sites, with the same content and target audience, while opening them up to allow other markets to surf, understand and purchase if they so desire, may just be the winning ticket.
We spend most of our marketing efforts targeting the highest quality consumer for our product, becoming very specific, and therefore reducing the size of our target audience. This is necessary for niche products, but when trying to capture a global market, we need to go back the other way.
The most successful sites will be the ones that remain generic, use multiple forms of credit/debit processing, and do not attempt to segregate a specific group of people - therefore limiting their possible consumers. Short of providing a niche, such as 'mature', 'teen', etc., most adult sites already fall into this category, but if you are looking to attract the largest possible share of the world's Internet surfers, you may wish to look at a few of the following factors within your sites.
(1) Use of Text, Spelling and Grammar
Most foreigners have changed our day-to-day communication to reflect 'Internet' standards. For example, 'center' is spelled 'centre' almost everywhere except America, but 'center' is readily accepted as an Internet standard. The Internet world has been accepting a few small adaptations to language, but some of our descriptions of people and things are blatantly degrading to certain markets, and will obviously not cross over to multiple audiences.
For example, the Asian niche within the western market is, although popular to us, either (a) degrading, or (b) dull to Asian markets. I've seen many sites referring to Asian women in racially derogatory terms, and although it's not expected that every site targets every consumer, if you plan on having a site called 'slant-y eyed sluts', don't expect the Asian market to be too accepting of this site, or any others you pop in their face.
Not targeting a market is one thing, eliminating it completely from your marketing efforts is something else. And for those sceptics who are currently saying 'but that kinda stuff converts,' let me disagree. 'Slant-y eyed' may be a funny western playground insult, it may be amusing to many, but it does not make someone pull out their credit card and sign up for porn. There are many other descriptive keywords that convert well, that do not have to be blatantly offensive to another culture.
(2) Multiple Sign-up or Purchasing Options
Only 14% of European surfers have a credit card that can be used with a standard third party processor. Although they all claim to be working on this, the market is there now, and your competitors will not wait six months for the U.S. based processors to catch up - neither should you.
There are a few different ways to get $$ from European and Asian markets. Eurodebit (LINK) offers processing options, such as checks and dialers, and NetDialers (LINK) is also offering extensive European dialer services.
The Asian market is a little newer, with several dialers popping up in the last few months, but there has not been enough trialing and testing for me to feel comfortable recommending a specific service to you. I would recommend keeping an eye open for new processing options to come out of Asia, and the future will certainly bring more European options, also.
(3) Theme and Use of Content
One of the first marketing methods, that comes to mind, is flattery. Many adult sites, especially pay-sites, use European content - "100,000 XXX feeds direct from Amsterdam" - is one of the widest used catch phrases in a tour.
Rephrasing this will not only bring more appeal to the text, and convert well with American surfers - it will also cause Europeans to swell with pride at a mention of their beloved smut peddling cousin.
"Amsterdam, the home of the world's hottest premium adult entertainment, provides us with 100,000 hardcore streaming shows direct from its clubs and bedrooms!"
"We are honored, to present you with the world's hottest feeds, direct from the single best producer of adult entertainment, Amsterdam!"
This principal can be applied to both of our sample markets, Asia and Europe. Remember, text does NOT have to be degrading to be effective. Asian women are beautiful. They have "nice bodies, small breasts and tight, almost hairless pussies." Yes, some are also "skanky, gutter whores, who for $2 will 'fucky, sucky' throughout the night." Both will sell. Ask yourself which has the potential for a greater audience, and which does more to raise the overall professional climate of our industry.
(4) Accuracy of Foreign Targeting
There is nothing more frustrating to a foreigner than having our own trends and niches incorrectly marketed to us. The Outback Steakhouse, Paul Hogan, and the Crocodile Hunter, are personal dislikes.
Again I will use the Asian market as my example. I have, on several occasions, come across sites claiming to specialize in the Asian market. Many of these sites lack even a very basic understanding, of Asia or its people. A Chinese girl looks very different from a Japanese girl. The same can be said of a Korean girl, a Philippine girl and a transsexual hooker from Thailand. Getting these labels wrong on a site, can turn off most of your target audience.
If you don't know the market, don't claim to! Its offensive to both foreign markets and the western group of people the niche was intended for. Those who have a strong preference for Asian women, or who are the members of your Asian sites, usually know what they like and the country of origin.
IN CONCLUSION
Most of these points do not require a lot of effort to transcend, in the future development of sites, rather an understanding that new markets exist everywhere around you. Knowing the demographics of the medium you rely on for your income is extremely important.
Understand that many of the differences can be ignored by simply not including them in your marketing attempts. All that remains are the similarities...
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