“There is a great deal of knowledge transfer within the Olympic movement and from one Games to the next. Given the success of Sydney 2000, it was not surprising therefore that the Sydney Games were seen by the London Organising Committee (LOCOG) as the gold standard,” explains Kym Fullgrabe, senior trade commissioner for the UK and Israel.

Although we set the standard, it did not mean that Australian companies were automatic contenders for London contracts. Instead, LOCOG looked for leading capability worldwide and Australian suppliers had to compete against any supplier operating in the UK, he says. Because the £7.3 billion construction budget came from taxpayers’ money, the procurement process followed European Union rules, designed to ensure free competition on major European public sector projects. “This process was open to Australian suppliers, but bidders for the tier one construction projects had to demonstrate established integration with existing UK and European supply chains,” says Fullgrabe. The upshot was that existing exporters to the UK and Europe had a better chance of competing than new exporters, unless those newer players could piggyback in as subcontractors of the established companies.

Major Australian companies contributing to the Games include Lend Lease, project manager for the construction of the Athlete’s Village, SKM, engineering temporary structures such as the basketball arena, and Populous, with a sports architecture team in the consortium awarded the contract to design and build the main Olympic stadium, as well as smaller architectural services (see Case Study).

Beyond building

Although the construction budget is the major part of the money being spent on the Games, there are other areas where Australian exporters will contribute, including the delivery of the Games via specialised event staging and management, says Fullgrabe. “A recent example of a major success would be the contract for cleaning and waste recycling for the main Olympic venues, awarded to the UK subsidiary of [Australia company] Cleanevent. “
Outside of, but related to, the Games is urban redevelopment. LOCOG established the 2012 Olympic venue in London’s East End, a deprived area of the city, as part of an effort to rejuvenate the surrounds. As a result, investment such as Westfield’s $2 billion retail development in Stratford has become a key part of the East End’s urban renewal.

Most of the big ticket tenders for the Games have already been decided, but at one year out there are a few smaller opportunities that Australian exporters may want to look into using LOCOG’s CompeteFor process. Fullgrabe says those businesses that missed out should still be able to use the 2012 London Olympic Games as a leverage point for similar events. “The focus now is to use their experience to win business with the many major sports events around the world. This includes Rio 2016, Toronto 2015 Pan American Games, Sochi 2014, Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and many more,” he lists. “Organising committee members from all of these events, as well as all the bidding teams for the next round of major events, will be in London during the Games making it a cost effective place to promote Games related services.”

Olympic impact

The Games have been a turning point for the UK economy, says Richard Morris, the British Consul General for Sydney and Director General of UK Trade and Investment Australasia. Since winning the bid more than six years ago—from rival city Paris and A-list competitor New York, no less—London has survived a terrorist attack, the GFC, and sweeping political change. Throughout, the Games have remained a beacon of hope, and the excitement is already beginning to build. “They are hugely important to the UK and people are thrilled that we’ve won it,” says Morris. “Over the last 12 months people have started to get more excited. Ticket sales have gone out so some people now know where they’re going to be.”

Paired with this upbeat outlook is the effect of political change influencing the economy. The new government, which came to power just over a year ago, changed things to help the private sector and the economy is beginning to respond. “The economy has been picking up over the last 12 months and we’ve seen around half a million jobs created by the private sector,” Morris reports. “You do see negative things in the media around the economy but if you actually have a look at the figures you can see that things are on the up for the UK economy. I think there’s a sense of positivity around what the government is doing.”

Among the changes that have affected the business environment are a number of measures designed to encourage growth such as a reduction in corporate tax and an increase to the R&D tax credit rating. Morris also notes that diversity in the economy is also a key factor for future growth. “People look at financial services but actually we’re very big on manufacturing as well so we have a range of different sectors to think about through the current economic circumstances.”

London at large

A Lloyds TSB business forecast states that the 2012 London Olympic Games will generate £21 billion for the UK economy and a recent Visa prediction estimates consumer spending will be around £750 million due to the Games so there are plenty of economic pluses, says Morris.

“For us it’s about getting the message out that it’s a great time to be in the UK, a great time to be thinking of going to the UK if you’re a company wondering whether to go,” he adds. “Retail, lifestyle, the sports and leisure sectors: London is an obvious place to be in 2012. Australian companies can make a case that they have real expertise in sports and leisure management, facilities management. There’s a definite strength there.”

