allow me to multinationally introduce

This one's going to have lots and lots of figures, but bear with me, as I realized I've never properly introduced Romania's international business environment to my readers.

Let's start on a positive note from E&Y, with Romania being the 6^th most attractive European country for investors in the next 3 years [Ernst & Young - 2012 European Attractiveness Survey].

Looks like business leaders across the world consider Romania to be  a valuable destination for investments.

key bodies: call it like it is!

This one is about how I assess the key industry bodies before starting a dialogue with them or using them as data sources.

Typically, these organizations have a website where usually there's a description of the association and its scope, its initiatives, list of members, market trends, a section with press releases, and a calendar of events.

If you intend to work with such organizations for your marketing actions, you must discern the difference between active channels and dead ends. 

online research: country

Today I'm letting myself easier off the hook and casually drop few lines from the comfort of my favorite subject - online research & market data collection. Say somebody from work comes to you and says: "Yes, but have you thought about Kazakhstan?"

Surely you have a country study content you're trying to fill in with information, as much as possible from free research.

If you're relatively new to this subject, you need a structured source for making your acquaintance of each new geographical entity you're starting to chart.

searching for clients abroad? so am I

As I'm indexing in my mind my the topics I should write about next, I feel the need to explain why there will be a significant number of posts about web directories, databases, direct mailing, online and social networks for b2b. That's what happens where you're trying to reach for estranged potential market for your product or service.

I was lucky enough to start my professional career in a company that was managing a huge worldwide B2B directory of companies.

So I was part of a huge network of companies in seventy-something countries, each contributing locally to this central web database, plus I was promoting to my home market the access and usage of such marketing-purpose database.

regional decision makers for CEE countries sit in Austria

This year, Vienna is a hot topic for my company and myself as International Marketing Manager. Last year, over 120 international companies were established in Vienna, and this year our group opened its Austrian subsidiary.

Austria is an interesting case when it comes to b2b marketing actions: you will be advice to address the entire DACH region with your marketing actions, not just the one country. But I tried to take my time and understand the reason why this country is known to be the regional decision-making center for many multinationals.

clearly misunderstood, or who speaks what

Two non-native English speakers can make a conversation quite funny. I should know, I'm one of them.

I recently had a very loud conversation over the phone with someone from a neighboring country. This person was trying to compensate the terrible English with voice volume to improve my understanding.

This reminded me how confusing it gets sometimes when you have two people from different non-English speaking country trying to understand each other. Not to mention having such attempts over the phone.

with best compliments, to UK

Being the active marketer that I am, I have poked my nose, respectively my contact data, into various websites, associations, groups, publications, networks and event organizers.

You know, to read some news, download a free study, ask for a media kit, start a debate, what we marketing people do: draw attention to ourselves and our products.

This kind of interaction has happened with people from various countries in Europe, giving me the occasion to learn about certain specificities and the local business culture. But I was particularly impressed by the consultative selling skills of professionals in the UK.

connect to change

Stumbled upon this fine article on change, and why “over 40 percent of the companies that were at the top of the Fortune 500 in 2000 were no longer there in 2010."

It could be about social media's role and the technology revolution, but not as long as most executives don't use social networks.

discretely launching this

This is a somehow secret blog on international marketing stuff.

I found myself browsing through intl_mkt pages full of criptic or niche information, without finding an actual good source on how to market your b2b services internationally.

This is why www.zoominglocal.com is happening.
As long as my free time will allow it, i'll post about my experience.

Because I've been on both ends of an international business: I've worked in subsidiaries of  B2B services company, and I've worked in the headquarters of a software producer & exporter.

My other expectation from this page, besides offering my views and what I know, is maybe get answers to my unsolved dilemmas, learn more by documenting for my posts, and receive advice from my peers.

The secret part, well, that i'll explain later.

Until then, check out this Blog's Presentation done with Prezi - a cloud-based presentation software with zoomable canvas.

intlmkt blog prezi on Prezi

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Disclaimer: this blog reflects my own opinions. Everything published here is my personal view, built from my overall professional experience and from the educational content I've absorbed.

P.S. My Technorati blog code is E4FRU445SA9R.