Having your say: a reader responds

Re “Editor’s Note: Have Your Say”, 13th October issue: So, at last, someone besides myself gets it. Good for you to ask for on-the-ground insight into the market, something more than numbers. It`s really fascinating stuff.

For instance, did you know that Spanish consumers react more positively to humour in advertising than US consumers, unless the US humour is directed at under-21s or includes an authority figure? How about that Korean pop music is the most popular music in Taiwan and Vietnam? And that the most common way to build a database in China is to hold a name-gathering event (field marketing) and to work the phones through in-house call centres. Did you know that direct mail for anything other than the auto and financial sectors doesn’t work in the Arab world, because all mail goes to postboxes, which are controlled by the head of the household?

It would be an interesting exercise to get a bunch of direct marketing field editors and reporters to work as a group to build a standardised set of questions to ask people in quick phone interviews that would uncover “similar differences” across markets and cultures.

Charles A. Prescott

www.PrescottReport.com