But it isn’t just about London—or the Games for that matter. Morris points out that Australian businesses for other sectors are already benefiting from having a UK presence, whether in London, other parts of the UK or Europe. “Broadly, we’ve seen companies in the digital and technology space that have a great idea but the market here isn’t big enough for them. They use the UK as a larger market and a way to springboard into the rest of Europe. There’s 60 million Brits but 500 million in Europe so it’s a good way of taking your business to a much bigger audience,” he says.

In some ways, the Games are just a form of motivation to encourage exporters who have had the UK on their radar to plan their entry for 2012, Morris adds. “Because there’s going to a be such a boost in the economy during the Games, it feels like a good time to go if it has been on your list. At a year to go, there’s still time to get yourself over there, have a look around and to consider what’s the right channel to market for you.”

Focus on performance

In previous years Austrade ran a successful program call Business Club Australia (BCA), a series of meet and greet events with Australian exporters from various sectors in the same room as potential clients and customers from around the world. Another success that began at the 2000 Sydney Games, BCA was repeated at other major sporting events around the world including other Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games, a few Rugby World Cups and last year’s FIFA World Cup.

Next year, the focus will be on just one industry: Australian capability and expertise in the planning and delivery of major international sporting events, says Ashley White, manager for Major Events at Austrade. “There are a number of Australian businesses that are globally competitive and we know there are going to be large international customers in London in observing capacity already. Given the number of Australian companies that are helping London stage the games, it makes sense to marry the two.”

The fit is an obvious one and the rationale behind eschewing other sectors, including resources and biotech, is that the UK is already a mature market for Australian exporters and the biggest return on investment will be in the sporting arena—both in and out of the stadium. This doesn’t mean other sectors miss out, however. “We talk about the sports sector but there are a number of sub-sectors: from master planning, architects to engineering and construction, security, right through to event delivery. We’re still targeting a range of products and services because the sports sector is very broadly defined,” notes White.

Instead of a series of events, there will be a single reception at the Australian High Commission during the Games where a number of decision makers from countries hosting upcoming major events through to 2022 will be in attendance. By invitation, there will also be representatives from Australian companies that have worked on Olympic and Commonwealth Games as well as other major international events such as the Asian Games in Doha.

Although this reception will not be branded under BCA it is likely that the program, or something like it, will return for markets where Australian export penetration is less mature, White intimates. “In London we realised that Australian companies would do their own thing regardless, so we didn’t need a government umbrella. However, in emerging markets—looking down the track to places like Russia and Brazil and Korea—there will be a need for a more whole-of-government BCA-type program that will capture all those companies.”

Austrade has three main objectives it would like to achieve at its London event: to showcase the industry and the Australian companies involved; to remind or educate guests on Australian achievements in the sector; and to help Australian firms bid for and win contracts through networking “at the highest possible level,” says White. “We will be measuring the business outcomes and the deals done in this sector. We will know who was there.”

He adds that all of this is a perfect way to promote Australia’s new nation brand, Australia Unlimited. Game on.

BVN Architecture

The 2004 Athens Olympic Games brought BVN Architecture to Greece and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games consolidated the firm’s business in China. Now, the 2012 London Olympic Games is set to boost BVN’s business in the UK.

Working with a partner firm in London, BVN Architecture will be designing two of the six buildings in the athletes’ village. The prestigious contract came via a long-term relationship with Australian property group Lend Lease, though BVN’s considerable Olympics experience—starting with Sydney in 2000—surely worked in its favour.

“Lend Lease asked us to work with them on this particular part of the village. We had established a relationship with a London architect and we’ve had a very good working relationship with Lend Lease for many years, so it was quite a good synchronicity between the three parties,” says James Grose, national director for BVN Architecture.

Legacy will be a key aspect for the London Olympics, says Grose, and this is nowhere more prominent than the village, which will be turned into housing following the main event, “creating a new urban community.”

