THESE ARTICLES HAVE BEEN REPRODUCED WITH THE PERMISSION OF DMA US BM_1I.

Editor's Corner: Is Russia Still Trying? A New Trade Mission This is the first of two reports on your editor's recent trip to Russia. This installment looks at the adventure of simply arriving and departing Moscow, and offers some insights into DM-related matters there. This is indeed a beckoning market. Next time, some delightful finds -- both above and below ground -- in the capital city. And take note of our mention here of DMA's newly forming Trade Mission to Moscow and Kiev -- slated for April 2008. Mark your calendars! - Editor.

If you are going to Russia, be well-prepared for a puzzling place. Before you even embark, the Russian government does its best to prepare you for Russia and its bureaucracy. The tourist visa application is two pages long, and is exhaustive and exhausting. For example, it requires that you disclose every country you have been to in the last 10 years, where you graduated from high school and university, whether you have ever served in a government or the military, and your employers, supervisors, and their addresses and phone numbers for the last 10 years.

That only partially prepared me. It appears that I must have been asleep on the airplane from Zurich and missed something. Standing in the immigration line, I noticed that many around me held official-looking forms of some sort. I did not see anything similar on display anywhere in the immigration hall, as one does in other countries. Presenting my passport to the uniformed officer behind the window, he waived a handful of similar looking forms in front of me, and I shrugged my shoulders, holding my hands palm upward in the universal sign of "I don't have that, and I know nothing about it."

The military/law-enforcement official behind the window similarly shrugged his shoulders, handed me my passport, and waved me on. Thinking no more of this, I proceeded into a grand modern hall the likes of which could be found in any new major airport in the world, retrieved my bag with about the same delay as in any other modern airport, and found my driver for the trip into Moscow.

Some two hours later -- this being daytime in Moscow -- I arrived at my hotel 15 miles away, and at check-in, was requested to present my white immigration paper, which of course I did not have. There was much flitting about of hotel personnel behind a desk and much shrugging of shoulders, calling of numbers, and semi-frantic conversations. Finally, I was presented with the key and dispatched with an admonition that I had put the hotel in great peril.

I fretted for the next two days wondering whether I would ever be able to leave this country.

An Overview - and a Presentation But, business first. I had been invited through the kindness of Mikhail Kapatsinski, owner of a thriving publishing and services business, to speak to a conference organized by the Russian Direct Marketing Association. It was a very different kind of conference from those to which I am accustomed. First, there were presenters from Argentina and India -- both fine DM professionals and experts -- who had been asked to present on the future of DM in Russia.

Our presentation was titled, "The Five Nightmares Keeping Marketers Awake, and Their Solutions." Not surprisingly, the answers are found in the best ECHO competition campaigns. As I began, I asked the audience who among them was engaged in DM? No response. In marketing? No hands. Advertising? I despaired of the guessing game, and asked individuals their jobs, and found everyone from magazine production staff to a treasurer to a human resources director.

As to presentation facilities, there was a very competent simultaneous translator. However, the AV "expert," a high school graduate and relative of one of the other organizers, could not understand how my laptop worked, or how to load it from my flash drive to his computer. Thus, unencumbered by having to present my carefully crafted PowerPoint presentation, I delivered the speech with a great deal of body language accompanied by the "expert" being able to display about every third slide. I finished to warm applause, surprisingly, and was told later that I was much appreciated. And so I felt justified in coming.

A Bright Spot at Red Square
Upon completing my speaking engagement, I set out to discover Moscow, and found a definite surprise awaiting me in Red Square. On the opposite side of the Square from the forbidding Kremlin wall is a monument to merchandising -- the "new" Gum department store. The money is most definitely on display here. If you have recollections of the Soviet era, the attitude of the staff of the Gum, and its pitiful displays of merchandise, you will not believe your eyes. The interior has been completely gutted and reconstructed as a multi-level, mile-long mall, with every brand name in the world that aspires to either "popular" or "elegant" on display.

