We reside in a period characterized by information technology, shrinking the world to an extent never seen before. The prevalence of international operations due to globalization has made global marketing a main focus for executives worldwide.
Focusing heavily on global marketing endeavors can enable an enterprise to stand out and do well in a highly Cut-throat environment by learning how to make an impact in a wide range of markets and languages all at once.
Continue studying to investigate how localizing your approach can enhance your worldwide marketing plan and give you a competitive advantage in the foreign market.
What is international marketing?
Global marketing involves the strategies and tactics required to engage with customers from around the globe and provide them with goods and services. This includes finding out what customers want, creating a marketing plan to meet their needs, and offering products that meet their expectations. This requires an all-encompassing method for conducting operations in other nations as a part of an overarching plan in order to reach or surpass organizational ambitions and attain lasting international increase.
When expanding your business globally, some aspects that may change for each market you enter include:
- The product portfolio: It may require the creation of custom products and services that meet customer needs in a given region or market.
- The messaging: It’s important to adapt the content of your materials to the local preferences of each market, the economic climate, social trends and customs, and more.
- The channels: How you use to reach your customers, such as the different social media, as well as the local partnerships you may need to form in order to distribute or sell your products or services.
- The pricing structure: Global product pricing being an art in itself.
- The business model: It’s likely going to be affected by local regulations and tax structures in each local market, among other things.
Certain labels modify their titles to fulfill linguistic or cultural requirements. Lay’s potato chips, created in the United States, are widely distributed around the world under the brand names Walkers, Sabritas, Smiths, and Margarita. It’s remarkable that Lay’s takes into account regional and global preferences when creating their flavors, adjusting them to fit the various popular dishes in the U.S. and abroad.
How do you define a international marketing strategy?
Developing a plan to put a corporation’s logo in the global market is a critical aspect of an international marketing strategy. This encompasses all of the strategies that your company will employ to succeed in international markets.
To define a successful global marketing strategy, you need the input of every department of your company as well as a detail-oriented approach that considers the following aspects in each market you penetrate:
- The value proposition: What makes the brand unique? Why should consumers care about it and choose to purchase your products or services instead of your competitors’?
- The target audience: Which customers are you going to go after? Who makes up your ideal target customer segment? How will you stand out from local and global competitors for this particular group?
- Success factors: What has to happen so that consumers in a given market will connect with your brand, identify with it, and choose it over the competition?
- The business model: What are the most effective ways to build your brand in each market? How are you going to drive revenue in different markets since local regulations and financial conditions are likely to vary from one region to another?
- The products and services: What are the primary offerings you’re going to promote in each market? How will you adapt them to local needs and culture?
- The marketing mix: What are the most effective tactics for reaching your target customers, communicating with them, and closing a sale? What are the campaigns and activities you plan to undertake and their estimated costs? How are you going to position your brand in the minds of consumers?
- The resources: What kind of investments, financial and human, are needed in order to execute the global marketing strategy? What kind of organizational structure, processes, and technology are you going to use to strengthen your brand globally?
- The local factor: What are the cultural, economic, and political factors in each region that are likely to affect your brand’s success? How will you adapt your strategy to the local environment in each region? What are the messages and themes that are likely to resonate locally?
A company’s proficiency in international promotion is largely determined by their capability to tailor and deliver promotions that are experienced as local to different parts of the world. This is known as marketing localization.
What is localization in global marketing and why is it important?
Adapting a global marketing campaign to the needs, interests, and contexts of customers in a particular area is the practice known as localization. It involves adjusting all components of the strategy to best suit the target market.
To make sure a localization approach assists with worldwide marketing efforts, it’s critical to do more than just translate adverts into a nation’s primary language. It is essential to be aware of the differences between different markets in terms of social values, financial standing, developments in culture, technology, laws and regulations, and other areas.
When you dedicate yourself to your customers when entering a new market, the evidence suggests that they will respond favorably to your company. Various investigations have confirmed this.
The 2021 Hispanic Digital Fact Pack provides an exhaustive look at Hispanic consumers residing in the United States in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This gives us understanding of the nuances, outlooks, and practices of this enlarging group of customers after a time of intense financial decline.
The report demonstrates that if a firm puts in the effort to get to know and incorporate cultural aspects into their ads that are of importance to Hispanic customers, 71% of them will view the brand favorably and likely make a purchase.
Where do I start with my global marketing localization?
To start, it is beneficial to recognize the elements of your international marketing approach that are apt to have the most effect on people in various territories. What specific factors can have an impact on and contribute to success in different markets?
A good starting point is the marketing mix—also known as the 4 Ps of marketing—the set of elements you use to market and sell your products or services and build a brand:
- Product: Localizing your product offering means adapting the product to local conditions. For example, a company in the electronics industry wanting to sell a digital camera in the Caribbean might consider customizing it with additional features such as underwater modes to make it particularly relevant for consumers there.
- Price: When it comes to pricing, localization can be purely cosmetic—changing the currency symbol—or structural, e.g., raising the price in a market where you have higher costs or lowering it in a market where consumers find it harder to afford your product or service.
- Place: Global marketing managers need to consider factors including distribution channels, retail locations, and web presence in each region. For example, a beauty product company might choose to work with partners in different regions to sell products through salon chains or online marketplaces that are most relevant for each area.
- Promotion: You should aim to localize your marketing communications across channels—traditional and online. These include your website, social media presence, advertising campaigns, public relations efforts, and more. Localization can be as simple as changing the language of an advertisement, or it could involve actions such as tailoring the timing of a campaign to a regional event.