The challenges have been an interesting exercise in exporting in a truly global sense: with security at the fore, and layers of bureaucracy with which to contend. Because of the 2005 terrorist attacks on the city, security is very high on the agenda, which has to be incorporated into the architecture. “Before any of the walls or space can be enclosed in these buildings, they have to be inspected by a security person. It’s a rigorous security regime. The village site has been secure since day one: you have to have special passes to get in,” Grose explains.

On a bureaucratic level, even to be considered as a Games supplier consultants need to be approved by both presiding bodies: the Olympic Delivery Authority and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. “Both of those organisations have internal processes whereby you have to satisfy them in your ability to do the project, so there’s a pre-qualification,” he says. “You can’t be a new architect and work on these sorts of projects, they require a huge amount of infrastructure.”

The GFC also threw a spanner in the works because it limited the resources BVN had at its disposal. The firm is taking this all in its stride, however—you don’t get involved in four Olympic Games without learning how to deal with these issues. The more difficult decision is how to expand into more markets while maintaining a high standard of practice in Australia.

At the moment, the firm exports on a project-by-project basis, but after the London Games this may change. “We’re now considering establishing ourselves more permanently in London. There are a lot of possibilities in Europe, although the competition is enormous because Europe has the most sophisticated architectural practices in the world. Competing at that level not only requires a big investment, but really good people,” says Grose. “We’re balancing up in an export sense: do we retain our really good people in Australia where we stick to the knitting, or do we lose the opportunity cost by putting them in Europe or elsewhere?”

About 90 percent of BVN’s projects are based in Australia and New Zealand, with the rest in South East Asia, the Pacific Islands and China, and potentially Brazil for the next Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Grose believes that having an ongoing global outlook is key to BVN’s future success. “We are trying to understand how we deal with globalisation of professional services. We recognise that an economy of 20 million people is not going to cut it in the next 10-20 years in terms of growth and our ability to attract good people. We have to move offshore in a serious way.”

DHL’s Pfizer Direct distribution model garnered the logistics company two awards, for Logistics Leader and Top Third Party Logistics Supplier.

Pfizer Direct allows community pharmacies around Australia to order Pfizer’s prescription medicines for next business day delivery, through either their Pfizer representative or online, via a point of sale system, phone or fax.

“This project has been extremely significant, putting DHL Supply Chain at the forefront of the direct distribution business for the pharmacy sector,” said Saul Resnick, vice president of Life Sciences and Healthcare Australia at DHL Supply Chain.

Pfizer Australia has been a client of DHL’s for more than 12 years. The new distribution model, which started in February this year, has already seen more than 18 million items processed with a delivery rate higher than 99% for in full and on time performance.

“I am very proud of the team and all their efforts over the years towards the development, implementation and running of the Pfizer Direct distribution model. This award seals the terrific relationship we have with Pfizer that is going from strength to strength,” said Resnick.

DHL also achieved finalist status in the Supply Chain Innovation category.

Brad Gurrie, general manager of Travelzoo, said Rudd’s reported travel bill of about $1 million could have been halved if he’d used the online service.

“It’s quite astounding the amount of money he paid for airfares and hotels. I know it’s very possible to still fly business or first class and stay in exorbitant hotels, all around the globe and not amass $80,000 per trip,” said Gurrie.

Travelzoo compiled the following table to compare prices (click to enlarge)

“On the above tabled trips alone, not including food or beverages and other expenses, the total for flights and luxury accommodation would have been around $45,000 for three trips. This is significantly lower than the reports of $80,000 per trip,” Gurrie said.

Although Travelzoo does not sell flights or take hotel bookings, as an aggregator it sources various travel deals for Australia and abroad and publishes them online.

Gurrie did admit that taking advantage of travel deals was not always possible for businesses but said many commercial customers could still benefit from the service if the price was right.

“Although many of these deals are focused on leisure consumers there is a tendency for many businesses to take advantage of the deals to save significant costs. Businesses need to weigh up the value associated with flexibility and have it offset with savings that exceed 50 percent,” he said.

“At Travelzoo we publish many deals that are widely available with little or no restrictions that make them ideal for businesses. The travel prices for Kevin Rudd did, in many cases, allow flexibility.”

“There is a great deal of knowledge transfer within the Olympic movement and from one Games to the next. Given the success of Sydney 2000, it was not surprising therefore that the Sydney Games were seen by the London Organising Committee (LOCOG) as the gold standard,” explains Kym Fullgrabe, senior trade commissioner for the UK and Israel.

