Hi, I'm Dmytro Shvets, your host at the Start Global Insights, where I interview experts from different countries about local business secrets and international expansion experience. One of the biggest mistakes of businesses that are going globally is not the research, the markets they are entering. Without this data, it is more like using guts feel in your crystal ball to plan your sales activities abroad.
on the other hand, market analysis is always perceived as an extremely hard task that can be fulfilled only by big corporations. To busted myth, I invited a person that involved in this activity every day. Today my guest is Olga Gvozdyova. She's an advisor to the director at the Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion office in Ukraine, and she has a wealth of experience in market intelligence, export consulting and international trade development.
She's also an experienced trainer and research and selection of foreign markets and a certified consultant. On product compliance with EU regulatory requirements. Hi Olga, and welcome to the show.
Hello Dmytro. Thank you for having me.
was my introduction correct or would you like to add something? I.
yeah, it was correct. I could only add that. I was, I have been coordinating our analytics team since 2018, and, during that time we conducted more than 100 research project focusing, furniture, food, cosmetics, apparel, and footwear, IT and machinery industries.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. And then, um, I know you are dealing a lot with small and medium companies, yeah. On, on their way to the world markets. Um, maybe you can share some common or most common challenges that you see within this, um, process, that they face.
So a lot of companies that are coming to us, especially those who are just starting, expert in, they are coming with the, first question, just provide us the list of the potential partners and we don't need the research. We are trying to explain why do they need the research. And some companies say that, okay, we don't need this. We will do it ourselves. And then later on they will come back to us. Mm-hmm. And they say, yes, you were right. Let's do the research.
And actually the research could save time and money. I have an example, actually. It was a company working in restaurant business in Kyiv and they were planning to, establish a restaurant in Warsaw. And they decided that they don't need additional research of, consumers in Warsaw because mm-hmm. They made, made an assumption that, Polish people in Warsaw have the same consum consumer behaviors as Ukrainian people in Ki. Towards cafes and restaurants.
So they based all their financial estimation on this assumption, and actually they were wrong. Hmm. It's completely different because Ukrainian consumers, they, go to the cafe restaurants like a. Having a small celebration, they order a lot. although, in Poland, in Warsaw, consumers went on a business dinner, business lunch, or a loan and, ordered less than in, Ukrainian markets. So mm-hmm. They have financial, estimation was wrong.
Of course when you have a big financial cushion and you can, spend it on this, it's okay, but, this is an example why you need to research beforehand.
Coming back to this, um, perception. Yeah. That, market research is quite, hard and, and long-term task. Maybe you have some framework. How do you research, markets, that, show that it is not so hard and, it can be done in more simpler way?
Yeah, sure. First, what we tell to our clients is that you are not alone. somebody has already done a lot of research, and this could cover also your sphere, for example, first. Thing. What we propose to do is to search who can help you and of course, it's us in and export promotion office, chamber of Commerce, your sectoral associations. They could already have some information on the market you are focusing on.
A second thing we would like to propose to the companies is to start with a, desk research or secondary research. So you look for information that is already out there on internet, public resources, and it's not actually quite hard. There are a lot of researches. already available. And, we propose it to do it, in, several steps. First, you need to look on the market, market size, market potential, other, any economic or political, um, trends that could influence your market.
Second one is consumers. What are the behavior of consumers, how they differ from your. Country, what are the current trends? What are demographic, situation with the consumers? The next one is competitors. What are the products or services do they provide? What is the range of this product or services? What are the weak and strong points? What certificates do they have, how they sell their products or services and so on. And of course, market barriers.
So it could be tariffs, import tariffs, it could be quotas, it could be legislation. It could be additional voluntary, voluntary standards, and it could be. Cultural differences between, the countries you're focusing in and your country and a lot of information on these topics are already available free of charge. You just need to find it. And we are always, recommending to develop your library of resources that you will be tracking, constantly. Mm-hmm.
So it looks like, um, piece of cake. Yeah. Just, just gather this, this information and, and, and that's it. But, um, and, and actually what you're talking about Yes. Is to, to get help from, from somebody that is already dealing within this field. Sure. And, I know that, your office in, in Ukraine is, um, quite young. Yeah. Comparing to other countries, but still you, you are helping a lot to, to businesses to understand other markets.
