Going global comes hand in hand with many challenges. Apart from logistics changes and new legislative frameworks, global marketing is one of the greatest obstacles to tackle. But with some knowledge and a bit of luck, you can turn this obstacle into one of your greatest weapons.
What Is Global Marketing and why is it important?
The term global marketing stands for a continuous effort leading to adjustment one’s products or services so that they can be accepted on the international market. Let’s say you’ve been selling a type of shoes locally. You know your customers, you know how to communicate with them, you know their preferences and their price sensitivity. But how will that all work in a global scale? Will people from China, so much used to scrolling down, appreciate your web design? Are you environment-friendly enough to impress a Swedish customer?
Although there are some differences between global marketing for a small business and huge corporations, there are at least four things that these two share. The four things that marketing always comes down to. The 4 Ps of global marketing. Let’s break it down into more details now.
Source: Quora
Different people need different…mayos
As a global company, you need to figure out a way to make your product appeal to customers across all markets. One of the attitudes is, you create a product that is acceptable throughout the whole world. You can then make only small changes regarding the packaging (Coca Cola uses different kinds of packaging depending on what country they want to sell the batch in) or ingredients (Hellman’s mayo, sold west of Rocky Mountains as Best Food mayo, is described as more “tangy“).
Source: The Brands Strength Monitor
In order to win local consumers, however, it never hurts to prepare a specialized, localized product. Learn about the people of the country you’re targeting. Get to know their habits and customs. And then come up with a perfect match. Just check what KFC came up with when they penetrated Chinese market full busy people used to breaking their fast in fast foods
Source: Chengchen Zhang
Price’s always matters. But not always the same one.
It’s all very well to have the right product, but without the interest of your customers, it’ll just stay rotting in the back of your store. You need to take into consideration several aspect to make your global pricing strategy a success.
- Currency. Do your research, find out how the currency works and what amounts of money are perceived as “too much” for a product of your kind. Also, check for other possible payments methods, such as cryptocurrencies.
- Price sensitivity. This goes all the way into Hofstede’s theory of cultural dimensions, more specifically to the dimension called masculinity. Some cultures, such as Russia, simply care about prices less than other.
- Payment methods. An extremely important aspect, yet somehow ignored by a lot of marketers. For example, did you know that in Germany, credit card won’t be much use to you?
- Inflation. Always remember to count that one in.
Make sure your customers find what you offer
We have the what and the how much. The where (or how for that matter) should help your new customers get your perfectly designed, precisely-priced product the way they’re used to getting it. Are you entering a market with high smartphone penetration? Be sure to have an app prepared for your customers. Do people in the new country prefer shopping offline? Be sure to have better prices at your online store so that your customers have a reason to shop there.
Also, get acquainted with what kind of delivery your customers prefer. Each market offers a unique set of logistic companies, pick-up points and post services. Be sure to know what choices are the best ones for your customers.
Don’t be afraid to show what you got
Promotion is arguably the central focus of marketing mix. Having a perfect product just doesn’t do the trick unless you know how to advertise it properly (just as no matter how hard you promote, lousy product will simply stay lousy). Again, a few tips.
- Don’t just copy-paste your web. Find out everything there is to be found out about your future audience. Know their relationship towards risking, their approach to hierarchical order, find their preferred tone of communication. That’ll help you come up with tailor-made web design.
- Meet not only the people, but also the habits. That’ll help you understand the mentality of your customers and give you inspiration for special seasonal campaigns. Also, it’ll help you avoid unpleasant culture-related faux-pas.
- Always, always, always consult with a specialist. Otherwise you might end up accidentally calling your new product a wanker.