Although we set the standard, it did not mean that Australian companies were automatic contenders for London contracts. Instead, LOCOG looked for leading capability worldwide and Australian suppliers had to compete against any supplier operating in the UK, he says. Because the £7.3 billion construction budget came from taxpayers’ money, the procurement process followed European Union rules, designed to ensure free competition on major European public sector projects.

“This process was open to Australian suppliers, but bidders for the tier one construction projects had to demonstrate established integration with existing UK and European supply chains,” says Fullgrabe. The upshot was that existing exporters to the UK and Europe had a better chance of competing than new exporters, unless those newer players could piggyback in as subcontractors of the established companies.

Major Australian companies contributing to the Games include Lend Lease, project manager for the construction of the Athlete’s Village, SKM, engineering temporary structures such as the basketball arena, and Populous, with a sports architecture team in the consortium awarded the contract to design and build the main Olympic stadium, as well as smaller architectural services.

Beyond building

Although the construction budget is the major part of the money being spent on the Games, there are other areas where Australian exporters will contribute, including the delivery of the Games via specialised event staging and management, says Fullgrabe. “A recent example of a major success would be the contract for cleaning and waste recycling for the main Olympic venues, awarded to the UK subsidiary of [Australian company] Cleanevent.”

Outside of, but related to, the Games is urban redevelopment. LOCOG established the 2012 Olympic venue in London’s East End, a deprived area of the city, as part of an effort to rejuvenate the surrounds. As a result, investment such as Westfield’s $2 billion retail development in Stratford has become a key part of the East End’s urban renewal.

Most of the big ticket tenders for the Games have already been decided, but at one year out there are a few smaller opportunities that Australian exporters may want to look into using LOCOG’s CompeteFor process.

Fullgrabe says those businesses that missed out should still be able to use the 2012 London Olympic Games as a leverage point for similar events. “The focus now is to use their experience to win business with the many major sports events around the world. This includes Rio 2016, Toronto 2015 Pan American Games, Sochi 2014, Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and many more,” he lists. “Organising committee members from all of these events, as well as all the bidding teams for the next round of major events, will be in London during the Games making it a cost effective place to promote Games related services.”

Olympic impact

The Games have been a turning point for the UK economy, says Richard Morris, the British Consul General for Sydney and Director General of UK Trade and Investment Australasia. Since winning the bid more than six years ago—from rival city Paris and A-list competitor New York, no less—London has survived a terrorist attack, the GFC, and sweeping political change.

Throughout, the Games have remained a beacon of hope, and the excitement is already beginning to build. “They are hugely important to the UK and people are thrilled that we’ve won it,” says Morris. “Over the last 12 months people have started to get more excited. Ticket sales have gone out so some people now know where they’re going to be.”

Unfortunately the incident occurred as our dollar rose, competition from Canada, the UK and the USA became fierce, and our visa categories changed, which led to a significant fall in Indian student numbers, says Peter Linford, Austrade senior trade commissioner for South Asia.

“So we’ve undertaken a fairly comprehensive roadshow in India, reintroducing Australia as a study destination for Indian students. The focus of it is quality education: it’s not cheap education with sunshine and a great lifestyle, it’s quality education with the added benefit of an Australian lifestyle,” he explains of the new campaign designed to re-engage the market.

Rebuilding confidence

Ravi Bhatia, national vice chairman of the Australia India Business Council and CEO of Primus Australia, says the media coverage of the protests was part real, part hyperbole, but it clearly dented confidence in the sector. In the next few months, however, he expects to see a major improvement due to Austrade’s campaign, as well as the formation of the Committee of Student Related Activities (COSRA).

“The Indian diaspora in Australia has taken upon itself to enhance confidence. The diaspora has formed a group called COSRA, which is supported by the Indian Consulate General, and it consists of 10-to-15 very prominent Australians,” Bhatia relays.

In mid-July this year COSRA began hosting support workshops for incoming Indian students, an orientation “familiarising them with Australia, talking about cultural sensitivities, modes of behaviour including police as a friend and so on,” he says. In addition to the workshops, to be held every six months, COSRA will also develop into a network to provide individual support for students tackling issues such as medical emergencies and accommodation and employment problems.

