A venture called FEL International is planning to launch a direct mail operation in Moscow called Max Zone/PC Zone Russia. Announcing the plans at last month’s International Computer Forum, US-based FEL says it has the Russian rights to use the Mac Zone/PC Zone name and has issued an eight-page catalogue from which Russian buyers can order in Moscow. The company has an agreement with RUI on Apple computers in Moscow, giving it access to distributor prices on Apple products. RUI, however, was bought by Swiss company Data Fox AG last month and there is no word on how this might affect the plans. RUI’s president Ashak Kabani says he hopes the appeal of being mentioned in the Mac Zone/PC Zone catalogue will encourage other manufacturers to give the venture distributor prices. The venture is brave. It supposes the relentless logic of ever flatter distribution networks in Western Europe and the US can now be applied to Russia. The idea is probably premature. Direct mail can only work in a country with a working postal or telephone system or one that occupies a small geographical area. In Russia the greater the distance you are from your customer, the less chance there is that you will ever close your sale. Dell Computer Corp is the master of direct sales in the West – yet Russia is the only country in the world in which Dell is constructing a classic two-tier distribution channel. Quite honestly, this country is no way ready for direct sales, says Robert McFarland, director of international business development at Irvine, California-based AST Research Inc. I’m sure even Dell must have reservations about how they do distribution here – but right now they know they have no choice, he says.
