UK marketers still provincial

I had thought the old maxim of “the marketing world stops at Dover” had been long buried, or at least I hoped it had.

Running a series of seminars in the Baltic States, I have approached no fewer than 12 companies in the UK to see if they would like to supply brochures or samples of their promotional materials for distribution to the delegates attending a course on sales promotion.

Our delegates range from ad-vertising agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi, Bates and DDB, to

companies including Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, Wrigley, BMW, Toyota, and various banks and diverse commercial businesses. A cross-section of the companies operating in the region. Should I be surprised that not one of them has had the courtesy to reply to either telephone or e-mail requests – after three weeks?

The only constructive comment was from one peremptory demand to send my request by fax, which I duly did.

We also contacted banks for their contribution of literature for our direct marketing seminar.

Only First Direct said it would supply material, and although this has yet to arrive, the intention seems reasonable. The other banks have ignored our request.

By comparison, German and French banks have supplied materials – even though the request was made in English.

Our offer still stands for any company in sales promotion or direct marketing which would like to provide materials for our delegates.

Or am I just an old-fashioned optimist, living under the false impression that the UK is really part of the international business world?

Norman Clark

NormClark Training

Tallin

Estonia