How I can help your organisation to implement a localised international marketing strategy

International Marketing can be very daunting, I fully understand that. Where do we start? How do we enter the markets? What are the risks? The list goes on. I fully understand the concerns and hesitations, we all know there is a risk with expanding internationally but done the right way, the ROI along with brand awareness and brand loyalty will increase.

Many organisations try and market themselves internationally and fail. Several factors have influenced this failure, one of the most common ones is not understanding the local culture to position the product correctly, and by extension not being able to connect with the local customer through the correct messaging.  

International marketing and global marketing strategies aim to be as standardised and homogenous as possible, which results in integrated marketing activities which can be applied throughout the world. For these strategies to succeed in each region, the localised marketing strategies must adapt to the region’s economic, political, social, cultural differences as well as adapting to the nature of the market. It is imperative organisations understand how their product or service will fit the needs of the local customer. It is imperative to communicate the fit in a manner which resonates with the local consumer.  

This is where I can help you, I have done this over and over again in EMEA, MENA, APAC, LatAm, Russia and the USA. I will get your product or service to the market as soon as possible to generate revenue thanks to my experience and understanding of these regions. 

These are the five steps I will help your organisation:

Cultural Awareness

Research the culture and understand the cultural nuances, understand how business is done in the local region and apply that to the localised marketing strategy. The cultural awareness and understanding of traditions and how business is done will aid in creating customer loyalty and increased revenue through repeat sales and referrals. The importance of relationship marketing has grown stronger in mature and intricate markets

Risk Mitigation

Assessing short and long-term risk to maximise ROI and minimise financial, strategic and competitor risk. For example, there are business risks such as production, price/market, legal. Financial risk; interest rates, incomplete budgeting and liquidity, these are just a few examples. It is important to look at the strategic risk, considering external forces, positioning, internal resources and capabilities.

Involve the right Departments

International marketing requires the involvement of several departments of the organisation, often this is overlooked that international marketing is concerned with the whole organisation. The most common departments I have had to involve have been legal, financial, sales and IT, obviously this need is a case-by-case situation. It is important to have this understanding if not, there will be hurdles along the way. I continuously build those relationships as I know how important they are to the success of international marketing.

Segmentation, Positioning and Messaging

Segment the target audience, this will help to position the product correctly against the local competition, analyse the pricing and create messaging which will resonate with the local target audience.

Design and implement a localised international marketing strategy

Using the Marketing Mix, SWOT, PESTLE to design the localised international marketing strategy with messaging, that resonates with the local audience, this is the result of research undertaken in steps 1-3. These assessments will then be used to apply the tactical marketing.

International marketing is complex, done the right way and evaluated continuously, it will increase your revenue, while the local market risk is continuously monitored to allow for rapid response to any changes.

Read more about my eperiences on my blog The Local Foreigner