MEXICO CITY — The American Management Association dropped 2.4 million
brochures to the top 20 cities in Mexico in 1997, a year marketing director
Martha Zazueta called “incredible for us.”
The peso crisis and subsequent deep recession in 1994-95 hurt the company's
business, she acknowledged. “We really had to pull out our best — cut budgets
and clean our database — just to survive.”
One method was to expand seminar coverage from Mexico's top ten cities that
include Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara to the “second” ten featuring
such towns as Pueblo.
That meant sending trainers out to smaller localities but the move boosted
business because companies did not have to pay extra to send personnel to the
larger cities for training sessions.
“We've been profitable for 20 months in a row now with one exception —
January — but that's always slow and the economy doesn't pick up until the
second half of the month.”
AMA offers 600 seminars in Mexico and markets all of them with the same mail
piece although each brochure mailed out contains only a dozen or so different
venues.
The company has a house file of around 100,000 with two thirds companies, the
rest individuals who have taken seminars in the past and are now repeating on
their own.
Some b-t-b lists are rented from brokers but rental within Mexico is often difficult
because owners won't allow deduplication.
“One of our major economic magazines won't allows its list out of the house. You
have to send the material and the envelopes to their office and they drop the
mailing off at the post office.”
Zazueta said the list business is “improving slowly” so that renters willing to sign a
contract can take lists with them. But she prefers to rent Mexican lists from US
list companies. “We have a special agreement with Direct Media,” a Greenwich,
CT-based company.
AMA does some off-the-page advertising in national newspapers like El Reforma
and used the English-language Mexico City News to promote special speakers
who come down from the US.
“We use telemarketing. We have a home page on the web. We are planning to
do something on radio next year and to e-mail our clients to keep them informed.
“E-mail makes up five percent of our total house file. It is still something brand
new in Mexico so most people don't have access to it.”
In addition to public seminars the firm offers custom-made services to companies
who want individualized training sessions presented on site.
AMA has about 100 trainers on tap in Mexico. They are not on the payroll but
“work for us on a regular basis.” The Mexico City office employs 30 full time to
manage marketing, programs, scheduling and registration.
Materials such as books, CD-Roms and videos come from AMA headquarters
in New York. Some are already in Spanish, others are translated locally. About
70 percent of the presentations are in Spanish, the rest in English.
Payment is by check, credit card, direct bank deposit (similar to the European
giro accounts) and cash. “People often decide to walk in the door and pay in
cash.”
Cost depends on the seminar. One day seminars cost 1,740 pesos ($217.50, the
peso currently hovers around 8 to the dollar) with AMA members given 15
percent discounts.
On-site seminars and one-and-a-half day sessions run to 3,240 pesos; a full two
days cost 4,050. Night courses cost 2,000 pesos. A two week management
course, offered twice a year, runs to 12,000 pesos ($1,500).
Direct mail remains the basic selling tool with delivery reliable and relatively
speedy. In Mexico City bulk mail is delivered in from 48 to 72 hours. Mail to
other locations can take up to 10 days.
Bulk mail is substantially cheaper than first class — 1.05 pesos for up to 20 grams
compared to 1.80 pesos. The post office offers extra discounts for mailers who
send out more than 1,000 pieces a month.
Self-improvement courses, Zazueta said, are a hot item in Mexico today, largely
thanks to creation of the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA).
“Ever since NAFTA was adopted people realize they need better training and
better skills to succeed.”
