Ireland - Direct Marketing


	Section 1
	Facts and Figures
	Economy
	Direct Marketing

	Section 2
	Language and Cultural Features
	Customer Protection - Data Privacy
	The Irish Direct Marketing Association
	Postal Service

	Section 3
	Lists and Databases
	Helping International Direct Marketers Succeed

	Facts and Figures
	Economy
	Direct Marketing

Facts and Figures

Capital:		Dublin (953,000 inhabitants)
Official language:		English, Gaelic (around 3% of the population)
Area:		70,282 sq km
Population:		3.84 million (4/2001); 0.5% growth rate, hardly any foreigners (mainly from USA, UK, Germany)
Currency:		Euro
GNP:		86 bn. USD
GDP growth rate:		11.5%
GNP per capita:		22,660 USD
Share in GDP:		Agriculture: 4% Industry: 36% Services: 60%
Research and development spending to GNP:		1.54%
Exports:		93,294 bn. USD
Imports:		92,904 bn. USD
Inflation rate:		4.7%
Unemployment rate:		4%

Source: Foreign Office, Spiegel Year Book 2003)

Economy

Ireland is a small, open national economy. Economic development in the last few years has been marked by high growth rates and a dramatic fall in unemployment. In 2000, the Irish economy boomed with a growth rate of 10.7% of GDP. Partly due to the decline in economic activity in the USA and in Europe, economic growth slowed to 5.7% in 2002 and in 2003 to an estimated 3% of GDP, with the GNP and GDP growth rates increasingly diverging from each other due to above-average productive foreign direct investment in Ireland. At 4.5%, unemployment remained low in 2002 but may rise to a forecast 5.7% in 2003.

In 2002, the most important economic sector was again the service sector (incl. public service) at 49.7%, followed by industry at 47.3% and agriculture and fishing at 3%.

In 2002, the USA continued to be the major foreign investor accounting for about 70% of all jobs created by foreign direct investment.

According to the World Competitiveness Report, Ireland stood at 11th place in global competitiveness (having come in 5th in 2000)

Source: Foreign Office

Direct Marketing

At present, direct advertising in Ireland accounts for almost 20% of total media spending. That represents 10% of the entire advertising budget. The volume of mailings per head has steadily grown in the last few years to an average number of 20 mailings per person in one year.

Robinson List

There is a Robinson List in Ireland, the “Mailing Preference Service” (MPS list) against the receipt of mailings. This service is provided by the Irish Direct Marketing Association. However, the service has hardly been made use of by consumers to date. To date, only about 500 persons have been registered.

Source: Fedma, SwissPost

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3