Every famous brand of anything to do with consumerism is on display. It seems that all of Moscow under the age of 35, mainly families and couples, is there, chatting, strolling, buying, and just enjoying this long and beautifully redone space. The formerly long, boring, and dark hallways now are broken up onto different levels for more intimate browsing, with the long vaulted glass ceiling providing light. Here and there are tinkling fountains, visible from the walkways above, or from one of the numerous cafes, coffee shops, and ice cream stores invitingly scattered throughout. This is most definitely a place to see -- and perhaps a definite symbol of things to come.

Middle Class is Rising
The Russian middle class is developing rapidly. Russians are well-educated, their scientists and doctors still among the best in the world, and they are hard-working. How do I know this? One of the largest publishing houses in Russia, indeed in the world, Mir Knigi, goes from strength to strength and offers new magazine titles and books on a regular basis to its huge customer database which holds, I am told, in excess of 10 million active customers.

There are buyers out there, and in many cities of up to 5 million,there are no retailers of major significance. In fact, there are no Russian retail chain stores serving this huge market. Reader's Digest does extremely well in Russia with books, music, and the magazine. Other powerhouses from the direct marketing field in Europe are here as well, or are looking to be: Yves Rocher, Trois Suisses, La Redoute, Neckermann, International Masters Publishers, Burda Direct, and PPE Group.

It is because of this enormous potential that I am convinced this country is one that cannot be ignored.

Trade Mission to Moscow and Kiev
Therefore, DMA is organizing a trade mission and study tour to Moscow and Kiev in April 2008. I have been invited back to speak to the catalog conference at that time, and will be delighted to take with me anyone who is interested in exploring these two fascinating markets. We shall construct a Web site to keep the membership informed as the program comes together. Naturally, as I did on my trips to London, Lille, Paris, Shanghai, and Beijing, I will craft the program and visits to the wishes and needs of the participants. At a minimum, we will visit the Posts, major banks, the US Department of Commerce in each city, and other service providers in both locations.

For further information on the Trade Mission to Moscow and Kiev in April 2008, and to help formulate the program, please send an email to international@the-dma.org and simply put "Russia trip" in the subject line. We will keep you fully informed as the Mission agenda is developed.

The Departure
Oh, and one more report. Upon my much-feared and anticipated departure, when I had checked in and finally discovered the secret of where to go to leave the country (everything is still a "secret" in Russia, including how to leave it), I arrived at what I assumed would be one of several security/immigration checkpoints. There was no one in evidence at 6:30am, despite the fact that all Europe-bound flights leave between 5:00 and 8:00 am.

After a few minutes, a very harried-looking official -- short, slightly bald, in a rumpled suit -- appeared from behind a wall to switch on an x-ray machine, directed me to pass my briefcase through it, and waved me on. No detection portal, no removing of shoes or laptop. No inquiry about liquids or gels. Somewhat puzzled, I inquired in the lounge if I needed to go somewhere else for an immigration check. I was assured that I had completed all required formalities. So much for security in Moscow.
-- Charles Prescott

BM_2II. Doing Business 2008: An Invaluable Resource for International Marketers

If you have not read Hernando De Soto's Mystery of Capital (Basic Books, 2000), and even if you have, you will want to study International Finance Corporation's ongoing research series entitled Doing Business -- the most recent being Doing Business 2008. Following is some background, and a review, with a link to the report's must-see Web site. -- Editor.

Hernando De Soto, a Peruvian economist, in his books Mystery of Capital, and Inside the Bell Jar, asked himself why the poor remained poor in developing countries. Why didn't they have capital? One of his discoveries was that petrified legal and political systems were not flexible enough to permit the new small businesses and immigrants to cities to efficiently form corporate entities in order to access financial markets, or get title to their homes.
These difficulties condemned them to the "black" or "extralegal" or "parallel" market, and thus reduced the value of what they owned. And this was not a failing exclusive to these societies, either.

