The Most Common Mistakes Companies Make with Global Marketing by Nataly Kelly - Article

1. Does the company specify its target country?

Instead of targeting a region as big as, for example, Asia or Europe, company executives would be wise to specify which Asian country is targeted. Generalising a region would be unwise because customers are likely to identify on a national level. For marketing, bespoke marketing management is the keyword here because cultural norms, local laws, specific business practises and currency are different per country. Market research should be localised and focused on understanding local customer behaviour, market size, local competitors and where the company product can fit in this market matrix.

2. Is the company paying attention to internal data?

For a company to develop a global market strategy there are three important data points to look at:

1. What is the estimated opportunity available in that (specific) market?

2. What is the ease of doing business in that market?

3. What is the level of success already enjoyed in that market?

More often than not companies rely on external date for making decisions. But for question 2 and 3 internal company data is likely to provide a better answer. How much investment creates how many leads? What are the sales cycles? Answers to these questions are better sought within the company, since third-party data sources are not as familiar with the product, brand and customer of the company.

3. Are you adapting your sales and marketing channels?

Every company needs to tailor its channels to the local condition when entering a new market. Whatever might have worked in the home market, might not work abroad. When you are selling through social media, choosing the right platform per country is essential. Twitter might be popular in one country while another country has its own popular social channel. Another example is in countries with high cultural value attached to relationships, it might be wise to sell through local partners such as resellers instead of relying on direct sales methods. Relying in local data an in-country experts is highly recommended.

4. Are you adapting the product offering to the new market?

A company will have to tailor its services to a new market to achieve product-market-fit. A software company for example will have to sell a different product than the one sold in the home market if the new market is not (yet) familiar with certain advanced features.

Pricing is also different per country, just as payment is. Some countries are more cash-based, while others are more (debit- or credit-) card-oriented.

5. Does the local team have the lead?

Often global companies have their headquarters set strategy for local operations, even though they have a highly competent workforce in their local branch. Local employees not only know the product, brand and company, they also know the local market and communication practises.

6. Do you operate bespoke logistics?

Sometimes the company CRM is filled with leads from different countries. In this case it is wise to make sure that all countries ramifying sales get product support in each language that is involved. If necessary, new software will be required to tailor the needs of each local market.Marketeers need to verify they can deliver locally, by displaying local currency, provide time zone managed communication and communicate in the local language.