And to also select focus markets you, because this is also one of the important, important steps, that, companies should do is we have, about 200 countries mm-hmm. Here in the world that are, um, acting in expertise, part activities, and, um, how to understand that you should be focused on, on, on some. Of them. Um, because in, in my practice also, companies are coming and saying that we will sell everywhere at once.
Yes. And that's, where, where the client will come from, then, we'll sell that to this, country. And then they do not realize that this, requires a lot of resources and, you should be focused on that. I know that you, you also talk a lot to other, export promotion offices in other countries. Maybe you can advise, this offices as, as the resources also yet to, to look for the information, at least what I, what I use. Yeah. I use, export.gov, in the United States.
Yeah. So they publish a lot of, of information at the, office of, export promotion in, Australia is also quite good. Um, what, what else, what, what can you advice, from. From this, conversation with other export promotion office?
Yeah, so, um, basically our services actually emerged and developing, developed through communication with this European Trade Promotion organization. So we looked at the experience, what they've done, what, they've done it and didn't work, what, challenges do they have with the clients. And I would say that we have the same challenges in terms of, companies, especially, small companies and starters in expert in.
So, they have the same issue with clients coming to them and saying that I will export everywhere, or, small craft, company saying, I will, I would like to export to the US because. Because it's a biggest market. Mm-hmm. For sure. We, and they also propose companies to focus on one market before going to another and scaling their export activities. Mm-hmm. Of course, we, we use the resources you mentioned. I also use the resources of other organizations.
For example, there are a lot of import promotion organization in Europe. Open Trade Gate, Sweden. They have some research on, Swedish Market, CBI, eu. They have a lot of resources on European markets as a whole and comparing different countries and they have not only information about demand, about regulation, but also tips and articles, how to find the buyer. within the European market, how to, prepare yourself and so on.
but of course there are some, resources from trade promotion organization. I personally, apart from us, really like UK resource. Great gov.uk. They have a lot of, um, export, tests and, articles, guides, and of course, as us they have information about each countries and potential niches in each countries. This is what we actually trying to do now in Ukraine. We also have information on, 50 countries right now. We expand in every month.
So we just, added, main retailers in each and of course on our GA business, website, we have, sectoral research. So for example, US furniture market or snacks, in Netherlands and so on.
Great. And, and coming back to country selection. Yeah. So do, do you have any tips on, on that? Is there kind of a magic wand or, or something, some, some tips, that, can do this simpler or how to understand what country would be your potential focus country with the biggest potential for your product or services?
I would say that there is no magic wand. But of course there are tips. So we have a model that we use on how to choose the priority market. There are a lot of formulas, but I need to tell you that this research should be combined always with your export readiness. Export readiness of the company. Mm-hmm. So, of course you rely on the data, but also think about either, are you ready for this market or not right now.
Mm-hmm. More like what resources do you have? Yeah. What, what, what is your capabilities? and you should select market according to this capabilities, not just. The biggest one. The biggest one as we always, discuss with you. Yeah. So there, there are three of them, Germany, US and China. And, you, you don't need to research and gathering data to understand what, what is the biggest market.
Yeah, that's true. So it should be always combined data and. Your readiness for these markets. Mm-hmm. And in terms of the data, of course, we propose companies to research themselves. And actually one of our goals is not only to provide research for the companies, but to teach them how do the research themselves. And if we narrow it down to simple methodology
mm-hmm.
You take, several factors and the main group of factors is. market attractiveness and barriers to the market in terms of market attractiveness. You can take. volume of import of your products to this country. how these volume are growing over the last five years. local consumption and how it is growing. in terms of the barriers you can take, import tariffs, you can take, additional legislation or regulation and certification that you need to adapt to your. Products and so on.
So of course these are basic criteria. Mm-hmm. And you can add more, of course, you can add, more if you are focusing, for example, for particular consumers like women or chi children of certain age, you can track, their demography and so on. But basically you use this criteria and you compare countries.
we have actually, in our organization the model that could compare all countries, but, we suggest companies to start with 10 companies with the region you would like to target and compare them, and then narrow down to three countries. And then, do the more detailed research for these three countries. For example, looking at the competitors, looking at the, more deeply in the regulation and comparing your, readiness to this markets and choosing one market that you will be working with.
how do you find this data? So is it, simple? Yeah. To, to gather this, unified data that you can compare to, to each other within this, for example, top three markets. Um, where do you find them? So could you share your resources?
