Frans Janssen, GfK Marketing Services Chile

Frans Janssen, General Manager of GfK in Santiago de Chile, told us that “GfK’s set-up in Chile is idealistic and commercial.” His commercial success in Santiago since 2004 has been confirmed by the figures after the first few years of business. To understand the idealistic efforts of the Dutchman, you need to lose many European preconceptions. According to Frans Janssen, “Chile is a second world country.”

Janssen, who speaks several languages, is a classic example of a nomadic existence. He studied in various countries and has attended seminars and completed further management training in yet more countries. Having worked for several companies and organizations, he joined GfK Benelux in 1988, where he was responsible for the Electronics Panel. In 1991, he moved to become the market research manager at Sony. In 2000, he started developing the market for Sony in Chile. Following a sabbatical of one year, which he used for a conversion of his house, to read books, design websites, develop business plans for friends and prepare a survey for GfK Benelux, he rejoined GfK in 2004 – based in Chile this time. At GfK, Janssen had pointed out the market opportunities offered by South America as early as 2001 and was finally able to start implementing his findings.

Start-up with two suitcases and a laptop

On Tuesday, March 23, 2004, Frans Janssen left for Santiago de Chile on a flight that eventually reached its destination on March 24 following substantial delays in transit. Originally from the Dutch city of ’s-Hertogenbosch, Janssen accepted a clearly defined mission on behalf of GfK. His brief was to boost business in South America and especially in Chile. Janssen recalled the day: “There I was with two suitcases and a laptop in my backpack intending to set up a company.” He was no stranger to the place, having battled with the complexities of Latin America in a previous job and had put himself forward for this latest challenge. The start-up was relatively unconventional, as Frans Janssen remembered smiling: “I had a bed and a roof over my head in one friend’s house and a desk in another’s. My desk was so close to the front door that I was practically the bell boy, opening the door for everyone except my own clients.”

Secretarial firewall for the boss

On Thursday, March 26, 2004, Janssen went to his “office” conscientiously and started calling retailers in the entertainment industry to “establish client contacts, introduce myself and present the portfolio of GfK services.” Although Janssen was familiar with the local consumer electronics sector from his time with Sony Chile, he was completely unfamiliar with Chile’s commercial legislation. As a result, one week later the Dutchman “felt bad because I had not acquired a single client account.”

Some time passed before Janssen had worked his way through a mountain of paperwork and, with the help of a lawyer, completed and sent off the applications required in his capacity as the founder of a company. The phone calls he made to acquire new business still did not seem to yield anything, despite good former contacts. He admits rather dejectedly, “I was constantly being referred from one person to the next, but never actually managed to get past the secretaries, who acted as a protective firewall for their bosses.” Finally, information he received from a friend helped him progress. Janssen explained: “To arrange any business appointment in Chile, you always need to speak first to the secretary of the person you wish to meet. So I recruited an assistant, who put all her efforts into establishing contacts with other secretaries. And it worked.”

»As I am Dutch, I value punctuality and discipline, two attributes in short supply in Latin America, and particularly unusual in Chile.«

As his assistant took over his place, the GfK Manager moved into his own office. He described his workplace as follows: “It was about 6ft by 3ft, with the huge disadvantage of having the central air-conditioning unit in the room.” Janssen had a long way to go before getting over this predicament and recruiting other employees. Offices on the fifth floor of a high-rise building were not even owned by the landlord who offered him the space and who then immediately proceeded to offer an office on the 15th storey of the same building. However, he was told that the cable of the Internet service provider did not reach that far up the building. And initially, “the office furniture had to be leased, because the furniture we ordered had yet to be manufactured.” Job interviews were carried out in bars and restaurants, with the resourceful Janssen also approaching former contacts to finally get business going. According to Janssen, “although Brazil has ten times more inhabitants than Chile, the Chilean Retail & Technology market is the biggest in Latin America.” The 47 year-old remembers the first business meeting: “When we had finally put together a team, I conducted the first meeting in a hotel, using my laptop and the hotel’s projector. Then, my people weren’t able to work anyway, because the service provider could not give us Internet access. Finally, it was established that there was internet access on the 15th storey and we could make a start. This is how well organized a second world country is.”

Despite all these obstacles and unexpected turns, the small company continued to expand its business by following up contacts. Initial success resulted from work with a panel in the consumer electronics sector. Frans Janssen compares Chileans to the Japanese – neither nation has a clear “no” in their vocabulary. Although Spanish does have a word for “no”, the Chileans don’t use it for cultural reasons. “And being Dutch, as long as I don’t hear a clear “no”, I will not give up. I think, in Chile this is the basis of success.”

Idealism as the second part of the mission

Chileans rely mainly on import figures, which they can obtain relatively cheaply. As a result, marketing high-quality sales figures and analysis in this country represented a significant challenge. Many meetings and frequent follow-up talks eventually saw Chilean retailers switching to GfK. Janssen summarized the second stage of his mission as follows: “We needed to show the Chileans how to use quality figures and professional management to do business professionally.”

Today, GfK in Chile has outgrown its start-up phase. In 2005, two strong brands were acquired with the Sony and Philips accounts and the following year saw the addition of Siemens BenQ, LG and various local clients.

A positive factor is that an increasing number of international companies are discovering South America as a market, and consequently requesting the relevant global data. Frans Janssen has a very clear idea of the direction he is headed. He wants to expand the representative office of GfK in Chile further and help his colleagues in Brazil and Argentina with their successful expansion. At the same time, he will stabilize operating activities. “I predict that 2007 will be a successful year for Chile. Brazil is well positioned and its requirement for media analysis will increase in future. Following years of economic crisis and inflation, I am convinced that Argentina will also have a good year this year.”

Janssen has a minor fault: he values punctuality and discipline – two attributes in short supply in Latin America.

GfK Marketing Services Chile

• Established: June 2004
  
  
• Employees: 30 permanent staff members
  
  
• Business division: Retail and Technology. Panel surveys on consumer durables
  
  
• Clients: Sony, Philips, Samsung, LG, Entel/PCS, Claro, Black & Decker, DivX, Gama, Intel, Packard Bell and numerous local SDA and MDA producers