What is Global Marketing?

What is Global Marketing?

Global marketing is basically the beginning, middle, and end of how a business organizes, creates, positions, and advertises its products and services on a global scale. Giant corporations have always had their hands in global marketing through having operations, representatives, and employees in other countries.

Through social media platforms, websites, and other online tools, small businesses can also participate in the process of global marketing.

Why is Global Marketing Important?

• It gives businesses new opportunities to create new streams of income
• Raises brand familiarity and reputation
• Its gives businesses the opportunity to gain new knowledge about their products in order to adjust for better quality service

What is Global Marketing Strategy?

The planning part of a business trying to grow into new markets around the world is a global marketing strategy. When entering various international markets, a business must be mindful of how they will approach marketing (public relations, promotion, channels, etc.) in countries with different values, cultures, and even languages.

For instance, if you have an American-based company trying to sell products in China, you must gage how to reach that particular audience.

Strategies for a Successful Global Marketing

Establish a popular and well-recognized brand and image

• When a business is successful and popular in their native country, curiosity arises in other countries from foreigners willing to try out their products

Use a unified approach to marketing across borders

• Utilize a marketing strategy for your business as if there were no global boundaries to better analyze engagement with content from country to country

Make a marketing plan

• Investigate goals/benchmarks of a business and the needs/wants of the region within the global market, then create a marketing plan based on research collected

Adjust your approach

• Just a because a marketing strategy was a success in a business’ native country does not mean that it will translate well in another country with different values, culture, and language

Personalize promotions

• Be mindful of language differences, cultural practices, and observances (i.e. holidays and events) when advertising a product or service to a foreign audience

Observe and know where your target audience comes from

• Using tools such as Google Analytics and Shopify to pinpoint consumers by specific their location helps businesses create better marketing strategies that reach their target audiences

Tailor your products based on where they are sold

• Fast food juggernaut McDonald’s provides cultural food staples (i.e. poutine in Canada and Crock Brie in Italy) based on the localization of every franchise
• Are your services or products in any way culturally offensive?
• Is your business following foreign government rules and regulations?
• Is your business brand/trademark unique to the country in which services are provided?

Keeping branding in mind

• A business must ensure that anything from the company name to the logo that they use is not similar to other business in the area, that their branding is easily translatable in a different language, and that it is familiar

Specify your message based on location

• Different people have different wants/needs, and this is especially true for people that live and different countries. A business must make sure that their promotions speak to their customers, whether native or foreign

Bring an in-country marketer on your team

• As the saying goes, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” But, no one knows Rome like an actual Roman. When tailoring your marketing strategy to foreign countries, hiring a native from those countries ensures better communication that translates to the people that a business is trying to reach.

Utilize the correct technology and software

• If the most popular social media platform in a foreign country is Twitter, then it is imperative for a business to structure its global marketing strategy around the use of that platform to reach its desired audience

Take advantage of available data

• Growth in the modern digital landscape has allowed for businesses to be more creative in how they reach potential customers through marketing campaigns online

Development of Global Marketing Campaign

Product

• Is a company’s product sellable across all global markets or does it need to be changed depending on regional traditions and tastes?

Price

• Do prices need to be changed because of competition already in the foreign market?

Placement

• How do foreign customers choose and purchase their products?

Advertising

• Does a company’s message easy to understand across all cultures? Are there any misunderstandings based on language, culture, and/or value differences?

What kinds of Customers does Global Marketing Reach?

Targeting and reaching out to customers on a global scale requires a business to have various profiles instead of just one distinct profile. Every country analyzed will have different types of consumers with different types of needs. That is why global marketing campaigns must be flexible and adjustable across all borders.

Benefits of Global Marketing

Increase the quality of a product or service

• When a business expands into a new market, they gain more knowledge. With analytical tools, they acquire knowledge at a faster pace, which leads to a higher quality of service or products that are available for customers.

The familiarity of brand image

• Think about why companies like McDonald’s and Starbucks are known all around the world

Raised knowledge about your brand

• If your business not only has ads on social media platforms but also commercials that air all around the world (tailored from country to country) there is an increased chance of gaining a global customer base.

Lesser costs, more savings

• By establishing a brand in other global markets, a business can acquire more consumers and get them familiarized with the brand to a point where the marketing does itself (recommendations, social media posts, etc.). Plus, by taking advantage of social media, businesses use less money for promotions.

Reach a wider target audience

• Being on top of the American market is nothing to sneeze at, but thanks to modern innovations (the internet) it is easier than ever before to connect with the foreign market to increase a businesses’ customer base.

Gain the upper hand on your competitors

• Everyone knows that McDonald’s is a dominant global powerhouse compared to Whataburger due to its reach in the global market, especially in China.

Gain relationships across borders

• Not only can a business form a relationship or even partnerships within their native countries (i.e. Coca-Cola and McDonald’s), but they can also establish alliances with foreign corporations to sharpen their edge within the global market.

Helps form relationship outside of the “political arena”

• Certain might not be able to link up in their native countries due to conflicts of interests, however, in another country, those constraints might not be there.

Helps to manifest good strategies faster in a more efficient way

• Thanks to digital innovations, businesses can implement global strategies with at a faster rate than reaches more people.

Reveals the advantages of e-Marketing vs traditional marketing

• In the age of social media posts and images with the use of social media, e-Marketing is king.

Influence and scope

• The more global impact that a company has the more cultural influence and power that they have, which also increases the sizes of their operations.

Challenges in Global Marketing

No market, no sale

• An American burger joint might not be able to establish itself in a country like India because cows are considered sacred animals in their culture. They would have to adjust their menu to be more plant-based.

More financial risk

• A business trying to cross over into a global market is a risky task due to having to adapt their marketing strategy (which costs money) to places with differing values, cultures, and languages with could fail.

The rules are different

• Not only does a business entering into a foreign market have to deal with language and cultural barriers, but they also have to deal with following the rules of foreign governments.