Sure. If we talk about, GDP and Demography, we are using World Bank data. Mm-hmm. And it's actually unified. It's, very simple to use mm-hmm. In terms of the trade volumes. So ex export and import, we use trade map. it's also free of charge, like World Bank data. And, they, use official statistics or they mirror the data. if the country do not provide the data, they use their partner's data. And this tool is very simple to use. It's our first, tool that we recommend to the companies.
I personally believe that each and every university teaching, a future export managers should use it, um, because it's quite simple and unified. Yes. Mm-hmm. In terms of the consumption, local consumption mm-hmm. Is where we have problems. So unfortunately a lot of information with the consumption are not free of charge. For this, we personally use for this passport, Euro Euromonitor, but it's not free of charge.
It's quite an expensive database, but, we, purchase it, exactly for this matter because they have unified information. On the markets. Mm-hmm. They, operate, these are not all, 200 markets, but still there are a lot of, countries which we are working with. And if, as for the consumption, and additional data of on competitors, I really recommend to use associations mm-hmm. To check association in the countries that you are, willing to research.
And a lot of association, especially when we talk about Europe, when we talk about North America, they have a lot of information and they are actually the stakeholders that. Research the sector. Of course, sometimes this research are not free of charge, but they, publish a lot. They publish some information on the consumption and on the forecast, on the trends. So they could be very good resource, for you. And also additional source is media.
Sector, media, this, we are going deeper, not in unified information, but maybe mm-hmm. Those markets that you already selected, five or two markets. But I really recommend to find the media on this market. For example, when we were researching a US furniture market and we were actually, um, privileged to consult with the local, experts who told us.
Everything you need to know about this market is on one website, it's called Furniture Today, and it has, mm-hmm a lot of interviews with the experts, a lot of, forecasts, a lot of information from different, product groups. Analysis and so on. And, they, starting from COVID time, they had a lot of free webinars, with their, buyers, talking about how they're switching from, China to other, suppliers.
And of course, right now they have a hot topic of tariffs and they, you can find a lot of information on that.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure. With, this era of bloggers and vloggers, when everybody's launching a podcast or a vlog. so they need to have guests like, like, like we have now. Yeah. And, they invite the industry experts in their countries. Yeah. They, I didn't think about that. So I, I didn't, look in YouTube, for example, for this information. Mm-hmm. But there might be interviews in of media or this webinars, or recorded webinars that, are there.
Sure.
What else? What, what, what other databases, do you use to gather information about, markets?
one good resource for us is Statista. It's partially free of church. Partially you need to pay, but it's very good in terms of they cover different resources. So they mm-hmm. Have different countries and local resources and international resources, and you can buy, um, access for a year or for a certain period and check, the countries that you're interested in and make a list of resources that you will be using.
And we actually update in our resource library, um, thanks to this, statistical database. But they also, apart from that, they also do their own research. For example, they have a lot of surveys with the consumers and they're very good in terms of making a customer profile for your, company. Mm-hmm. We are, using, if we approaching country that we have. Never worked before, and the sector that we never worked before with this country, mm-hmm.
We're using AI to help us to find local sources, to help us to find local associations and to help us to find competitors. Of course, my advice is to always check with, these resources after that, not to just to ask, AI about whether we should go and what are the facts of this, country always crosscheck with the resources, but this is very good starting point in terms of finding these resources, using ai.
Yeah, actually it is very tempting now to use, uh. for example, this new function of deep research in Gemini. Were in chat g PT when it is, um, kind of a magic. Yeah. So you were asking, to analyze, some specific market and it prepares you the report for several pages describing the competitors and all that stuff. and it is so beautiful. Yeah. So you would like to believe that it is so well structured, with so, with such a good language, but.
But you don't know totally if it is a, a fantasy of the, AI or it is a true stories. And I also think that you should be as, as an analyst and, and um, data researcher, you should be quite creative in finding information and know you should always think how to do that. I also remember Case when we had. A project in, in, um, Tajikistan, which didn't have any information available about the companies. And we used, you know what? We, we used Google Maps in, um, satellite mode.
Just square by square kilometer. We searched for factories, for factories that were producing something and then we were looking within local language of what companies are in this region. So always all there is always information, but you should, think, uh. Creatively to find it good. What, what other, data sources, might be available apart from, databases and websites?
yeah, just to add for the desk research, I would, also use some reports by Big Four or McKenzie or other big firms. Sometime they have a lot of interest in, public reports. And just to summarize, so there it is, international database that, have unified information reports of, big, like big four and other companies, sectoral associations and sectoral media. And of course this is all. Desk research and this mm-hmm.