In short, less by intent than by simple bureaucratic accretion, and political ignorance, the wealth being created by the migrants to the cities of the third world -- small repair shops, homes in slum areas, taxi and private bus systems -- was not realizable, because it was not recognized by the legal system.

Ludicrous Processes
You will see in Mystery of Capital diagrams of what it takes to formalize a business or property in the third world. For example, to formalize an informal (ie, slum) property in an urban area of the Philippines takes 13 to 25 years, and includes 168 steps involving 53 public and private agencies.

In Peru, it took Mr. De Soto's team 289 man days, working 6 hours a day, to create and form a legal business -- a small garment workshop with one employee. This cost $1,231 -- equivalent to 31 times the minimum monthly wage in Lima. And without this investment, this small shop would not be able to access capital markets, let alone borrow money from the local bank, to expand or finance its receivables, unless it had completed these steps. As a consequence, its owner and his family would be, in fact, living in the "parallel market."

Mr. De Soto's research in other countries such as Egypt and Brazil revealed to him that the poor, rather than being bereft of capital, were actually extraordinarily potentially wealthy. To prove this, he pointed to the capitalizable value of favelas (shanty towns) in Rio de Janiero and the slums of Cairo. Were these owners permitted to have land titles to the buildings they had "illegally" constructed, the stock market value or real estate value of these buildings would dwarf the total capitalization of the stock markets in those respective cities. And, he postulated, if these steps were simplified, perhaps more foreign companies would invest, as well.

The IFC Takes Action
The World Bank, a club of some 140 nations that finances reconstruction and development and industrialization around the world, through its arm, the International Finance Corporation, which makes loans in partnership with private capital, has put Mr. De Soto's work into development mode.

Some time ago, they began to take Mr. De Soto's indicators of business facilitation/prevention and do surveys of their members to determine their degree of "capital friendliness," or their welcoming nature to business. The rankings of all countries are based on 10 indicators of business regulation, which track the time and cost to meet government requirements in business startup, operation, trade, taxation, and closure.

Over the last few years, this book has become a benchmarking tool for countries in development and in the process of reformation. They actually brag when they move up the scale.

The Cost of Doing Business Worldwide
Doing Business 2008 is the latest of these, and is worthwhile thumbing through or wandering through on their Web site, www.doingbusiness.org . The work is massive, and its production involved the efforts of more than 5,000 local experts in 140 countries.

Across those 140 countries, you can find indicators of the following topics, all measured in terms of the number of required procedures, and the costs in money and time:

* Starting a business, closing a business
* Hiring and firing employees
* Registering property and obtaining various standard permits, such as building permits
* Paying taxes
* Importing and exporting equipment and merchandise
* Obtaining credit
* Resolving a dispute
Following are a few interesting nuggets:
* You cannot fire an employee in Bolivia or Venezuela (and usually in Italy as well).

* In Brazil, it will take a company 2,600 hours of work to pay all its taxes -- the highest in the world -- versus 325 hours in the US, and 12 in the UAE.

* Need to enforce a contract? In Brazil, it will take 45 procedures and 616 days to obtain and enforce a judgment at a cost of 16.5 percent of the claim. Now, in India, it is 46 procedures over 1420 days at a cost of 39.6 percent of the claim!

Changes Taking Place
The entire work is worth reviewing if you intend to invest abroad. The report notes that thanks to reforms of business regulation, more businesses are starting up, especially in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. These areas reformed the most in the previous two-year period.

And there were other emerging markets, including China and India, which were also improving -- simplifying regulatory procedures and making it easier for businesses to start up, hire, and replace employees, and even close down.
But not, apparently, to resolve a dispute. This one challenge still costs loads of time and money. Courts and legal systems are among the most difficult government institutions to reform.

