As an entrepreneur, exposing your brand to an international audience can be the most fulfilling experience of all times. Optimizing your brand for the global market means; more opportunities for you but diverse customer behaviors. Before you kick off a global campaign, it’s important to develop a marketing strategy with a local audience in mind. The more reason for you to adapt the, “Think Global, Act Local” mindset.
Think Global, Act Local is a concept that leading companies or organizations in the world had to incorporate in their business structures to be able to reach and be accepted internationally by their target audience.
About a month ago, we had the pleasure of having Mr. Sammy Thuita, the E-commerce manager at DHL Express – Kenya, as a guest speaker at our open evening event.
His topic of choice, “Think Global, Act Local”, attracted a huge number of people, with most attendees being entrepreneurs. The crowd was interestingly composed of a wide variety of people; from a shoe vendor, hotel owner, to digital marketing manager. All gathered to find out how they could adopt this theory for their local startups.
To create a sustainable brand presence at the international level simply means that whatever business idea you come up with, should be able to meet the needs of your local market and still entice other markets beyond your borderline. For you to develop a brand that can be accepted globally and survive in different regions that have different dynamics, you need to:
1. Do a 360 degrees Research
You need to create a research design that covers the market gaps, customer buying behaviors, and competitor analysis to help you set standards acceptable across all borders. The changes in resource consumption patterns and lifestyles will help you structure a good market plan for your diverse target audience. The plan should meet the needs of the global market without having to lose the vision or values of your original business.
2. Explore the Markets
As a start-up, if you wish to stretch out beyond your borderline, do not base your assumptions on what your experience is of your domestic market.
You have to first conduct a reconnaissance visit to places you would wish to set up your franchises. Thereafter, adopt few things from the existing competitors in the market and incorporate them into your original idea. Merging ideas from competitors outside your market with your initial “local” concept enables you to have the “global touch”. You can use samples to see if the local community appreciates the end result of the merge before releasing it to the market.
3. Set Global Standards
Use existing companies running the same operations as you to benchmark the core values your target audience is yearning for. Then, make your product improvement of what is in the market and ensure that its standard can be accepted both at the grassroots and global levels. Your Product packaging and marketing strategies should also align with the universal needs and trends. Your business sustainability across different regions will be determined by your ease to integrate your business operations with dozens of other standards from around the world.
If you wish to get more lessons on how to create profitable frameworks for your business or how to manage a brand, let us know in the comment section.