What it is on the data, which is current and some forecast, and you should always combine it with the field research. So mm-hmm. Go into your focus market, talking with, potential partners, talking with your potential, consumers, doing interviews and perhaps, doing some, uh. Test sales. Mm-hmm. That will help you to get the feedback and to, um, get the feedback from the consumers, from the companies or, maybe to have online sales and connected with the, online service of your consumers.
By the way, I, I also remembered one case, not even one case, but, but one source of information that we have used, and which is not obvious, but very interesting. This is, the yearly reports of stock listed companies because they, they're forced to publish, um, their real yearly reports for their shareholders. And, these reports are open because they are listed on the public, stock exchange.
In these reports, they also publish not only own information about their own financial data, for example, but they also, publish their strategy for upcoming years and to prove this strategy, they published the market research they conducted to make this strategy for the expansion, for the international expansion, for example. And, I don't know how about era, but we used. The US there is a search engine, um, called Edgar.
It, it, searches through the US stock, exchanges, and um, you can search for the reports by keywords. Uh. There's also quite good, um, information. Mm-hmm. But, coming back, yeah. So to the field research, I, I interrupted you.
Yes. So, first what, what you can do is, to have interviews with your potential consumers or your potential, um, partners. but I would recommend here to first find everything that you can find online. And not, not to ask them not to bother them, word them with the question that you can find yourself and only ask those question that will help you deepen the information that you already have and check your hypothesis. And it should be open questions.
you should, listen to what, what you are being told and, do not rely only on one opinion. Try to broaden this, interviews and check later on with when you already silent. Also, check my, my actually main tip will be do not stop researching. Even already in the market, use it to, research potential new niches. And we have a lot of clients, who for example, already went to the market, and then, use a communication with their partner with the distributor to find additional niches.
One example that I have is the beer company who was selling beer. And, they found out that there is a. Product of spent grain. So after the, after they producing the beer, they have some, some sub products that is leftovers, but they, in Europe, they use already snacks. out of this, product.
So they come back to us asking about can we research some con, competitors and, products in this market so that we will understand how they use it, how they do this, and maybe to launch, a new product for us.
What about the trade shows? Is it a good idea to use them as a business intelligence trip?
Sure. this is also what we recommend not only come coming to the trade shows for finding a partner, but also, take with you additional, employees who could, go around the boosts, who could talk with the, with your competitors, talk with. with, potential partners in terms of researching the market, and, also, trying to check what the, you have after the desk research. Yes. And, trying also the products, that your competitors are presenting.
what are the trends, what do, how they offer them, and, what they have. What. You don't have right now. So, and this is, I think what companies in Ukraine are neglecting. They are focusing on trade shows only for, um, B2B, um, maybe because mm-hmm. Lack of resources this, understand, you couldn't take five people with you on the trade show sometimes. Mm-hmm. But I really, recommend at least spend some time.
In addition, talking to your, business partners and of course integrating research question in your negotiation with the partners. And also try to, if you, for example, a food company, go to the supermarkets, make a store check. Try, try what, what they're selling in this market, or, go to the association, talk with the other companies. Apart from your, um, B2B sales, projects.
Yeah. And by the way, now you can do a store check, um, at least by prices and, by the, um, packaging online. Almost, all supermarkets have their online stores, so you can easily
Yeah, yeah. We, we also have one of the resources that I haven't mentioned before. Just, focusing on online, stores and offline Also, they actually making photos of all the products that are coming on supermarkets, small, markets. And they, you can track, not only prices, but I think you can track also also ingredients. You can mm-hmm. Track claims. for example, if it's this natural product or vegan product or dairy free and so on, and you can track certification.
And actually some of our company's clients were using these two, making you, packaging. For their, mm-hmm. Products. Mm-hmm. So they choose the market, but they, they understood the, the need, adapt their product to this market, and they use it to making new packaging, only for this market. And of course they, you can use it also to. Integrate.
If it's, again, food products you can use, some flavors, that is particular for this market, especially when, and we are talking about Asian markets, there are very different from us in terms of the flavors and ingredients that they use. So really recommend you looking into online sources. And of course, this database called Mental, they have mm-hmm.