Indeed, none of this is an easy task. We are in fact familiar with a typical De Soto-indicated, unnecessary, and business-discouraging practice. Some years ago, a corporate entity incorporated a company in Brazil in order to conduct a business that did not come to fruition. The entity never invested money, and never capitalized the company. However, it was required to identify a Brazilian citizen as a country manager in legal documents, and did so with one person's permission. This company never did business, had an address, bank account, or employees. But the "country manager" is now in danger of being taxed by the government, despite the corporation's never having done a single dollar's worth of business in Brazil. In order to protect the manager, it has had to undertake what is turning out to be a two-year process of closing down the incorporation of this entity. For this purpose it, after two years, will have spent in excess of $20,000 in legal and accounting fees to certify income and assets on a monthly basis, over a two-year period.

This is exactly the sort of thing that the IFC is hoping to correct. These are also exactly the sorts of things that the Doing Business work serves to change -- or more correctly said, embarrass governments into changing.

Top Reformers
The report notes that the list of biggest reformers in the prior two-year period is headed by Egypt. It had reforms in 5 of the 10 areas studied by the report. For the second year in a row, Singapore topped the rankings on the ease of doing business across-the-board.

Other top reformers after Egypt were: Croatia, Ghana, Macedonia, Georgia, Columbia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, China, and Bulgaria.

Another 11 countries scattered throughout the world initiated 3 or more reforms. Reformers made it simpler to start a business, strengthened property rights, enhanced investor protections, increased access to credit, eased tax burdens, and expedited trade while reducing costs. Other measures included the ease of hiring employees and firing them, whether a woman needs permission from any male to form a business, and the cost and number of procedures required to build a warehouse. Why Do We Care?
Does this flurry of change help business? In fact, "The report finds that equity returns are highest in countries that are reforming the most," said Michael Klein, World Bank/IFC vice president for financial and private sector development. "Investors are looking for upside potential, and they find it in economies that are reforming -- regardless of their starting point." In fact, large emerging markets are reforming very fast, including:
China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Turkey, and Vietnam.

Top Countries for Ease of Doing Business

Doing Business 2008 ranks 178 economies on the ease of doing business. The top five, in order, are:

1. Singapore

2. New Zealand

3. United States

4. Hong Kong

5. Denmark

A Handy Online Reference
In this impressive resource, all the data and information with respect to each country is collected in a country-specific entry, in alphabetical order. The Web site offers a host of search options:
* You can find country-specific data, or look up specific criteria, such as the number of days to incorporate, for all the countries, or by region.

* You can also download the entire work, or the research results for an individual country compared to all other countries. Thus, you can determine very quickly which country is the easiest and cheapest in which to incorporate a business, or hire an employee, etc.

* You can compare your target country to all others, or just those in the region.

* You can then check the country area to see other factors that may impact a decision, such as ease or difficulty of replacing employees.

Invaluable for International Marketers
The rankings do not reflect such areas as macroeconomic policy, quality of infrastructure, currency volatility, investor perceptions, or crime rates. Nevertheless, for the research department or advisor or consultant advising on the desirability of entering a particular market, or a direct marketer thinking of mailing into it, this is an invaluable resource. Visit the Web site at www.doingbusiness.org .

BM_3III. Here and There
Financial Officers Getting Their Own Mag in Russia. In yet another example of upward movement for business in Russia, CFO -- a monthly publication for chief financial officers published by the Economist Group -- announced last month that it will debut CFO Russia in November. According to a recent report in Business-to-Business magazine, CFO Russia will be published under license by B2B Media, a Russian publishing company. It will have an initial circulation of 25,000, and be distributed to Russian finance executives. The content will consist of local coverage, as well as a selection of translated articles from CFO, CFO Europe, and CFO Asia. B2B Media is part of Russia's largest, private media holding company, Prof-Media.

Germany Looks to Protect Its Industries From Outside Financiers. Germany is focused on finance, as well -- but outwardly. In recent months, the German government has become increasingly anxious about the prospect of foreign state-owned investment funds or hedge funds -- which are popularly known as "locusts" in Germany -- snapping up strategic industries, according to a recent report at Spiegel Online. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party has its own working group looking at the issue, led by Roland Koch, the governor of the German state of Hesse. Another government working group comprising top officials from the Economic and Finance Ministries and the Chancellery is also taking it on. Working together, they are developing a plan that, if implemented, will give the German government an instrument to use against unwelcome investors planning to purchase a German firm.

