Hello everyone,
if you want to know everything about Kennerton's commercial policy, you can read this very interesting article (link below), an interview with Kennerton's CEO, Mr Valentin Kazanzhi, by a business magazine, in Russian, or the raw translation (Google translate) below.
http://www.iccwbo.ru/trademattersru/?bitrix_include_areas=N
Good reading.
How did the export path for Kennerton headphones start?
Our first brand Fisher Audio appeared in 2006. According to the research group GFK, we entered the top three best-selling brands of headphones in Russia. But because the economic situation was unstable, in 2008 I thought about the time to realize my dream: that my product was sold all over the world.
For several years we have researched what foreign customers like. By 2012, I knew for sure that the only thing that could interest them was something unique, created as a work of art.
Analyzing the quality of the headphones of popular brands of that time, I came to the conclusion that their popularity is the result of good marketing, the quality of the sound was not on high. I realized that we can greatly improve the user-familiar sound.
So there was an additional luxury brand, Kennerton Audio Equipment, intended primarily for foreign markets.
How, in your opinion, should the goods be promoted abroad?
The first, obvious, condition - the product should be really high-end. The second is participation in international exhibitions. They will see you there, they will talk about you, you will have an interest. The next step is to find the right partners. Because of the dishonesty of the first client, which we had in Germany, we lost 32 thousand euros. This threw us back six months ago, we could not continue developing. And vice versa, France has become our main market due to the choice of the right and decent distributor.
How do you find clients?
The easiest way is to understand who your main competitors are, contact their distributors and offer slightly more interesting terms. They may be interested in working with you, if only because the headphone market is rather narrow, and if you do not work with them, you will work with one of their competitors.
What are the main difficulties encountered in the implementation of cross-border trade?
Difference of mentality, language barrier. Very much hampered by our inability to make contracts. In the West, they fight for each comma, and it's not unusual for us. What if the goods are damaged by the fault of the carrier, but it will be discovered not at the moment of acceptance, but in 3-4 months? These are the nuances of drafting a treaty, which must be studied.
In which countries are you currently represented?
In France, Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland, Ukraine, Israel, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
You have listed a very large number of states. What are the features of doing business in them?
In Sweden, for example, the market is traditionally complex. The Swede is a consumer-patriot. If the Swede has a choice between a foreign and a Swedish product, he will always choose a domestic one.
The French are very open and verbose in terms of discussions. If he likes something - he writes on the Internet detailed reviews, gratuitously performs a huge marketing work. But the French are not very prodigal in terms of purchases and are ready to make their choice in your favor only on condition that the product more than pays for each invested in it cent.
In the countries of Southeast Asia, the words "Made in Russia" are a guarantee of quality. This is a chance that you can and should use.
Americans are curious. Even if they do not know your brand, they will study all the forums to gather information.
And how are the promotion strategies different?
In the United States, there is such a resource as Massdrop, where collective purchases are carried out. For example, the regular price for a model of headphones is $ 1099. And there it will be sold for a week at a price of 699 dollars, provided that a certain number of orders will be collected. As a result, we get sales volumes that are comparable with the volumes of a good distributor.
In addition, a very good way to promote a product in the States and countries of Southeast Asia is to get feedback from opinion leaders who are respected by professionals who publish their reviews on various forums and thematic portals. It works like this: I release the model and send it to these people. They test, write a review, create on their forums and blogs the branches dedicated to this model, and send headphones to the next blogger. At the same time, they do not receive money from us. If the product is good, then the author of the reviews will necessarily want to write about him.
In Singapore, for a product to be sold, it must have a history. We in the Singaporean state had a man who wrote marketing texts. Reading them, I blushed every time. It was true, but too embellished. It turned out that without this in Singapore there can not be successful sales.
What are your export plans for the near future?
Enter the most capacious market - Chinese. This is my main dream.
Further, we do not have a distributor in the USA. We tried to work there, but did not understand the specifics: the US is so large that you can not have an exclusive distributor in this country. The English-speaking population uses only resources, Hispanic and French-speaking - others, so there should be a lot of distributors, ideally - one in every large state. This is what we're trying to achieve now.
I would like to improve our positions in the UK, I also search for partners in Argentina.
What does export mean to you?
