Thinking Global, Acting Local
Part 2
By Gordon Dutch, lee Baker & Ian Sempers
As per lasts week’s Part 1 of this blog… Do you intend to be Global? When looking to develop a Global marketing strategy, one of the key aspects to success is to really understand the ‘local’ markets you are looking to appeal to. We called it ’Think Global, Act Local’.
When it comes to marketing, this starts by not only understanding the local language, but the culture too. How does their channel work, is it direct or via distribution or a mix of both? What key features are important to that local market and why? And nothing is more important that having good language translations and support. We have all seen funny examples of when a translation goes wrong. One of my favourite examples was relayed by a colleague who visited Mexico. The sign at the airport as you walked towards security read: “Don’t set fire to your arm past this point”. What it was supposed to say was: “Don’t bring firearms past this point”. It’s important you understand the primary language required, which may be English or American English and then what is needed to make it resonate in the local markets. You need to choose the right translation agency and consider local SEO (search engine optimisation) in that language.
Social media is extremely important nowadays. Expanding businesses must understand the tools people use to access content in their local markets. In some markets, LinkedIn works really well. However, in other countries this platform sometimes has a smaller presence and there may be a local alternative.
For most businesses looking to expand Internationally, advertising budgets may well be on the slim side to start with. Instead, you might need to get creative and generate local news stories. Whilst it is great to trumpet and boast about a host of big projects in your core US or UK home market, it is just as important, if not more so, to get local case studies. This makes it more likely that your reader in that local territory will identify with and want to read that piece. Especially if it is well written and translated properly.
We believe the head of any business should travel to meet customers and where possible employ or work with a local Area Sales Manager (ASM) who is a resident of that territory and understands not only the language, but the culture. Nothing is worse than an ASM who doesn’t understand how the market works locally or who can’t communicate effectively with your customer in their own language.
Different markets require different approaches. Just a few influencing factors include language, size of territory, volume of trade, logistics and local competition. All these need to be considered when structuring your team.
Building a successful Global team is another of our favourite subjects that you can read about in future blogs.
If you need more advice on how to build a Global business, feel free to reach out to us hello@re-sauce.net and see what we can do to help.