While Bhatia says Australia’s tough language requirements may dampen numbers, he believes initiatives like COSRA will go a long way to enticing Indian students back to our shores. “It is being conducted by some very well known members of the diaspora who have credibility. It is soft stuff, but the word is going to travel back and I think it is a good way to address the confidence issue.”

Another key factor is stakeholder support. “The Australian representation in India at a diplomatic level has been superb. That extends also to DFAT and Austrade. People are very proactive, they are full of fresh ideas, and they are projecting an excellent image for Australia and opening a lot of opportunities,” he states, adding: “The Indian diaspora in Australia has expanded substantially, which is leading to a better understanding of the opportunities on one hand, better political relationships on the other.

Hybrid education

A trend on the horizon is hybrid education, “whereby an Indian student can complete part of his higher education to Australian standards within certain institutions in India and come and complete the degree in Australia and possibly work here for a few years and take that experience back to India,” Bhatia predicts.

Linford says industry/education hybrid programs already exist in areas short of talent. This initiative, separate from the inbound education drive, delivers training in India linked to industry. An Indian company that has invested in an n Australia mine approached Austrade. “They said: ‘We can’t get enough people to work on this mine, we need to bring in Indian workers’,” Linford recalls. These workers, however, would need the requisite skills for the new roles, as well as training in Australian safety standards, and so the model was born.

Australia’s reputation in the space is unsurprisingly strong considering the environment in which our architects grew up. “Compared with other countries, Australia is nutrient poor, we have water issues, and generally speaking we need to design with the point of view of preserving resources,” says John Bilmon, managing director of PTW Architects. “All architecture should have an eco-consciousness. Sustainability should be the heart of any development.”

Australian architecture and engineering have focused on the careful husbandry of resources for more than four decades, says Bilmon. “I’m coming from a school of thought influenced by my Australian educational process. We’re driven more by the philosophy that all buildings need to be sustainable.”

Homegrown innovation

The Green Building Council of Australia’s Advocacy and International executive director Robin Mellon believes that a combination of our frugality and the small size of our industry has resulted in a faster uptake of innovative practice.

“Scarcity can be a weakness—scarcity of energy, of water, of resources—but scarcity also breeds innovation,” he says. “We’re a very small country in terms of the industry. When we see innovation coming through, especially a technology or even innovation in methods, it tends to go through the industry quite quickly.”

In combination with our diverse climate, fast innovation uptake is “a huge advantage” in the architecture and construction space, he says. “While we’re the driest inhabited continent on the planet, we also have this huge range from Tasmania, which has colder winters and warmer summers, through to the tropical north, then the very dry west, and the more temperate climate. We can adapt innovation very quickly to different climates.”

Fortunately, all this stacks up to a world-class reputation, which the industry can leverage in a global market. “Australian buildings are seen overseas as world leaders; it’s just as much about what they’re made of and their durability as it is about their design and the services that went into them,” says Mellon. “Buildings we give six green stars would stack up easily against any building in China or the US or the UK or Germany.”

Bilmon agrees and says our reputation is “pre-eminent in sustainable developments”. This will stand us in good stead, especially in Asian markets where demand is rising.

China and beyond

China is leading Asia with its sustainable agenda, closely followed by a number of developing countries such as Vietnam, Thailand and Laos, as well as Japan and Taiwan. Although government initiated the demand, Bilmon says consumer demand is now just as prominent. “The ongoing cost of maintaining and operating that product is now part of the sales pitch for real estate. It has been driven not only through a government desire, but also by the community response.”

Australia is fortunate to be in a good position to take advantage of this surge of interest, largely because we planted some of the seeds, he explains. “The great thing about the Australian education experience is the vast numbers of foreign students who study with us and take that knowledge and that thought process back to their home countries. The students are now leading corporations and government bodies in Asia and they bring with them the firm desire and belief in sustainable outcomes.”

Despite increasing competition, this is true, says Mellon. “We have a lot of delegations who come from not just the Asia-Pacific but around the world to look at Australian buildings and talk to Australian companies and service providers because we are seen as world leaders. Australia genuinely has an advantage because we’ve been looking at it for much longer, in a much more holistic, much more integrated way.”

