Going Global

Germany was chosen as the next market for expansion because, as Hurlbut explains, it recognized that “there is a healthy mail-order tradition in Germany as well as an appreciation for alpaca.”

The Peruvian Connection was in the throes of the German launch when it encountered local expertise. Biddy Hurlbut, chairman and co-founder, attended a direct marketing event co-sponsored by Deutsche Post and the U.S. Postal Service. There, she made contacts that would later prove helpful in setting up a call center facility in Germany. The first test mailing of 100,000 catalogs mailed in the spring of 1998. The results were promising enough to justify a second, larger mailing of 200,000 catalogs which dropped last fall.