by Steps:
Determine the Target Audience
You need to thoroughly analyze any country that you think should show great potential for your product or service. And, bear in mind that even the big global players, like McDonald’s, have sometimes found it necessary to close down or decrease their presence in some countries. Sometimes companies find there is not sufficient market demand for their offerings or it’s too arduous to comply with burdensome local legislation. So, deciding to jump feet first into a foreign marketplace without proper research is, to put it mildly, highly unadvisable. Big international players such as McDonald’s can absorb the cost of localization blunders, but will you be able to?
People: Understanding Customer Behavior in a Different World
The people you are marketing to and the product that you are marketing go hand in hand. However, we’re leading off with the people because if you don’t first and foremost understand who you are marketing to, you may end up trying to sell them a product they don’t want and probably will never buy.
For example, Best Buy has not found much international success, especially in Europe. While their products were something that their target market wanted overseas, the way in which it was distributed was not well executed based on the way consumers shop in Europe.
Instead of tailoring their stores to fit the preferred mold of Europeans which is smaller shops as opposed to large box stores Best Buy opened up brick and mortars that were much bigger than what Europeans were used to. We’ll get more into how important the ‘place’ is in which you sell your product internationally in a bit.
Product: Altering to Fit the Needs of Your New Market
If you notice that the current offering of your product now won’t play in the new market you want to enter then you can do one of two things:
A) Decide not to sell in that market
B) Change your offering to meet the local demand
Prices: Choosing a Premium or Economy Pricing Strategy
For the most part, if you already have a product or service that is successful in one area of the world, the price point you use won’t vary much in comparison to the competition in that area. If you have a premium product, it’s likely premium elsewhere. If you have a more affordable, economically-friendly product, it’ll be the same in your new market.
This is for the sake of consistency. It’s difficult to pull off being associated as a more expensive, premium product in one country, and the complete opposite in another. You may even risk bringing down your brand image as a result.
Promotion: Choosing Strategies That Work in This New Environment
Figuring out the most effective methods for marketing your product or service abroad is not that much different than doing it domestically.
Even if you live where you’re promoting your product, you still have to do some additional research to find out where your target audience is and which mediums they frequent.
Positioning: Determining Which Messages Will Resonate with The Market
Positioning is absolutely critical when entering a new market. If your initial positioning fails, an attempt to reposition your product can be costly and is not guaranteed to be successful. This is why it’s important to get it right the first time. A significant part of your positioning will be evident in the messages you relay in marketing campaigns. The messaging should be derived from your unique value proposition (UVP), which should be made up of the following:
Relevancy: How your product solves customers’ problems or improve their lives.
Value: What are the specific benefits.
Differentiation: Why your ideal customers should choose your product over the competition.
Determine Specific Campaigns
Focus on regions where your best audiences are found
Narrow down your focus to specific regions where your business is generating consumer interest and has the best chance of performing well. A great way to do this is by analyzing your website traffic and seeing which countries or cities get the most traffic. This is easily done with Google Analytics. You can also examine your social media following and activity to see which regions have high engagement. Create a shortlist of promising locations and begin by homing in your efforts on these.
Research competitors in each locale
Before launching in any new market, whether it be around the world or around the corner, it is essential to scout out the competition’s products, operations, and marketing efforts. By researching competitors, you may discover that a regional market is saturated, and probably not worth your global marketing investment. You don’t necessarily need to launch all your offerings in every market; rather, competitor research can reveal which products or offerings are missing in a particular region and this can help you decide what to launch and where.
Develop region-based distribution strategies and partnerships
If you are offering physical products in international markets, you will need to create distribution and shipping operations for each region. This requires researching delivery service providers, estimated shipping costs, and other issues, such as customs and regional tax implications for customers. For companies launching digital or online services or products, like an app, you don’t need to worry about this step. Rather, focus on making sure your online infrastructure can support expected increases in traffic and use.
Localize your branding and campaigns
Once your product or service is ready to be launched, it’s time to focus on adapting your branding and marketing strategy for each region. This will entail the translation and localization of ads, user guides, product descriptions, and more. It may also mean localizing images to better appeal to customers in a specific region. Remember, localization is not just word-for-word translation. It’s capturing the sensibilities and norms of your target audience.
Be constantly aware of cultural and language differences
This is a touchy subject for any business looking to run global marketing campaigns. It is critical to avoid the pitfalls of advertising mistakes in foreign countries that can lead to bad publicity and a poor brand image. This means keeping up to date with current affairs and cultural events in different regions of the world where your business is active.
For example, running an upbeat ad campaign in a particular country on national Memorial Day is a very bad idea. For business owners who are on top of their global markets, the local cultures can actually provide a wealth of inspiration for clever, catchy ad campaigns. But you do need to stay on top of it constantly to make the most of the different global marketing opportunities.
Global Marketing Campaign Examples
Brands that have an international identity and infrastructure are ripe with amazing global marketing campaign examples. However, that doesn’t mean that small and medium businesses need massive marketing budgets to get their own results in global markets. Use examples like those below as inspiration for the different ways you can create a global marketing campaign to your advantage.