Cash flow stumbles

Christian Vollbehr, member of the management board at global credit insurance agency Coface Deutschland, says that a client may delay payment for a number of reasons, all of which will affect a business’ cash flow: “Sometimes they ask for an extension of payment and come up with reasons to delay payment, or they start a commercial dispute used as a delaying tactic.”

Recent political instability in certain countries will affect payments; even if your customer wants to pay you, they may not have access to their bank because of civil unrest. Whatever the delay, it means export payment terms of 90 days can blow out to months, even years, which severely affects your ability to pay your suppliers and run your business.

One remedy, if you’ve already sent goods overseas and your customer has decided not to accept it at the last minute, is to minimise your losses by selling the goods to another customer nearby. “You need to know at any time where your product is sitting. Is it still on the ship, is it in port? Is it somewhere in transition? Can you redirect it? It’s good to know people in-country who can help you on the ground,” says Vollbehr. “You could make some losses but you don’t lose the ability to trade.”

For service exports, or if your goods have already been accepted, you can enlist the help of a debt collection agency. Choose one in-country because they will be better equipped to deal with the local laws concerning debt collection. Having a local representative working on your behalf also makes the threat more real for your debtor.

Next time, try obtaining payment in advance. “That’s the safest way–but you can’t usually ask for that for competitive reasons,” Vollbehr admits. Also look into secure terms “where you have either documentary credit or any other type of secure terms, like letters of credit that are considered reasonably safe”. This depends on the stability of the banking infrastructure in the market, however. “If you have guaranteed payments and the banks shut down, what’s the value of that guarantee? There’s no 100 percent payment guarantee unless you get money up front.”

Also check the risk profile of your buyer and the market in case there are environmental conditions that point to future payment problems. “Watch the media to see what’s happening. Risk changes every day. If you’re setting terms, set them realistically in terms of that market and the industry you’re part of,” says Vollbehr, adding that competitors may be a good source of this information.

He also recommends being strict with your payment terms and keeping track of your debtors. “Keep it alive, update whatever you have.”

Marketing involved integration: “We teamed up with some stores, with the media, with consumers,” he says. Retailers showed where Cake sat in the marketplace. “It was interesting to go to the stores and see how they projected the brand.”

Cake also relied on PR to obtain media coverage, observing how the message reached consumers. Hyams notes this was different in every country. “In the US, they consider breastfeeding as functional: that’s how it’s dealt with in the media. We had to say ‘it has all the functionality of an equivalent product, but you can have a little bit of colour’,” he explains. Conversely, demand from Italy dictates the next big thing to be Cake’s plunge maternity bras. “In Italy it’s all about the cleavage. If people can have cleavage while they’re pregnant, why not?”

Marketing needs to bear this in mind, Hyams remarks, “Like the use of the word sexy. The correlation to the word sexy is different in each market. You can change wording around slightly and find reception to the product much greater, so it’s constant tweaking as the market evolves.”

As well as responding to consumers’ ideas for new product, Cake also directly involves customers in its marketing. Its Real Mums Real Fit campaign, run in a number of countries, calls for customers to be the face of Cake Lingerie and has received a “surprising” response, including 200 applications from The Netherlands.

The writing’s on the cake:

• Have a separate marketing plan and strategy for each market.
• Don’t get carried away with research; test the market and get a feel for the environment.
• Ensure your domain name is available in your export market, or be prepared to buy it.

Importantly, there needs to be a correlation between corporate and marketing strategy. “The two need to be consulted concurrently when going into a market because when a company decides to export and the marketing team is left in the dark, that’s when messages get out of hand,” says Chadwick. “Marketing is the strongest element when going into a market because you really don’t get a second chance. As soon as your name and your product is in that market, that’s what people will be searching for, that’s what’s drawing them to the product. Be certain in your own mind first that the strategy is going to work and not going to offend or not make sense.”

Nick Scott, lecturer in international business at the University of Western Sydney, says the brand and logo has to lead the marketing strategy in conveying the identity of the product and producer to the overseas consumer. “Brands, logos and other promotional elements have the highest ‘cultural grounding’ compared with the other aspects of a firm’s international operations, that is, the culture of the foreign buyer impacts most directly on their perceptions of product quality and attractiveness, their motivations to purchase, how they evaluate goods, and so on,” he says. “Accommodating cultural variation is the key issue with brands. Exporters should check with potential overseas distributors and customers if the brand conveys the right image in that country, and indeed even makes sense.”