The experts from the Economics Ministry believe their proposal is merely a "minimally invasive intervention" into the rules they currently have in place regarding international marketers, according to Spiegel Online. The relevant clauses of German foreign trade law are just being "slightly extended," according to the ministry.

Under the proposed plan, foreign investors and German sellers will have the option of disclosing their plans to a state office. If the parties opt to disclose their plans, then the government will commit itself to making a decision on the transaction within a period of between 8 and 12 weeks. But if the foreign investor and the German firm do not voluntarily register their transaction, the federal government will have a veto right should it not approve of the business deal - for years retrospectively. Ouch.

"This is not a protectionist scheme with which we want to keep out foreign investors," Koch insists. He notes that Germany is presently the only large country in the Western world that doesn't have any instruments to defend its industries against unwanted investors. "Germany should be on a par with other Western industrialized countries," he says.

India Firms Building Global Empires. Germany may need to keep a particular eye on Indian entrepreneurs these days. Buoyed by a robust economy, a booming stock market, and the sharp appreciation of the rupee, India's flagship firms are steadily pushing beyond their home market into the wider world. Once sheltered from overseas competition by a government fearful of foreign domination, Indian companies are building global empires at a brisk rate, ramping up exports, striking cross-border corporate alliances, snapping up firms in the US, Europe, and emerging markets, and attracting billions in foreign portfolio capital to India. So says a recent report in Fortune.

India's largest IT-services companies, which count on foreign customers for more than 90% of sales, remain at the vanguard of India's outward expansion.But Indian manufacturers are going global, too. Bharat Forge in Pune, for instance, has emerged as the world's second-largest manufacturer of axle beams, crankshafts, and other forged auto components. Second only to Germany's ThyssenKrupp.

And Ranbaxy Laboratories, India's largest pharmaceutical company, manufactures generic drugs in 11 countries, distributes and markets them directly in 49, and counts on foreign markets for 80% of its revenue, according to Fortune.

But of course, these businesses still wrestle with India's massive internal problems: bad roads, an inadequate education system -- and shortsighted politicians. In fact, India's dysfunctional political system -- rife with caste, religion, party, and faction in-fighting -- bears much of the blame for these failures.

But business muscles on, at impressive rates. Infosys co-chairman Nandan Nilekani claims the India model is evolving into "something unique. On the one side, there's this array of entrepreneurs and a large pool of inexpensive talent. And on the other, we've created a very market-oriented mechanism for raising capital. Put those things together and there's a real ferment," he told Fortune. "In India, all it takes is a little deregulation, and whole sectors go from sleepy oligopolies to highly competitive environments almost overnight."

BM_4IV. Marketing by the "New, New" Internet Media: Blogs, Podcasts, and RSS

This is the latest installment in an ongoing series of articles by direct marketing consultant Ruth P. Stevens. This time, her real-world assessment of the current value to direct marketers of some hot new Internet media. -- Editor.

Everyone is talking about blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds, and other new Internet media. Are they real, in terms of marketing? Well, this is a tough one. Of course, they exist, so they are real. But whether they offer real opportunity for marketers is still a matter of great debate in the US today.

Enthusiasts get very excited about these new media, saying that smart marketers must jump on the bandwagon. "This is how to reach the early adopters, the new influentials," they say. "If you're not there, you're toast." Some new-media cheerleaders get so excited that they even predictthe demise of old Internet media like banner advertising and email. (Hmmm, this sounds like when television was supposed to kill off radio.)

Skeptics, on the other hand, say that the emperor has no clothes. That these media are not scalable, that they are unreliable -- even dangerous – and that they can't be counted on to build brands and sell products in any major way.

The future evolution of marketing using these new media probably lies somewhere in the middle of these two extremes. Let's look at the marketing opportunity in these three of the most talked-about new Internet media.