How to Design and Implement a Successful International Marketing Campaign for Your Brand
Now it’s your turn.
Use the five steps below to create and carry out a successful global marketing plan for your brand.
Step 1. Research your target market
A business must take the time to do extensive research into the market if they are looking to be successful in global marketing.
It is important to be aware of the society you are dealing with as every nation has its own idiosyncrasies and customs. For example, you must look into how individuals prefer to be communicated with and what messages are appropriate.
Take a look at the data from your current social media and web analytics to determine which countries have responded and interacted with your brand. It may be advantageous to begin your global marketing campaign in a nation where there is already some level of interest.
Step 2. Define your campaign goals
You then have to set out what you hope to accomplish with the marketing effort. For example:
- Why are you expanding your efforts?
- What are you looking to achieve?
- How will you measure success?
Once you have set your ambitions, you can begin organizing your effort to meet those objectives.
Step 3. Plan your campaign
After you have set your campaign targets, it is time to begin arranging.
1. Establish your budget and resources
Prior to starting the campaign, it is essential to determine your allotted financial and personnel resources for marketing. Will you handle the budgeting process on a large scale, or will each branch manager be accountable for their own budget? Evaluate and decide on an authorization system and make certain that there is transparent communication.
Aside from financial planning, you will need to organize your personnel resources at both the headquarters and local branches. If the marketing staff you currently employ is not knowledgeable, you may want to consider bringing on professionals with intricate knowledge of the foreign market or marketers who have a history in international marketing.
A potential plan could be to form an alliance with a local enterprise and share resources, or create connections with companies in the desired demographic.
2. Develop your plan
Create a plan tailored to your desired audience. You’ll need to consider things like:
- Cultural differences: Be sensitive to political, cultural, and social differences to ensure your campaign is not offensive. Use appropriate images, words, and scenarios. For example, some cultures associate specific colors with luck or with death . Be mindful of the use of genders and gender roles. For instance, some countries have strict rules on the showing of faces.
- Influencers and celebrities: Ensure any influencers or celebrities you use in the campaign are well-known in target locations. For example, HelloFresh works with TV presenter Davina McCall in the UK but uses influencer Jessica Alba in the US.
- Humor: Be careful if you try to use humor in your campaign because it may backfire. Every language, culture, and country is unique, so get locals on board to plan and assess content.
- Language: Words have different meanings in different countries. Football in the UK is what the Americans call soccer – American football is a totally different ball game.
- Events and holidays: Each country has its national holidays and events, so you may need to adjust campaign dates in your planning.
3. Customize your approach
It might not be possible to replicate the same level of success in other nations or areas compared to the initial results seen in a specific locale. That is why you must tailor and make your initiative specific to each place. It’s a good idea to apply specialists with familiarity of the area, such as writers and designers, to customize slogans, titles, content, and illustrations for your initiative.
Also, check the following:
- Products or services naming: Make sure nothing in your products and services is offensive or misunderstood in local languages.
- Government regulations: Every country has different taxes, trade, and marketing laws, so make sure no restrictions are blocking your campaign ideas.
- Branding and trademarks: There might be businesses that have trademarks that affect your brand. For example, Burger King is called Hungry Jacks in Australia. Or you might want to use different branding, like Lay’s chips in the US, is called Walkers in the UK, and Smith’s in Australia.
4. Localize your message (Glocal)
If you are attempting to reach a worldwide crowd, it is essential that you make your message both global and local.
Quickbooks shows a greeting that is tailored to the user’s locale so that they use the edition of the product customized to their location.
Quickbooks in the US is geared towards streamlining the process of tax preparation for independent workers.
In the UK, QuickBooks is trying to simplify the process of filling out the HMRC Self Assessment.
You should also try to avoid simply converting your message into the native language. When KFC initially opened in Beijing, a blunder occurred; their renowned catchphrase: “Finger-lickin’ good” was undermined and mistranslated to “Eat your fingers off”. Luckily, KFC was able to salvage the situation; reflecting how language barriers can easily cause your intentions to be misinterpreted.
5. Select your marketing channels and media
It is imperative to choose the most suitable marketing approaches and mediums for each target group. In South America, WhatsApp would be seen as a key marketing platform, while in the USA it would not be given as much importance.
It is beneficial to hire local advertising firms to help out with your promotion. For illustration, Nike China contracted Digitas, a marketing agency, to assist their Shanghai design studio in devising a WeChat app for Chinese consumers.
Step 4. Execute your campaign
If you have organized your global marketing strategy conscientiously, then it should be easy to put it into practice. The most effective campaigns are those that are thoroughly organized and overseen by a competent project manager.
Good project managers will coordinate the campaign with everyone involved to clearly assign tasks and duties. The team will stay in contact with everyone working on the campaign throughout its duration to guarantee that everything is done well and completed promptly.
Step 5. Measure and adjust your campaign
When your overseas promotion is finished, you will need to gauge your results to determine if you accomplished your objectives. Now is the opportunity to identify what was successful and what was not so you can make changes for your future endeavor.
International Marketing in a Nutshell
Global marketing, sometimes called international marketing, necessitates the adjustment of marketing strategies to accommodate people of a different culture and country. In this modern era, due to the quick development of technology and increased globalization, it is commonplace for all businesses to become international by nature.
In order to create and put into action a successful worldwide promotional strategy, it is necessary to execute the strategies outlined above.
