05_Going global
Presenter: The much talked about ‘global market’ is seen by nearly everyone in the business community today as being the only market. We know that advances in technology mean you could be offering your products and services to people in Brighton, Beijing or Buenos Aires at the same time. But is it really that easy? And is it really the solution that everyone is looking for, or needs? We talk to three very different companies about their very different experiences of trying to go global. Nicola Melizzano of Caffè Perfetto:Nicola: I didn’t think it was for us at all ... We’re a small family company, founded by my grandfather. We produce small amounts of high quality coffee, and supply mostly to bars – we don’t do much in the way of direct retail at all.Presenter: Yet things changed very quickly for this small company after an unexpected offer.Nicola: The local chamber of commerce had invited a group of Japanese investors to the area. They saw our factory, tasted our product – and wanted to buy as much of it as we could produce!Presenter: This was followed up by a trip to Japan.Nicola: It was great, people loved our coffee – mostly (I think!) because of the retro 50s-style packaging! The Japanese contacts just grew and grew, and now we export all over South-East Asia, and we’re moving into China too. Two years ago, we didn’t even have a website!Presenter: Nicola admits he’s been in the right place at the right time.Nicola: There’s been a worldwide growth in coffee sales over the last ten years, it’s a really fashionable thing to drink, all these coffee chains. Plus, coffee is something that’s drunk all over the world, in pretty much every culture. I think luck helped us as much as the changing global situation.Presenter: ‘Going global’ happened in a completely different way for AKZ Engineering, a medium-sized company based in the English Midlands. Derek Chalmers, their MD, explains.Derek: In the mid 1990s things were looking bad for us. The global recession hit badly, many other firms round here were closing down or shipping out to China. We were forced to downsize, but then saw the changing situation as an opportunity, rather than a threat. We concentrated on our strengths –  manufacturing small-size metal objects, anything from paper clips to staples up to parts for computers and televisions. Using web technologies, we managed to expand our turnover by around 300%, and now we export to Europe principally, but also the Americas and South-East Asia, even ...Presenter: A success story, then. Our third guest, however, has a different story to tell ...Heike: I’m Heike Zweibel and I design lighting systems – though I prefer to think of them as ‘light sculptures’. They’re more like art objects. Each one is built to order, depending on exactly what the client wants. I only employ one or two assistants, depending on how busy I am, because I prefer to do all the work myself. I’m not really interested in ‘going global’ – I have enough work for myself, I make enough money ... I could expand, but wouldn’t want to compromise the quality of the work.Presenter: So you’d never go global?Heike: Well, no, I wouldn’t say that exactly ... I have a great website and that leads to orders from the United States, or – more recently – Russia, a lot. I design, perhaps, two or three systems every year for overseas clients ... so I don’t really know if that counts as ‘global’ or not!Presenter: The advice, then, is to find the market that suits your company – whether it’s on your doorstep, or the other side of the planet!

06_Achievement
…Thank you all for coming today. As you are all aware, we are here to celebrate 35 years of continuous service by our friend and colleague James Dawson. He started as an administration officer in 1972 in our accounts department. and worked his way up the career ladder over the years, finally becoming vice-president in 1989 of the company, and managing over three hundred employees. As most of you who have been working here long enough will know, it has been a long struggle to become one of the European market leaders in our field, and you may remember in 1982 when we had a huge setback, with the plans for a merger with our top rival company falling through. Because of that, we had to make some workers redundant. However, James was lucky enough to keep his job. Yes, those really were the worst few years. However, we managed to get through these difficult times by working hard and James was a key player in the struggle to get us back on the path to becoming one of the largest computer manufacturing companies in Europe. One of James’s biggest strengths has been his immaculate timekeeping and organisational skills – in fact I have never known him to be without his diary! His negotiation skills and determination led to a tactful action plan to become one of the leading companies in Europe. I will never forget that day in 1987 when we had the final negotiations for the takeover of our rival company. James and his superb presenting and negotiating skills was one of the key factors to our success. The turning point in our company came with the successful takeover and, despite all the obstacles we have faced, the hard work and dedication of all our workers has made our company the success it is today. And I have to say that James, as one of our managers, has always acknowledged the work and contribution made by others. James, you rewarded your best employees with some of the best perks any company has given! Today we want to acknowledge the hard work and significant contributions which you have made. So thank you, James, for your loyalty to the company and your hard work. 

