1 Global Marketing Strategy

One of the most common methods to grow a business is to establish a presence beyond the national borders. Despite the fact that international marketing uses the classic principles and concepts of Brand Management, there are some issues that a company should plan for when considering going abroad.

If your Marketing department is responsible of creating the strategy for expanding the firm internationally you might find the task difficult, especially if the foreign market is totally different than what you are experienced with when marketing locally. I am currently responsible of such an challenging project, and I would like to share some advice that you might find useful.

International Marketing Should Start At Home

This might sound confusing to you but your research should commence with identifying programs run by the local and/or federal government to help firms that plan to export succeed in the global economy. You might be surprised (like I was) at the amount of resources available. These includes free market profile studies, grants, market profiles, and a list of potential contacts that can help you get a better knowledge of that particular market. As an example, Canada even provides exporters with fully equipped meeting rooms abroad that export managers can use to meet potential clients and partners, at no cost. Obviously these resources vary by country, but it's well worth investigating.

Begin With The Big Picture

A certain country might look like the perfect opportunity to expand for a lot of reasons. Before you look at the specific industry you are interested in make sure you have a good idea of the macroeconomic situation that influences the way you conduct business. Identifying the opportunities but also the challenges such as political and economical corruption, bad infrastructure, unattractive taxation, ever changing legislation, political unrest, weak banks, is obligatory in starting to export efficiently. Other points to look at are the entry costs such as legal services, trademark usage and implementation, bureaucracy. It is very attractive to just start expanding abroad based on an request for proposal received from a foreign country, however rushing it might cause a lot of headaches later.

Get A Good Understanding of the Local Culture

A common error exporters make in the global marketing planning is not adapting their offer to the local market.This step is very important to a successful entry into a new market. Every country is different, regardless how similar they look on paper. Many consider that USA and Canada are very similar, that speak English and have more or less the cultural and shopping patters.However, people who have visited the two countries discover how different they are in a variety of aspects. Make sure you get feedback from locals about business etiquette, purchasing habits and motivators and the things to stay away from when selling there. It is advisable to hire local translator for any flyer's and electronic media you plan to use to generate sales for your products or services, and hire locals if possible.

One last advice: I personally prefer to put together a list of best practices based on information I get from various sources. If I am able to put a check mark beside each element on the list I can work on the strategic planning phase and elaborate the objective, strategies and tactics to be employed