To date, exports are 85-90% of my turnover. If there were no exports, the Kennerton brand would also not exist.
if you want to know everything about Kennerton's commercial policy, you can read this very interesting article (link below), an interview with Kennerton's CEO, Mr Valentin Kazanzhi, by a business magazine, in Russian, or the raw translation (Google translate) below.
http://www.iccwbo.ru/trademattersru/?bitrix_include_areas=N
Good reading.
How did the export path for Kennerton headphones start?
Our first brand Fisher Audio appeared in 2006. According to the research group GFK, we entered the top three best-selling brands of headphones in Russia. But because the economic situation was unstable, in 2008 I thought about the time to realize my dream: that my product was sold all over the world.
For several years we have researched what foreign customers like. By 2012, I knew for sure that the only thing that could interest them was something unique, created as a work of art.
Analyzing the quality of the headphones of popular brands of that time, I came to the conclusion that their popularity is the result of good marketing, the quality of the sound was not on high. I realized that we can greatly improve the user-familiar sound.
So there was an additional luxury brand, Kennerton Audio Equipment, intended primarily for foreign markets.
How, in your opinion, should the goods be promoted abroad?
The first, obvious, condition - the product should be really high-end. The second is participation in international exhibitions. They will see you there, they will talk about you, you will have an interest. The next step is to find the right partners. Because of the dishonesty of the first client, which we had in Germany, we lost 32 thousand euros. This threw us back six months ago, we could not continue developing. And vice versa, France has become our main market due to the choice of the right and decent distributor.
How do you find clients?
The easiest way is to understand who your main competitors are, contact their distributors and offer slightly more interesting terms. They may be interested in working with you, if only because the headphone market is rather narrow, and if you do not work with them, you will work with one of their competitors.
What are the main difficulties encountered in the implementation of cross-border trade?
Difference of mentality, language barrier. Very much hampered by our inability to make contracts. In the West, they fight for each comma, and it's not unusual for us. What if the goods are damaged by the fault of the carrier, but it will be discovered not at the moment of acceptance, but in 3-4 months? These are the nuances of drafting a treaty, which must be studied.
In which countries are you currently represented?
In France, Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland, Ukraine, Israel, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
You have listed a very large number of states. What are the features of doing business in them?
In Sweden, for example, the market is traditionally complex. The Swede is a consumer-patriot. If the Swede has a choice between a foreign and a Swedish product, he will always choose a domestic one.
The French are very open and verbose in terms of discussions. If he likes something - he writes on the Internet detailed reviews, gratuitously performs a huge marketing work. But the French are not very prodigal in terms of purchases and are ready to make their choice in your favor only on condition that the product more than pays for each invested in it cent.
In the countries of Southeast Asia, the words "Made in Russia" are a guarantee of quality. This is a chance that you can and should use.
Americans are curious. Even if they do not know your brand, they will study all the forums to gather information.
And how are the promotion strategies different?
In the United States, there is such a resource as Massdrop, where collective purchases are carried out. For example, the regular price for a model of headphones is $ 1099. And there it will be sold for a week at a price of 699 dollars, provided that a certain number of orders will be collected. As a result, we get sales volumes that are comparable with the volumes of a good distributor.
In addition, a very good way to promote a product in the States and countries of Southeast Asia is to get feedback from opinion leaders who are respected by professionals who publish their reviews on various forums and thematic portals. It works like this: I release the model and send it to these people. They test, write a review, create on their forums and blogs the branches dedicated to this model, and send headphones to the next blogger. At the same time, they do not receive money from us. If the product is good, then the author of the reviews will necessarily want to write about him.
In Singapore, for a product to be sold, it must have a history. We in the Singaporean state had a man who wrote marketing texts. Reading them, I blushed every time. It was true, but too embellished. It turned out that without this in Singapore there can not be successful sales.
What are your export plans for the near future?
Enter the most capacious market - Chinese. This is my main dream.
Further, we do not have a distributor in the USA. We tried to work there, but did not understand the specifics: the US is so large that you can not have an exclusive distributor in this country. The English-speaking population uses only resources, Hispanic and French-speaking - others, so there should be a lot of distributors, ideally - one in every large state. This is what we're trying to achieve now.
I would like to improve our positions in the UK, I also search for partners in Argentina.
What does export mean to you?
To date, exports are 85-90% of my turnover. If there were no exports, the Kennerton brand would also not exist.
