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Focus Worldwide, the new international division of Focus USA, has entered a strategic alliance with Latin Lists, of Caracas, Venezuela.

It is the first of several being formed by the U.S. company.

Latin Lists has a database with more than 20 million names from Venezuela and a combined 40 million records from Argentina, Ecuador and other Latin American countries. The firm has a U.S. office in Plantation, FL, and is in the process of expanding to Mexico.

Latin Lists gathers data through consumer surveys at public events and manages lists for clients. It offers files selectable by social status, income, profession, consumption patterns, presence of credit cards and geography.

The deal with Focus means U.S. companies will be able to rent Latin American lists and use self-reported consumer data.

This is a good time to move into other countries, according to Chicca D’Agostino, president of Focus Worldwide.

"The list market in the U.S. is changing," she says. "There’s a lot of consolidation of companies, fewer brokers buying lists and mailers cutting back, she says. There are good opportunities outside the U.S., particularly if the economy is not so good here."

Douglas Sacks, vice president of strategic planning at Focus Worldwide, is spearheading the firm’s efforts to find local partners outside the U.S.

D’Agostino says Focus will be announcing four more strategic alliances within weeks with companies based in India, China, Australia and the European Union. More deals are pending with prospective partners located in South Africa, Hungary, Poland, United Kingdom and other E.U. countries.

Focus and its marketing partners will provide each other access to list data. This will enable U.S. clients looking to expand overseas to do marketing research and testing, and likewise for foreign companies interested in the U.S. market. "It’ll work both ways," adds D’Agostino.

Focus is primarily seeking partners to expand in Asia, Latin America and South Africa, although it has a strategic alliance deal pending with a company in Germany, she says.

Ideal candidates for strategic alliances with Focus Worldwide have good track records for five or more years and access to databases with 10 million records or more. Focus is mostly interested in talking to companies with response data and demographics, which can be updated.

Focus is going after more than commissions from foreign list owners and revenues from exporting its own list data. It plans to offer consulting services, statistical modeling, building databases and other list-related services, which are not readily available outside the U.S. and E.U., D'Agostino adds.