Day in, day out, leaders and supervisors associated with worldwide organisations follow leads in order to build a track record and onboard brand-new customers.
These day-to-day practices of international marketing are the focus of the latest episode from TradeMalta’s series ‘International Insights – Stories from the Real Economy’. In this episode, entitled ‘The Global Practice of Global Marketing’, Dr Joe Schembri satisfies 2 visitors who live these international marketing truths.
Sam Borg is the third-generation leader of Bortex – the fabric group with a long worldwide story including production, personal label, franchising and e-commerce. Matthew Wismayer established Pet Nutrition House, an animal food business handling the huge multinationals in animal food space – and doing so effectively.
What do both visitors do, daily, to establish brand-new potential customers into effective marketing relationships?
“When we started, we only had 20 articles in our portfolio – compared to nowadays, when we have about 600 products,” says Wismayer. “However, these 20 articles were developed in a way which really makes a real impact in the market. I started contacting a lot of companies abroad – and the moment we convinced clients that our wet food was in line with the quality of the dry food they were importing, the impact was positive. Our first market was Switzerland – and that was a very important milestone for us.”
“The story of Bortex emanates from one man – my grandfather, Sunny Borg” says Borg. “He was an entrepreneur and a self-made man. He fought in World War II as an anti-aircraft gunner, and after the war, sailed around the world with the British Merchant Navy. He returned to Malta with some money in his pockets – and the first thing he did was import a container of flip-flops. And it all started from there – initially manufacturing, together with his brothers, from a small garage in Hamrun and then, having met a gentleman in Holland named Herman Van Gils, opened a factory in Malta, making suits.”
Both business progressed with time – and their marketing effort ended up being larger and a lot more advanced.
“It’s all about making a great effort to increase turnover,” says Wismayer. “Once you reach certain numbers, then you can invest in a structure. Of central importance is that, when going for a market, you are prepared for that market and its particular needs.”
“Sometimes finding niches within a market, and having more control over the speed and level with which you grow is a substantial advantage,” says Borg. “I feel we’ve always been agile – not big enough to be elephants, but not as small as mice. We don’t want to compete in red oceans where competitors cannibalise each other, but in blue oceans with innovative offers.”
International Insights is arranged with the assistance of tactical partners HSBC Bank Malta p.l.c. and powered by Studio Seven. Times of Malta is media partner. The series will be available on popular podcast platforms, TradeMalta’s YouTube channel and timesofmalta.com.
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