Not free of charge, but they have free of charge blocks where they talk about, consumer behaviors and also tastes, and, difference between, regions and market.
Um, I also remember it when I was doing the program for Google. they also advised to use their tools, um, of, um, advertisement analysis. Yeah. So they have this, uh mm-hmm.
I think it is called Ads Transparency or, Google Ads Transparency, where you can search within the country, um, some specific brand and they're advertising so you can analyze, the advertising of your competitors and see what are the messages, the, the messages that are, they are using, what are the images they are using, and all this information about the product. So it might be also helpful,
yeah.
To understand how to position your product with, within this country.
We actually, sometimes we're using, when we are talking about IT companies, especially with particular sector like, developing a website or providing, some services, for the website we were using, the database they have, that they have, um. HR tools. So they have, they're international and they have, vacancies for different, countries in terms of, developing the websites.
And of course you can analyze, what are the, um, requirements, what, for example, additional knowledge or additional, tools you need to know and you need to have. And, in terms of other, sectors we were, analyzing also tenders. Mm-hmm. So, government tenders, especially in, eu, they're all public and you can, even if you're not applying to the tender, you can, see all the requirements and you can mm-hmm. Companies that, um, have won this tender.
It's a good source for searching the competitors, but also for the partners because these companies are always searching for subcontractors. Uh mm-hmm. But in terms of, searching for the regulation, this is also a good source, especially for those, this are not. Regulation and, demand from the market on specific, certification or specific knowledge of specific experience that are not legally biding, but it's demanded by the market. So this is also could be a good source of information.
And last year we have been developing program for entrepreneurship in Denmark, and it was also a public tender and our proposal was online totally. Like the whole contract. I, I mean with prices, with, the content, what we have been proposing. So you can analyze the offers of these competitors totally with, with conditions and prices that they're sure they're showing.
Well, I think that there are so many sources and, so anybody who is listening now, you are free to leave your comments in Apple Podcast or YouTube or Spotify. With your questions about some specific sources, and, I will monitor them and maybe I can find some answers for you, or I will ask Olha to help me.
Sure.
The last, for, for today I believe question is, you have gathered this information. Yeah. So, the first step, you, you wrote down a list of questions. Yeah. So you understood what to analyze. Then you, gathered the source library and, gathered this data from this, sources. And you have a bunch of data. Yeah. You, you, you have so many data that, you have this analysis paralysis what to do next?
Well, we as a research team always have this problem that there are a lot of resources, a lot of things to research, but we are limited, but resources that we have, for example, we are limited by time and we are limited by. The quality.
So first what I would recommend is to understand what, will be most useful for you to adapt your strategy for this market in terms of when you are feeling that, there are too many information that you already found a lot of research, and you need to summarize it. It's good. Think to use AI also, for summarizing some ideas for finding, if you find, for example, seven reports of McKinsey, of other, and they're all brilliant, but you don't have time to, read everything.
You use AI to find the particular messages that you, that are relevant for your product and, compile it, into reports, especially for you. And of course, I would really recommend to not forget about this resources that you found about the reports, especially if the reports are updated yearly. Please make a library for yourself and get back in a year for this new information. And, this will help you to update your strategy for this country or if you are going to another countries.
Also, you don't need to, again, starting to find new resources. You can, use the same if they are covering different markets. So this will be, the main tips how not to drown into tons of, research and tons of information. And I think you should think about it as a cycle. Yes. So, okay, you have a final point, but then cut back to the research and check about new emerging trends and what you can do to expand in this market. Or if you're willing to go to another market already, also.
You are getting back, but you already experiencing some of the research in some of the tool and resources. So it's kind of a cycle
for sure. For sure. And you can also use this to teach your new partners at this local markets. 'cause they might be also not exploring data markets. so you can share this data with your new potential partner or client. Help them to sell your products more effectively using this data that you have gathered?
Yeah, we actually had the, example like this, our client, who is a producer of, gluten-free product, all natural, and they, um, ask for our help with research. And after that, they came to the market and they used this research as a advocacy tool, I would say. So they were, they were talking with a retailer and showing them, okay, you see at your market this niche is growing, it'll be growing over the next five years. So you will benefit, from working with us. So yeah, for sure.
Yeah, that's, the added value of partnership. Great. Great. Thank you for sharing your experience and helping, Ukrainian es, to be international. Thank you.