Motif Modern Living

Marketing Achievement: Branding/Integrated Marketing Finalist

Jane Kitchen -- Gifts and Dec, 8/21/2010 8:14:49 AM

In the fall of 2009, Motif Modern Living took the bold step of expanding its marketing efforts internationally. With locations in San Antonio and Kyle, TX, Motif had always enjoyed some business from the well heeled residents of Monterrey, Mexico, who frequent the area for shopping. But Motif president Steven Lora was convinced they could capture even more of that market."
     Unlike in the U.S., where modern furniture and accessories are just as mall niche of the overall home furnishings market, among the upper class of Mexico, nearly 100 percent of the population wants what we sell," explains Lora. And with high tariffs on imported goods in Mexico, many Mexicans head to Texas to furnish and decorate their homes.

     So in the doldrums of a recession, Lora decided to take a more active approach to these customers, and set about creating a Spanish-language email marketing campaign."
     (This) was an effort to proactively pursue the business from Monterrey instead of passively waiting for a tiny fraction of it to find its way to us," he explains.
     They faced many challenges, not the least of which were the differences in language and culture."
     We did not want to make the mistake of marketing in a particular language instead of to a particular country or region," says Lora. "Our objective was to tailor our language to the culture and dialect of the wealthy, educated classes of suburban Monterrey."
      To achieve this, Lora enlisted the help of an agent who is a native speaker and a graduate of Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico's most prestigious university.

     With a skeletal staff due to cutbacks, Motif had no marketing manager, and very little budget. The Monterrey-based agent helped obtain a client list from the city's newspaper, identified which areas Motif should focus its efforts on, and negotiated on their behalf.

      In the end, they paid just $1,163.10to send 658,000 emails - or 18/100of a cent per email. This, combined with $371 for the creative design of three emails, was the total cost for this campaign. At least1 1 3, 3 7 0potential customers were interested enough to open the emails. Seventy-seven customers called or emailed for more information, and new leads have included several large condominium and office projects. At present, Motif can attribute $10,233 in sales directly to the email campaign. With an initial investment of $1,534, that's a 667percent ROI."
     Business (in Mexico) is often based on family relationships, referrals, and word of mouth," explains Lora. "It is difficult to break into that network ... Today, most of our business from Mexico is from referrals of other Mexican customers."
     Motif has also begun Tweeting in Spanish and has created an eight page Spanish brochure along with a customized online wedding registryi n Spanish."
     Given our limitations of time, money and language skills, advertisingin Spanish is a challenging route to pursue, but we know that ultimately the rewards will be great," says Lora.

- Jane Kitchen