Source: INSEE, French customs, French Ministère du Travail

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Direct Marketing

After Germany and the United Kingdom, France is Europe's third largest direct marketing market. It accounts for a significantly larger share of unaddressed mail promotions than any other European country (18.3 bn. mailings in 2000, 80.7% of all direct mail). This means that although the volume of addressed mailings accounts for less than 20% of the entire French direct mail, spending in the addressed mail sector comes to 53.6% of all direct mail expenditure. This share is growing from year to year.

Overall growth in the French direct marketing industry is slow (+1.6% from 1999 to 2000), which, however, is not really very surprising given such a strongly developed market, one of Europe's best developed and most innovative direct marketing industries. At 63 addressed mailings per capita per year (1997), statistics show that France is the country with the highest mailing frequency in Europe.

In 2000, spending on tele-services (call centers) amounted to € 585 million, representing a growth of about  7% on the previous year. Direct marketing activities on the Internet increased from € 64 million in 1999 to € 144 million in 2000, representing a very rapid growth rate of 125%.

Spending in the French direct marketing market, amounting to € 7.2 bn., is high. This means that in 2000, the direct marketing media accounted for about 42% of all advertising expenditure (advertising expenditure for traditional advertising: € 10 bn.), which can be broken down as follows:Total expenditure on direct marketing in France (2000, in million €):

Addressed mailings		€3.455 million	48.1%
Unaddressed mailings		€2,710 million	37.8%
Catalogs		€283 million	3.9%
Tele-services (call centers)		€585 million	8.2%
Internet		€144 million	2.0%
Total:		€7.177 million	100%

 

Language and Cultural Peculiarities

What you should know before you start mailing.

Personal contact is much more important in France than it is in northern European countries. Is this why direct marketing enjoys such high status in France? At any rate, it certainly is not surprising that telephone calls with French partners last longer than those with German partners and that business meals enjoy a higher status than normal business appointments. If you have been invited to dine out, for example, this means that you have made an important step forward.

  

Like almost everywhere else in the world, business people prefer to do business in their native language. However, many French people in the younger and middle generations, particularly in the IT and marketing sectors, have good to very good English skills and are delighted to speak English with you. It is only for many older French business people that English is a language which creates grave difficulties. Nevertheless, any foreigner who is able to say more than just ”Je t'aime mon amour” to his business partner in French can score important points.

  

Having texts translated can be expensive but it is a worthwhile investment to have mailings checked by French nationals or professional translators. Or would you order something from a foreign firm whose mailshot is chock full of wrong terms or even spelling mistakes?

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