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Sweet marketing music

Tanner Montague came to town from Seattle having never owned his own music venue before. He’s a musician himself, so he has a pretty good sense of good music, but he also wandered into a crowded music scene filled with concert venues large and small.But the owner of Green Room thinks he found a void in the market. It’s lacking, he says, in places serving between 200 and 500 people, a sweet spot he thinks could be a draw for both some national acts not quite big enough yet for arena gigs and local acts looking for a launching pad.“I felt that size would do well in the city to offer more options,” he says. “My goal was to A, bring another option for national acts but then, B, have a great spot for local bands to start.”Right or wrong, something seems to be working, he says. He’s got a full calendar of concerts booked out several months. How did he, as a newcomer to the market in an industry filled with competition, get the attention of the local concertgoer?

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by Jim Thomas
April-May 2016

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Exporting

During a recent Introduction to Exporting seminar at the Minnesota Trade Office,

I explained the existence of multiple channels of distribution to export markets. I was surprised that several of the participants had not heard of an export management company or EMC, one of those channels. Full disclosure, I work at such a company, and offer this brief introduction.

In its simplest form an export management company is an outsourced international sales department. The goods produced locally by the manufacturer are sold to the EMC who then either exports to a third party dealer/distributor or end user.

It is a low-cost introductory export sales service. Most times small and mid-sized enterprises don’t have the time, bandwidth or financial structure to start exporting when they have not reached critical mass and prefer to outsource the export sales function.

The functions of the EMC are widespread and negotiable.

They are typically responsible for: completing export documentation;organizing shipment logistics-freight, EIN designation and customs clearance; collecting all funds from the exporter; recruiting and managing overseas distributors; and overseeing product returns.

Why would a business hire an EMC?

Here are some reasons to consider:

  • They have no desire to assume the credit risk of an international sales transaction.
  • They have no desire to have inventory risk or hold stock for an international customer.
  • They have no desire to engage in international business risk -they wish to work in the local time zone, language and/or currency.
  • They don’t have the desire or skills to complete export paperwork or logistics.
  • They have no desire to recruit, qualify, train and manage an international distributor/dealer network.
  • They want to use the EMC as an initial export channel until they decide to invest more heavily in an international sales infrastructure. They use the EMC as a bridge until they build their own dealer/distributor network.

There are many types of products and types of transactions that are suitable for an EMC: Standard products with no/minor modifications or customization; products that are high value add and can afford to have several steps in the distribution channel; high- tech stand-alone goods that do not require complicated installation and/or training.

Social media have created a global network of purchasers researching over the internet for problem-solving product solutions.

This global network wants to understand how to buy these products not available locally, thus the enterprise needs an EMC to follow the lead and to set up a local sales distribution network to make the commercial transaction seamless and uncomplicated.

Export management companies are typically small ,domestically owned businesses that know U.S. export paperwork requirements, have ready-made relationships with international carriers, freight forwarders, banks and trade acceptance groups. Their fixed costs can be spread out over a wide transaction and customer base.

EMCs typically have foreign language expertise and export packaging materials.  They also know how to collect money from international customers using a variety of risk mitigating payment programs.  EMCs are an avenue to start the export journey until the SME wants to bear these costs internally.