07_Products and brands
Presenter: Regular listeners to the programme will have followed our coverage of the trial of Martha Stewart, one of the best-known women in America, leading to her conviction on charges of having lied to federal investigators. Stewart’s company, Martha Stewart Omnimedia, is described as a ‘lifestyle media and merchandising giant’, producing everything from books and magazines to TV programmes, garden furniture, towels, kitchen equipment … pretty much everything you could need to make your dream home, and pretty much all sold using Martha Stewart’s name. Now, as we’ve reported recently, shares in Martha Stewart Omnimedia have fallen dramatically since her conviction and many analysts are convinced that, if the company is to survive, a name change is inevitable. I’m joined here by Professor Dave Spader. Dave, do you think there’s any future for the Martha Stewart brand?Professor Spader: Well, that’s the big question. As you say, the share price has fallen dramatically and that’s not good news for any company. The company’s own research says that 70% of their consumers think they should keep the Martha Stewart name, but at the same time advertisers are keeping away from the company’s magazines. Advertising in the Martha Stewart Living magazine is down 35%. I think what’s happening is that they’re keeping the name but playing it down and putting the emphasis on other things. For example, one of their newest magazines, ‘Everyday Food’, no longer has ‘From the Kitchens of Martha Stewart Living’ on its cover. Things like that. Publicly, they’re saying they’ll stick with the name but I think we’ll continue to see Stewart’s name fade from view somewhat. Whether they’ll get rid of her name altogether I think it’s too early to say.Presenter: Are there other examples of brands changing names to survive this kind of bad publicity?Professor Spader: Oh, several. Philip Morris, the cigarette company, has recently become Altria and, in America, Esson became Exxon. But they were both parent companies changing their names, and I don’t think we can make direct comparisons with the Martha Stewart brand where she really is – or perhaps I should say was – the public face of the brand.Presenter: So, you think the tough times will continue for Martha Stewart Omnimedia?Professor Spader: I’m afraid so. Whatever they choose to call themselves.

08_Viral marketing
Presenter: Now, one of the latest buzzwords in e-commerce is 'viral marketing' – using the power of the internet to advertise a product or service. I'm joined in the studio today by Michael MacAulay of the buzz.com website which monitors internet trends. Michael, what exactly is 'viral marketing'?Michael: Hi, Tony. The idea of viral marketing is basically that the internet does your advertising for you. A good example is internet email providers like Hotmail or Yahoo. Every time someone sends you an email using a Yahoo address you get that little 'Do you Yahoo?' message at the end – basically advertising what Yahoo does while still providing you with the service, the message you've received.Presenter: But it's not limited to internet email providers, is it?Michael: Not at all. Hotmail is perhaps the most famous example but there's lots and lots of stuff on the web that can be seen as viral marketing. You might get sent, for example, a little game to play on your PC or a funny animation, something like that. More often than not, they're advertising a product or an event. The initial idea of viral marketing was that it cost next to nothing – great for ventures without a huge start-up budget – but I suspect there's quite a lot of money spent on this sort of thing now.Presenter: And presumably the idea is that people like the game or animation or whatever and send it on to their friends.Michael: Exactly - it spreads like a virus.Presenter: So far so good, but the word 'virus' is quite a negative one. I know from the emails we receive on the programme that a lot of our listeners are very concerned about the amount of unwanted emails – 'spam' as it's known – they already receive. Isn't viral marketing just another form of spam?Michael: It's a good point, Tony. The vital difference between viral marketing and spam is that one is providing a service and the other isn't. Viral marketing relies on people sending things on to their friends and family. Spam is sent to thousands of people at random. So they're very different. Having said that, the line does begin to get a bit blurred in places. There's the example of the company in the US that paid people – 50 cents an hour, I think – to let the company's viewbar display advertisements on their screens. However, the company also paid people 10 cents an hour if they sent the 'viewbar' to another person who allowed the ads onto their screen. Now that can be seen as encouraging people to send unwanted emails.
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