Globalizing your Database: For publishing companies to compete effectively across boarders, national databases must acquire an international flair

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Jan, 2002 by Robert Mckim

International customers have always held a certain allure--mainly be-cause they tend to be both loyal and willing to pay top dollar for American print products. But in today's global economy, international customers are quickly becoming a necessity rather than an amenity. Yet few publishers are equipped to market to any country other than their own. The reason: Most are still working with national databases that can't accept, store and process information from a variety of nations.

In the digital, wireless world we live in, geographic distinctions become blurrier every day, and international customers are becoming more and more accessible. But effective, targeted marketing practices still require a certain amount of traditional data-like street addresses. Current U.S. database infrastructures can't collect this global information. And without basic naming and addressing conventions, publishers' global customer acquisition efforts will never get past the border.

Preparing a global database is not a small undertaking. But the benefits for publishers--such as increased circulation both online and offline and the ability to drive additional revenues through marketing to multiple sources--are substantial.

CURRENT CONCERNS

One of the primary impediments to developing a global database is that international information--particularly the way individuals and their street locations are identified--is organized very differently from the way it is organized in the States. In Singapore, for example, there is no city or state; Singapore is the city, state and country. In countries where there is no basic postal infrastructure (as is the case in many South American countries and Mexico), there are no Zip Codes. As a result, data standardization is a must. So your first step is to become familiar with naming conventions-in some countries, for example, last names come before first names. Then you should analyze postal or delivery services, country by country.

Without standardized rules for names and addresses, combing databases from other countries is extremely difficult. Routine updates can become a nightmare. To avoid this, create individual sub-databases using a key or common field that can eventually be pulled into a unified database. The most common example of a key field is a customer number that is associated with each table in a relational database; these numbers distinguish one customer from another.

Because individual countries have distinct privacy policies, having a global database will inevitably raise privacy issues. In Germany, for example, all data associated with a customer-including the person's name and address-must be in a database that's physically located in Germany. Other countries, such as China, have absolutely ruled out the possibility of any such information ever leaving the country.

MANAGING THE TRANSITION

When you are ready to begin the globalization process, appoint an enterprise manager who, in turn, will be charged with selecting a data-service provider. Because building a global database without any previous experience is next to impossible, an experienced data-service provider is critical to the success of the project. There are several providers with international branches that are working closely with postal departments in different countries to establish standards.

The enterprise manager should also talk to various distribution organizations in different countries and gather sample data files. With these samples, the manager can create a more global view of how the data will be structured based on the particulars of each country's data.

The manager should then work with each distribution point inside the different countries to establish the correct naming and addressing guidelines.

Developing a database that can accept global data is a critical step in today's digital world. It's a complex task-but it's the step that will allow your company to move into a vastly expanded market.

Robert McKim is the CEO of the Los Angeles-based M\S Database Marketing.

RELATED ARTICLE: FINDING HELP

A sampling of data service providers with international branches:

* Acxiom Corporation

1 Information Way

Little Rock, AR 72202

501-342-1000

www.acxiom.com

* Equifax

1550 Peachtree Street

NW

Atlanta, GA 30309

404-885-8000

www.equifax.com

* Experian Information Solutions

505 City Parkway West

Orange, CA 92868

714-385-7000

www.experian.com

* Harte-Hanks

200 Concord Plaza Drive

Suite 800

San Antonio, TX 78216

210-829-9000

www7.hartehanks.com