Blogs The hype around blogs is truly astounding. No wonder, when reports claim that there are anywhere from 14 to 50 million blogs out there in cyberspace already, with tens of thousands coming online daily. But, how do marketers take advantage of the explosion of blogs? The jury, frankly, is still out.

Let's consider the experience of Boeing, the gigantic aerospace manufacturer. As a technology company and a military contractor, Boeing has a culture of discretion -- even secrecy. So, it was quite a leap when the VP of Marketing Randy Baseler launched a blog about two years ago.

Baseler's blog was intended to share Boeing's views on commercial aviation. But almost immediately, he was severely criticized by other bloggers, who complained that his site was filled with "marketing-speak," and that he didn't allow readers to add their own comments. , It was a bit humiliating.

But Baseler didn't slink away. Instead, he responded to the criticism with improvements, made his content more fresh and interesting -- even controversial -- and eventually achieved a healthy regular readership. But clearly, a rocky start.

My conclusion: Marketers must manage the blogosphere using a media relations perspective -- the same way you try to influence journalists to deliver your news, or to mention your company favorably, or at least not say bad things about you. Blogs are essentially a PR play.

Some observers are hoping that blogs can become a productive advertising environment. A handful of blogs do attract enough viewership to sell advertising on their own. And a variety of aggregators are trying to build ad networks sufficiently large and targeted to attract mainstream advertisers. Maybe as this process matures -- 12 months? 24 months? – the blogosphere will become a real marketing medium.

Podcasts
But, what about podcasts and RSS feeds? Here we have immediate opportunity for proactive marketing.

A podcast, usually a short audio clip that can be downloaded from your Web site to a portable media player, is an inexpensive way to deliver information to customers and prospects. It's similar to radio, but the advantage is that listeners can grab up the content and listen to it whenever it is convenient to them. Podcasts give customers control over the consumption, but marketers still have control over the content.

So, podcasts make sense as a low-cost way to reach customers via a new route. The only problem is: How do you get customers to take the download?

My conclusion: While podcasts are an interesting and vital marketing option, you must still invest in other media channels to attract customers' attention to your podcast, and persuade them that your information is worth downloading.

RSS Feeds
RSS feeds, too, provide a way for marketers to cheaply deliver information to customers and prospects. Visitors sign up at your Web site to receive regular delivery of new content, to their desktops or their portable devices, like mobile phones or PDAs. This way, you avoid the spam filters that trap your email newsletters, and you reach customers with fresh information as soon as it's available.

Perhaps the most important evolution of RSS for marketers, however, is its impact on search engine results. When you create regular feeds of useful content, your search engine rankings will improve dramatically.

So, what's the downside to participating in this new medium? It's relentless. You need to invest in resources that will prepare this content, keep it interesting, useful, and accurate, and be available to keep up the pace.

My conclusion: As with the other two media mentioned here, RSS feeds hold great potential, if you have the time and staff to properly maintain them. Otherwise, they could harm rather than help your marketing efforts.

The Bottom Line For many companies, the time and effort required to maintain these new media is simply too steep a price to pay. They will choose to stick to the media that they control, that they can adjust to their marketing schedules, and that they can count on to achieve their marketing goals. Ruth P. Stevens consults on customer acquisition and retention, and teaches marketing to graduate students at Columbia Business School, and direct marketing seminars at the DMA. She is the author of The DMA Lead Generation Handbook. You can reach her at ruth@ruthstevens.com

BM_5V. SnapShots: News Bits From Around the World
MUNICH THE MOST LIVABLE CITY. Munich has been voted Monocle magazine's most livable city in the world -- ahead of Copenhagen, which comes in at a close second. Strong infrastructure and a fast-growing economy, high-quality housing, liberal politics, and one of the lowest unemployment and violent crime rates in the world combine to make this a city not-to-be-missed. A general feeling of "Gemütlichkeit," or coziness, pervades among Munich's residents, who know how to have fun and work hard. Seimens, BMW, and Microsoft are just a few companies that call this world-class city home. Full Story... http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/18/arts/rmon1munich.php?WT.mc_id=glob_m rktg_lnk2

