What is the best way to adapt your product or service for a foreign market?

You need to live in that market, or at the minimum hire someone who is out there. Otherwise, you’re just in your bubble. Nothing beats the real thing.

Adapting a product for foreign markets demands a deep understanding of the target audience. This isn't a task for just one department but requires teamwork across localization, finance, analytics, marketing and more. Cost calculation is key, considering factors such as potential user base, average device usage, and economic conditions. Studying major competitors and their offerings provides valuable insights. Cultural preferences play a huge role too; localization isn't just about translating text. It's also about aligning colors, images, and UI/UX designs with local tastes and sensibilities. Finally, don't overlook the region's political and legal landscapes, as these can pose unique challenges.

Diving into a new market without comprehensive research is like navigating uncharted waters. Grasping the needs, desires, and challenges faced by your target audience is paramount. Cultural nuances, behavioral patterns, and local norms can reshape product perceptions. How does your audience communicate or shop? What drives them? Tools like interviews, surveys, or analytics provide valuable insights. It's about aligning your offering with their unique landscape. Knowledge isn't just power; it's the foundation of market success. Always remember, understand before you expand.

Going into new market is really like creating new startup. It’s not easy, there are a lot of challenges and it’s expensive. Prepare yourself and do it well from the beginning or it’s not going to be pretty.

With a well-defined target market comes the responsibility to mold your value proposition accordingly. It's not just about what you offer; it's about how it resonates locally. Your value proposition isn't a mere statement; it's a pledge that differentiates you from the crowd. Emphasizing distinct advantages and aligning with local desires ensures you're not just heard, but genuinely valued. Ensuring relevance and clarity for your new market is pivotal. Leveraging tools, like the value proposition canvas, helps fine-tune your pitch. It's about crafting an offer that not just serves, but truly connects. Stand out by fitting in.

Adapting your product or service into a given market can be divided into three distinctly separate processes. Unfortunately, most of organization dive directly into local adaptation without thinking these layers, and pay the cost with unnecessary iterations. First is internationalization where you enable your product or service to work any places in the world before going into local adaptation step. Second is regional enablement where you enable distinctive features that is common per region. Bi-directional support is one example. Third and final layer is the localization step where we adapt a product or service to given market. This includes translation of UI into given market, or adjusting features suitable to the market.

When selling a global product you need to ask the question: is this scalable? This applies as well if you consider regional adaptations. It is very difficult to adjust to each local market and in most cases this is not necessary. From a Marketing perspective adapting to target markets include translating a website, emails and adjusting the ads, ad channels and value propositions to the needs of those markets. Market insights will provide a better understanding on how much you want and need to adapt. From a product perspective understand how much the same offer can be flexed so that it seems to be more customized without having to create a new one. And it is all about testing - start with the original and then flex according to demand.

Before you begin localizing, internationalization is key. This step involves designing your software and workflows so they're ready for adaptation later on. There's a lot to consider, like supporting different writing directions and date formats. It's also important to collaborate with the localization team from the earliest stages of development. They'll have a big say in many aspects, like how you set up your databases for text and images, how you organize your task pipelines, and what your work scopes should look like, all based on their professional expertise. Their early input is invaluable because it ensures your product or service is built from the ground up with a global audience in mind.

Localising marketing communications is essential but this can be nuanced. It is not as straightforward as simply translating your marketing copy (and I have seen that done many many times - ending in absolute disaster) it is about 1. Deeply understanding your customers so that the marketing communications connects and engages them 2. Developing a market specific marketing communications strategy that is based on a thorough diagnosis of channels and platforms 3. Testing, adjusting and retesting with friendlies before scaling. In my experience the best way to do this is to get local (trusted) advisors who tell you straight - beware of cultural nuances here too.

When we talk about global organization, we often think about the need, and difficulties, to align performance KPIs or way of doing things. Then, yes we all know how important it is to manage to adapt your product to the specific market if you want to be successful and to surround yourself with the local force which is required to be successful (being your own local employees or distributor as well). However, I think that there is also a third aspect, which is more often eluded: some local innovation, applications can be found even more valuable for your main market or for global perspectives. Local innovation can also be a precious lever.

Listen, test & adapt. It’s a unique challenge that will unlock new capabilities in the process! 1) Look beyond taste. Climate, cultural nuances and even geography all play a part. For example, in China the styles and varieties of soy sauce vary from region to region, depending on the local cuisine. Through our Experience Centre in Shanghai, our R&D teams are able to customize our products (like Master Soy Sauce) to meet local needs. 2) Spend time in market. It sounds obvious, but the best insights come from lived experiences. 3) Don’t overlook your merchandising strategy. A great product relies on the right distribution. In Indonesia, we’ve adapted our ‘Go-to-Market’ model for ‘wet’ market retailers, based on real market insight.

Excellent examples shared here. A few that have worked for me working in AsiaPac markets is: 1. Pricing your of the product from a consumer and customer, always a balance especially if your brand is international Vs local. Especially important with how the product is used in consumers homes and/or other channels. 2. Co-design with both the consumer and customer front the start not develop in isolation. This way you get the sensorial, cultural and needs validated quickly. 3. Consider the landscape and regulatory aspects much earlier - this has caught me out before!