Who reads the Australian Trade Community Magazine?

Ten fields to the survey have given a valuable view of the readers of the Australian Trade Community Magazine. The fields are: job title, job function, industry, industry function, employees, revenue, import revenue, export revenue, by country, and by import/export type.

The readers of the Australian Trade Community Magazine have been assessed based on Survey Results filled out by visitors when they first enter the ATC magazine website. The results from, so far, 9700 filled out pop-up survey forms, are updated dynamically on this website, when a new survey is completed.

Ten fields to the survey have given a valuable view of the readers of the Australian Trade Community Magazine. The fields are: job title, job function, industry, industry function, employees, revenue, import revenue, export revenue, by country, and by import/export type.

The person filling out the survey form appears to be the head of the company: 37%, searching for places to create more awareness of their products or services. These are people that make time to investigate the Internet for all its worth. Some of the heads of the companies may be 'owners' of the business, which would show that most of the visitors are Manager/owners: 40%. This is good; it is manager/owners that make decisions, so these are decision makers, the best persons to initiate business relations.

The job function shows that management in marketing and sales are predominant as readers of the ATC Magazine: 51%; this should ring true, as the 'scouts' of a company tend to be the management in Marketing, who alert the Management in Sales. General 'management' is high on the list of readers, 21% of the total job functions is management, people in this position must be aware of the best places to promote, and generally are, in small to medium size businesses. It is also clear that the ATC Magazine caters for 'hard sellers' and service providers, people pushing their products fiercely.
The Industry results are not surprising, most are highly mobile consumer goods, the range is widespread: textiles 8.14%; food and beverage 7.94%; industrial supplies 7.69%; electronics and electrical 6.1%.

The use of the Internet, of which the Australian Trade Community takes strong advantage of, is also seen in the industry function results. The majority of businesses come under 5 titles: manufacturers 49.75%; wholesalers and manufacturers 29.04%; consultants 7.07%; technology manufacturers and developers 4.43%; and, resellers and retailers 3.82%. This is showing that the value of the Internet as a great promotion tool is widely understood throughout the export and import industries.

Small to medium size enterprises (SME's), with employee numbers ranging from less than ten to 1000, figure highly in the survey results. It clearly shows that the SME's best understand the use of the fast moving and very mobile Internet, and, it shows that because they can make decisions quickly, being smaller and more contained, when something new is available, or when there is an opportune moment, businesses containing fewer employees can make very quick decisions. The latest survey results show businesses employing 10 to 50: 33.62%, less than 10: 25.27%, 50 to 100: 15.01%, 100 to 500: 13.67%, and 500 to 1000: 4.02%. The Internet has made the SME the ideal business size to take advantage of its abilities. It is likely that corporations and other large companies have not got the capability to make decisions that keep up to date with the Internet and the now-changing global style of trade.

Revenue figures match thoughts that managers of SMEs are predominant readers of the ATC magazine, 33.23% have annual revenues of $1m to $100m; 25.61% have revenues of $100,000 to $1m; 22.45% have $10,000 to $100,000; and, 9.53% less than $10,000 per annum. SMEs would fall into the $1m to $100m category.

Import revenue and Export revenue is similar in the survey results, this would match the Australian Government's figures for 2001/02, being that export and import revenue figures were both approximately AUD$150billion. Import revenue shows that 37.3% earned $10,000 to $100,000 matching the Export revenue, showing that 33.08% earned $10,000 to $100,000.

Individuals from most countries have shown interest in the Australian Trade Community magazine. The highest percentages come from Australia 19.67%, India 18.08%, China 13.53%, Pakistan 8.83%, US 5.84% and Turkey 2.21%. Most of our list-of-countries show a working percentage of readers, the figures above may be structured more to the initial research.

The majority of SMEs approached in the research were from regions such as South Asia, Middle East, and S.E. Asia; next area of research was in regions such as South America, Europe, UK, and North America. With a more widespread promotion and greater time spent, the updated lists will give more defined and qualified results.

The second wave of results in the Country field, the middle ground, shows the countries that are up and coming trade partners for Australian businesses: Argentina, Bangladesh, Canada, Egypt, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Jordan, South Korea, Malaysia, Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, UAE, UK, and Vietnam.
In conclusion it appears that business owners who have taken most interest in what the Australian Trade Community services can offer them, are exporters to Australia at 40.02%.

The other 59.08% of readers are made up by: Australian importers at 22.24%; Australian Exporters 20.86%; and, 16.88% of the readers, buyers of Australian products. Australia is a wealthy country by comparison to world standards; per capita there is greater wealth.

Though the ATC Magazine is attractive for exporters to Australia, it is necessary to understand how to deal with Australian businesses. The business culture is a unique one, it is different to its Asian neighbours, and does not match its European ancestors. The business culture takes more of an American form, but retains great caution.

A sale is not easy, but once a relationship is established it is established with permanence, matching Australia's neighbours. The imports of most interest are luxury items, matching the US society, the largest consumer society in the world.

The ATC Magazine has proved itself, in such a short space of time, a good research tool for making initial business contacts with Australian companies, and a great promotional vehicle for showing off Australian services.