The Woberg Company, located near Aarhus, Denmark, manufactured dishwashers and garbage pulverizers for home use, and cooking equipment and commercial pulverizers for restaurants. A relatively young company, its products were highly regarded by housing contractors and builders. The company had a reputation for quality construction and for good and prompt after-installation service.

Although sales were still growing, the managing director of Woberg, Oli Woberg realized that the Danish market was limited and would level off within a few years. There is a relatively small population and it is not growing appreciably. Therefore, he proposed exploring the possibility of exporting as a way to maintain growth.

The Copenhagen Business School was holding a twoday seminar in Copenhagen, the national capital, on opportunities for export by Danish companies. The director of marketing, Pernil Woberg, along with her assistant B. Woberg, decided to attend this seminar to see what these opportunities were and what types of assistance would be available to a company such as Woberg Company, which had no export experience at all.

One of the presentations at the seminar was by Michelle Akory, an expert on export marketing and a visiting university lecturer from New Zealand. Among the items that Ms Akory gave to the seminar participants was a listing of potential mistakes made by new exporters.

This list is reproduced below:

1. Failure to obtain qualified export counseling and to develop a master international marketing plan before starting an export business.

Correction: Get qualified outside guidance.

2. Insufficient commitment by top management to overcome the initial difficulties and financial requirements of exporting.

Correction: Take a long-range view and establish a good foundation or do not get involved.

3. Insufficient care in selecting overseas agents or distributors.

Correction: Conduct a personal evaluation of the personnel handling your account, the distributor’s facilities, and the management methods employed.

Remember, your foreign distributor’s reputation is your company’s reputation wherever he represents you.

4. Chasing orders from around the world instead of establishing a basis for profitable operational and orderly growth.

Correction: Concentrate efforts in one or two geographical areas at a time, then move on to the next selected geographical area.

5. Neglecting export business when the domestic market booms.

Correction: Make a long-term commitment to export business and do not neglect it or relegate it to a secondary place when the home market booms.

6. Failure to treat international distributors on an equal basis with domestic counterparts.

Correction: Do not isolate your export distributors from domestic programs. Expand institutional advertising campaigns, special discount offers, sales incentive programs, special credit-term programs, and so on, to include foreign distributors as equal partners.

Otherwise, you run the risk of destroying the vitality of overseas marketing efforts.

7. Unwillingness to modify products to meet regulations or cultural preferences of other countries.

Correction: Modifications necessary to be legal and locally competitive are best made at the factory. If modifications are not made at the factory, the distributor must make them – usually at greater costs and, perhaps, not as well. As a result, the added cost may make your account less attractive for the distributor and less profitable for you.

8. Failure to print services, sales, and warranty messages in locally understood languages.

Correction: Print instructions, sales messages, warranty, and so on, in the local language. Just think how it would be if operating instructions on your new camera were in Japanese.

9. Failure to consider use of an export management company or other marketing intermediary.

Correction: If the company does not have the personnel or capital to invest in experienced export staff, engage an appropriate intermediary.

Questions
1. Evaluate the nine ‘common mistakes’ in terms of their relative importance and impact on a company such as Woberg.
2. What types of assistance from the Danish government and the European Union might be helpful in making a decision regarding whether, and how, to export?
3. Assume that a company similar to Woberg was a national company located in your home country. What types of assistance from your national government, and any subnational government bodies, would be available and useful for the company in making decisions regarding export? Discuss.