SOUTH KOREANS DOING BRUNCH. Brunch has caught on in South Korea. Made up of the words "breakfast" and "lunch," brunch has been a typically American tradition for Saturday and Sunday mid-morning socializing and eating. Brunch-goers have long enjoyed mimosas, eggs benedict, and good company to help pass the late morning weekend hours, and South Koreans have taken to this activity as well. Full Story... http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/29/asia/brunch.php?page=2

WARNING LABELS PROPOSED FOR EU CAR ADS. European Union countries may require car advertisements to also carry tobacco-style warning labels, alerting other drivers and pedestrians to the environmental impact of a car's fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. A full 20% of any ad would have to be reserved for these environmental warning labels, and would clearly state whether or not the car meets EU standards. Full Story... http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/28/business/ad29.php

BM_6VI. ECHO Kudos Each month, we set out to bring you the details of a DMA International ECHO Award winner as a case study meriting deeper consideration. These are, after all, the "best of the best" from around the world. Members of DMA wishing to see the actual campaign showcased here, please contact the Global Knowledge Network Center at gknc@the-dma.org . To purchase the new 2007 DMA International ECHO CD-ROM, visit the DMA bookstore http://www.the-dma.org/bookstore/cgi/bookstore

This month: Saab Great Britain: The Saab "Race Against Time" Adventure Book Winner, Gold ECHO, 2006
http://www.the-dma.org/graphics/dmaemail/echoimage5.JPG

MARKETPLACE CHALLENGE
The Saab brand competes, along with around six other brands, in the premium car market in the UK. In recent years, Saab's success had been limited by their comparatively small product range. The launch of the 9-3 SportWagon, a mid-size vehicle, would open up a new market for Saab, giving the brand an entry to effectively compete against the Audi A4 Avant, Jaguar X-Type Estate, and BMW 3-Series Estate.

The UK automotive arena is a busy place. Nearly every car manufacturer has an active direct mail program, and the premium car category is particularly hard-fought, with showy, elaborate mail packs as standard. Saab needed to find a way to stand out from "noise" and create serious interest in the 9-3 SportWagon.

Target Audience
Consumers actively looking for an estate car. A smaller proportion of the audience would be in the market for a smaller hatchback, but could be swung by the SportWagon's particularly stylish looks. The customers were likely to be quite young (30-45), and at the beginning of family life.

Target Audience Size
25,000 - 49,999

MARKETING STRATEGY
This versatile car appeals to the outdoor adventurer, who needs room for canoes, skis, and mountain bikes. And it strikes a chord with families, who need room for shopping and children. The task was to find a creative thought that could demonstrate the flexibility of this enigmatic new car in an exciting and powerful way. So powerful, indeed, that it could propel response for information, test drives, and ultimately, sales.

MARKETING TACTICS
The mailing was sent out in July 2005 to a prospect list of Saab owners, past owners, inquirers, and families that fit the target audience profile.The list was further qualified by the age of the current car owners, and lifestyle factors that indicated likely interest in a premium brand car.

CREATIVE STRATEGY
The package arrived in a hard cardboard book mailer, seemingly sent by apublisher. The format alone helped dominate the letterbox, and impress prospects that there was something special inside. Not to disappoint, an actual book was enclosed -- an adventure story, in which the Saab 9-3 SportWagon played a pivotal role. Also enclosed was a personalized letter and an invitation to book a test drive with their nearest dealer (address given), or request more information on the car. The reply card asked for personal details to qualify car-buying intention.

RESULTS
This mailing piece alone saw a staggering 40% response rate among Saab's hottest pool of customers and prospects. The campaign also succeeded in reactivating nearly 500 customers who had not responded to Saab since the 1990s. Numerous sales records have been broken thanks to this communication and others like it. September, for example, saw the best-ever monthly sales since Saab UK imports began in 1960.