Branding overseas

Exporters need to determine whether the images and the marketing they’re using will be suitable for the country they’re going into, says Chadwick. “Some of the considerations are language, visual imagery that you’ve been using and some of the sales pitches that you use in Australia and whether they’re going to fit and make sense in the overseas markets. You have to treat each country individually. You can’t say ‘we’re going into Asia’: whether it’s China or Japan or Korea, you can’t group them as ‘Asia’ because they have their cultural nuances.”

Be careful in countries that use ideographic writing forms—such as Chinese characters—as they are troublesome to translate into, notes Scott, and for other alphabets like Cyrillic you may need a professional translator unless you are fluent in the language. Check for historical associations to words that may reflect badly on your existing brand name, he adds, or if it’s close to something unsavoury: “For example, Toyota’s MR2 sports car spoken in French sounds like ‘merde’ so they changed it for Francophone markets.” Certain numbers and colours may also have positive or negative connotations.

“Get on the ground and do some research or get some branding experts in those countries to do some groundwork on how these messages are going to be perceived,” says Chadwick. “Those perceptions will correlate as to whether people will be successful in that market.”

1. Indian student attacks

Two attacks on Indian students in Melbourne, seemingly racially motivated, threatened to curtail this multimillion-dollar industry in a significant source market. However, it was not just education, Australia’s third largest export and our highest value service export, at risk. Australia’s image in India was at least temporarily tarnished as this issue, unresolved since 2009, increased in profile.

Diplomacy was in full force as former acting Prime Minister and Minister for Education Julia Gillard, and acting Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Crean, met with their Indian counterparts to ease tension.

2. China versus Rio Tinto

In 2009, Chinese authorities arrested detained four Rio Tinto employees, including Australian executive Stern Hu, for five weeks before formally charging them with commercial bribery and trade secrets infringement. Hu attended a closed trial in March 2010 and accepted the Chinese court’s 10-year sentence.

The sentence came as a warning for exporters to avoid corrupt practices when doing business in China, particularly in the resources sector, which is Australia’s biggest earner in China.

3. Mining tax debacle

The resources sector came out in force against the Henry Tax Review suggestion that the sector pay 40 percent tax on its so-called ‘super profits’. The Federal Government decided to adopt the suggestion and the industry spent millions in a nationwide advertising campaign in protest. Economists believe the tax will curb some investments and affect mineral exports, which may have a trickle-down effect in the wider economy.

4. Rising Australian dollar

The Australian dollar reached parity with the US dollar in mid-October after months above US80c and US90c. The weakness of the US economy, in addition to flailing markets in the UK and eurozone (particularly Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain), boosted the Australian dollar in global markets, and threatened to chew at exporters’ margins. Competing on a lower dollar is no longer an option for exporters as near-parity is predicted to continue well into 2011.

5. Global travel woes

An ash cloud created by the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, the Icelandic volcano most found difficult to say and spell, interrupted much of Europe’s airspace for five days in April. Airlines had to deal with thousands of stranded passengers and airfreight routes had to be re-routed or delayed.

Let’s not forget natural disasters in Haiti, China, and Pakistan, the Gulf oil spill, and the US Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration body-scanning controversy added to the mix. On a domestic front, Virgin Blue suffered a system crash that saw several planeloads of passengers stranded in September.

Things to celebrate

But it wasn’t all bad. Exporters started the year with a larger backyard market thanks to the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA). Australia’s foray into China at the Shanghai World Expo and as country of honour at the China International Small and Medium Enterprises Fair was also successful, and we also launched a nation brand, Australia Unlimited, as distinct from our tourism campaigns.

Not that we forgot about tourism, which received a lot of attention in December when US talk show host Oprah Winfrey decided to visit for her last show, Oprah’s Ultimate Australian Adventure, bringing an entourage of 302 dedicated audience members and employing hundreds of US and Australian staff. Organised by Winfrey’s Harpo Productions in conjunction with Tourism Australia and local airline Qantas, the tour will be televised in January 2011.

What events rocked your exports in 2010?