An investigation into the effectiveness of the advertising of government export assistance.

Exporting is vital for both companies and a country. In the UK, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) data indicates that 135.2 billion of visible exports and 122.8 billion of invisible exports were earned in 1994 (see Central Statistics Office data for more details). The government spent nearly 200 million in the same period for the Overseas Trade Services export promotion. Unfortunately, a large gap exists in the academic literature concerning ways to evaluate export promotion policies and communication. This study addresses this issue and reports on an investigation which has been undertaken to evaluate ways in which government export assistance is promoted to companies and to concentrate on the methods of communication of these services. The proposed methodological approach that was used to undertake this research was in three stages. First, in the desk research stage, information was gathered on existing evaluation procedures. Co-operation had already been obtained from the Joint Directorate of Overseas Trade Services, involving access to certain internal reports. Second, empirical data were collected from a sample of UK companies to determine managers' perceptions towards the effectiveness of government export advertising, whether firms' assistance requirements were being met, and if they were being communicated with effectively. Third, interviews were carried out to obtain opinions from managers in order to add a qualitative dimension to the statistics generated from the postal survey. The findings indicate that the government's advertising of export assistance has not been effective. Conclusions are provided for policy makers together with recommendations for researchers to build on this study.