BM_7VII. International Calendar of Events

Golden Dove 2007
Date: November 7-9, 2007
Where: Danubius Health Spa Resort Margitsziget, Budapest, Hungary
Contact: http://www.goldendove.hu/index.php?pn=conference


The focus topic for this year's Golden Dove is relevance. The target database, the offer, the message and the contact channel each need to be relevant. Each message -- be it a piece of mail, a phone call, email, SMS or any other -- is wasted money if it cannot relate them to customer needs. For this reason, direct marketing components will be analysed by all the conference speakers in terms of their relevance.

Mobile Multimedia Advertising and Marketing 2007
Date: November 12-14, 2007
Where: Danubius Hotel Regents Park, London, UK
Contact: http://www.marcusevans.com/html/eventdetail.asp?eventID=12653

This event provides a platform where mobile operators, handset manufacturers, agencies, and global brands can meet to discuss methods to drive sustainable revenues. It will also address the main barriers and challenges affecting the market. By examining key case studies, it will establish how every player can maximize their position in the value chain. Delegates will walk away with relevant strategies to drive the uptake of mobile advertising and marketing, and ultimately increase profitability.

PosTech 2007
Date: November 14-15, 2007
Where: Hilton Hotel, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Contact: http://www.triangle.eu.com/conferences/PosTech/default.asp


PosTech 2007 is the first global conference focusing on the challenges and opportunities presented by technology over the coming years. This is a unique opportunity to understand the key challenges for the postal industry, with some of the sector's thought leaders, key suppliers, legislators, and postal operators. The conference will be a mix of plenary sessions coupled with discrete workshops; a separate Leader's Forum will also be held to explore how technology can become a positive driver for the industry.

ETNO 5th Annual Conference
Date: November 22, 2007
Where: Hilton Hotel, Brussels, Belgium
Contact: http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Summary.aspx?e=d015350d-37fe-4096-836a-db 84bddcddff

Finding the Right Balance - Developing a Regulatory Framework for Tomorrow's Markets. Coinciding with the publication of the Commission's proposals for the review of the EU regulatory framework, this year's 5th ETNO Annual Conference will provide the opportunity for a debate on the latest market and technology developments, and the most appropriate regulatory environment for telecoms services and networks in Europe.

Baltic Direct Marketing Conference
Date: November 28-29, 2007
Where: Latvia
Contact: www.ltma.lv ; vita.m@marketinghouse.lv


A two-day event devoted entirely to direct marketing, including the groundbreaking event, the Andy Owen Masterclass, "Discover the Secrets of Successful Direct Marketing" on November 29. Meet people who, during their careers, have developed direct marketing campaigns that have earned millions. These are professionals whose names and work are known worldwide.

IMC Stockholm 2007: Internet Marketing Conference
Date: November 29-30, 2007
Where: The House of Finland, Stockholm, Sweden
Contact: www.internetmarketingconference.com


At IMC Stockholm 2007, you'll learn how to build, acquire, and retain customers by having the best content in your industy. Day one is about all aspects of marketing and content creation, and day two is about Web analytics and testing. IMC Stockholm is produced by experts, for experts, and for all who'd like to become experts. IMC is the longest-running conference about marketing on the Internet produced by Europeans.

AdAge China Digital Marketing Conference
Date: December 6, 2007
Where: The Westin Shanghai, Shanghai, China
Contact: http://mediakit.adage.com/events/adagechinaconference/


Advertising Age has carefully selected the best brand marketers to share their successes in cracking the code of marketing in China, as well as shepherding Chinese brands into the world marketplace. These global brand marketing leaders and China domestic brand experts will give you usable insights on building your brand's reputation, trust and sales in and out of China. The conference will be presented in English and Mandarin Chinese.

WMM: Worldwide Magazine Marketplace
Date: December 10-11, 2007
Where: Suntec Convention Center, Singapore
Contact: www.magazinemarketplace.com/HOME.asp

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