1. Growing your business
in new markets
A guide for smaller publishers
Sarah Durrant
Red Sage Consulting
SSP Annual Meeting
May 27-29th 2009
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2. I apologise for the bare nature of these
slides - the images used in the original
version of this presentation have been
removed to avoid copyright
infringement.
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3. About me…
• 20 years in information industry
• Consultant in scholarly information
sector
• Secretary General of Association
of Subscription Agents & Intermediaries
[part time]
• Recent adopter of retired racing greyhound
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4. About this talk…
•Context
•What do we want to achieve?
•Where will we have the most impact?
•Who are our customers?
•What are our key messages?
•Who are our potential partners?
•Summary
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5. Context
• Traditional journal markets have
matured - limited/slow/no growth
• Economic downturn presents threats…
• … and opportunities:
ü leverage business in under-served markets
ü‘
offset’losses in depressed markets
ü‘
seed’emerging and immature markets
ü enhance staff knowledge and expertise
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6. What do we want to achieve?
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7. New business
ü Grow subscriptions/revenues
ü Build brand presence/awareness for
wider international:
– readership
– authorship
– membership
ü Identify individuals for future marketing
communications
ü All of the above
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8. Existing business
ü Increase awareness and usage
(secure renewals)
ü Facilitate migration to online
ü Reactivate lapsed subscribers
ü Encourage renewals
ü Establish why customers have cancelled
ü Gain feedback from key customers
(e.g. outlook 2010-2011)
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9. Where will we have the most
impact?
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10. Where to start?
• Clearly, not all countries have the
same potential
– everywhere outside North America?
– one particular region e.g. Asia, Latin America?
– specific countries e.g. South Korea, Mexico?
Ø Profile countries using a common set of
metrics…
Ø … using indicators relevant to your market sector
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11. Metrics (examples)
• Population
• Status of English • % tertiary students in
science, engineering
• Political stability
• Numbers of med.
• GDP growth schools
• HDI value and ranking • R&D expenditure
• UN Education index • Internet users
• Govt. spending • etc.
on tertiary education
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12. Local market intelligence
(examples)
• Currency - recent history, stability, value
against dollar
e.g. recent 26% fall in South Korean Won
• Extent of exposure to economic downturn
e.g. India buoyant, Japan depressed (China vulnerable?)
• Teaching and research: status and trends
e.g. disciplines, funding etc.
• Journal-specific market intelligence
e.g. importance of: e-only; perpetual access rights; local
archive
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13. Resources (examples)
• World Bank/WHO/UN • ISI data
data
• OCLC data
• Bloomberg
• Industry reports
• Reuters
• The Economist.com • Consortium Purchasing
Directory
• SciDevNet
• Identify (Ringgold)
• BBC/CNN etc.
• Newspaper websites • MasterVision (Datasalon)
• Govt. development • etc.
departments
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14. Outcomes…
Ø Prioritise a single region
e.g. SE Asia ahead of eastern Europe
Ø Prioritise countries within a region
e.g. South Korea and Taiwan but not Indonesia
Ø Target key countries from several regions
e.g. Brazil, India, China, Russia
Ø Consider discounted access
e.g. for countries with transitional economies
Ø Provide free/low-cost access
e.g. to countries with developing economies
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15. Who are our customers?
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16. Known knowns…
ü Current subscribers
(upselling)
ü Members
• Specialist tools for
ü Authors analysing this data e.g.
ü Pay per view customers – Ringgold Identify
ü Contacts/alerting – Datasalon MasterVision
recipients
– etc.
ü Other prospects
ü Lapsed and cancelled
subscribers
ü Who else?
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17. Known unknowns…
Within target countries:
• Academic libraries,
consortia
• Research institutes • Research undertaken:
• Corporations ü in-house
• Govt. departments, ü by consultant
NGOs, etc.
• Highly-cited authors and
institutes
• Authors in
competing/related journals
• Potential sales partners
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18. What are our key messages?
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19. Messages (brand)
• Useful opportunity to revisit/develop
your brand
• Its a busy market –stand out in the crowd
• Emphasise international credentials...
• … and local relevance
ü editorial board
ü authors
ü content
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20. Messages (content)
Buyers (librarians) Users (readers, authors)
ü value ü quality
ü quality/pedigree ü currency
ü imprint/brand ü imprint/brand
ü impact factor ü high profile authors/papers
ü positive quotations from
ü local editorial board
other librarians/consortia
ü research resource ü functionality
(RSS feeds etc.)
ü teaching support
ü impact factor
ü etc.
ü local language versions
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21. Messages (services)
• Offer pricing models appropriate to the market
• Emphasise
– customer choice
e.g. print only; print + electronic; e-only; backfiles;
– customer benefits
e.g. positive licensing; perpetual access rights;
permanent archiving strategy
– customer service and support
e.g. local language and time zone (if using partner)
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22. Potential partners
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23. What are our options?
•Employ an international sales
team
•Join (or create) a publisher
consortium
•Find one or more local sales
partners
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24. Why work with a partner?
• Licence negotiations entail time
and resources:
– specialist skills and knowledge
– time zones, languages, cultural sensitivities
– local market knowledge
• Can this realistically be resourced in-house…
• … across all markets?
• … effectively and efficiently? QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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25. Sales agents: benefits
ü Get you a place at the negotiating table
ü Make sales
ü Develop long-term customer relationships
ü Advise on local market conditions (all sectors)
ü Advise on pricing and related matters
ü (Potentially) assess and restructure existing deals
ü Give you regular information and feedback
ü May offer useful ‘
extras’
e.g. local language marketing, exhibition attendance etc.
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26. Sales agents: caveats
• Don’underestimate resources required
t
to manage sales partnership/s
• Maintain direct involvement with market and
customers
• Ensure you get action not just words
ü initial contract 2-years maximum
ü include a service-level agreement
ü consult with agent’ existing customers
s
ü visit key territories and customers
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27. A growing choice…
ü Accucoms
ü Burgundy Services
ü Charlesworth Group
ü E-Licensing (David
Charles)
ü EMpact (EBSCO)
ü Gateway (Swets)
Ø Geographical focus vs.
ü PCG international reach
ü van de Bilt Sales &
Marketing Ø Subject specialists vs.
generalists
• etc.
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28. Other potential alliances
• Aggregation services
e.g. Cengage, EBSCO, ProQuest, Swets etc.
• Potential in ‘
secondary’markets…
e.g. public libraries, FE colleges
• … and/or traditionally under-served markets
e.g. parts of Asia, Africa, Latin America etc.
• Work with more than one, compare results
• Be clear about terms
e.g. sales territories/sectors; copyright ownership etc.
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29. Summary
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30. Market intelligence
ØSupports revenue forecasting/
business planning
ØEnables confident prioritisation of
countries… and activities
ØHelps you define and achieve sales and
marketing goals
ØMaximises ROI
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31. Strategic partnerships
• Give you international reach and presence
• Help secure a place at the negotiating table
• Not all agents/aggregators offer the same
services: don’ be shy about:
t
ü shopping around
ü setting (fair) goals
ü using more than one agent
ü changing agents
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32. Finally…
• Economic downturn presents
opportunities for smaller publishers
• Not all international markets are suffering
• Not all institutes are affected equally
• Big deals are increasingly being scrutinised…
• … usage-based acquisition may favour smaller
numbers of must-have titles
• Yours may well be among them…
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33. Thank you for your attention.
Questions…
Sarah Durrant
Red Sage Consulting
sarah@redsage.org
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