Texbrasil brings jornalists and buyers to major stores for the World Cup

It is not news that the eyes of the world will be fully turned to Brazil for the next few months, when the FIFA 2014 World Cup will take place. With a view to taking advantage of the visibility that the sporting event will generate for the country and in an effort to encourage the closing of business, Apex-Brasil (Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency) is executing relationship marketing actions during the games. Texbrasil (Brazilian Fashion Industry Internationalization Program, developed by Abit in partnership with Apex-Brasil) is contributing to this activity by inviting a heavyweight team to the country, with 12 international buyers and opinion makers.

Among the major names visiting the country at the Program’s invitation are the Presidents of the Le Bon Marche (France) store, Patrice Wagner, and of the Luisa Via Roma (Italy) store, Andrea Panconesi; the Buying Director for the El Corte Ingles (Spain) chain, Jose Antonio Garcia; and the Buying Manager for Leonisia (Colombia), Juan Fernando Rojas; in addition to buyers from companies in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Mexico and Portugal.

The following opinion makers will be there along with these buyers: Godfrey Deeny, editor at large for fashion at Le Figaro (France); Fernando Millan, director of the El Tiempo group (Colombia); and Tiffanie Darke, editor of Style magazine, an insert in the Sunday Times newspaper (England).”The project is a great opportunity for us to be able to strengthen relations with strategic contacts at some of the top international retailers.We will also bring in editors for media that are of significant importance to our target markets,” says Lilian Kaddissi, the Program’s Executive Manager.

The guests will be split into four groups to watch the games and each of them will visit different cities in the country:Brasilia (Brazil x Cameroons), Salvador (quarter finals), Belo Horizonte (semifinal) and Rio de Janeiro (final).The schedule includes business meetings with Brazilian companies in different segments, visits to showrooms, shopping centers and factories, meetings with designers and lunch with organization representatives.The Sunday Times newspaper will also take advantage of the opportunity to document street style with Brazilian brands.

In the first phase of the project, held during the FIFA 2013 Confederations Cup, which included around 80 organizations in June of last year, USD 1.8 billion was generated in business for Brazilian companies, well above the USD 1.1 billion that had initially been expected.This figure includes business carried out during the event, with agreements to continue over the next 12 months.