Brand Management
Brand Management
Brand Management
automobiles.
How to Build a Brand Internationally: What You Need to Expand
When businesses try to expand their brand globally, those goals don't
change. But there are several steps you should take to make sure that
your products or services will have a market overseas, that you can
maintain quality in delivering and/or distributing your goods or services,
and that your business or product branding meets cultural expectations -and doesn't insult anyone -- in different parts of the world.
"The secret is doing your homework," Williams says. "Like any long
distance relationship, it's got to be managed and needs more work than
something you can see and physically touch, but it's not impossible."
The following steps may help you in building an international brand:
Make sure you have a market. "Proven success with your current
target audience doesn't automatically mean that your new target will
connect in the same way with your products or services," Williams says.
"Ask your new market the questions you used to build your initial business
plan." First and most important, he says, you'll want to determine if a
market exists for your product. If so, make sure the want or need isn't
already being well met by someone else. If there are existing competitors,
what (in the perspective of your potential customers) makes you
remarkably different? If there is a market and there are no competitors,
make sure you find out why -- are there laws against distributing your
products or can consumers buy them through other means?
Make sure you can deliver. Make sure you can get your product to,
or manufactured within, the new market. "Import and manufacturing laws
vary from country to country," Williams says. "Ensure you can make your
products reliably and consistently available to your new target markets."
Investigate the local laws. You need to make sure your products meet the
local standards for construction of components, use of chemicals, disposal
of goods, proper labeling of products, etc.
Re-examine your business and/or product names. In choosing a
name for your business or product, you need to be culturally sensitive if
you intend to sell in foreign markets. Make sure product names make
sense to customers in your new markets, both in English and in the local
translation. Williams, who has done international branding work with
Starbucks, recalls how a holiday favorite in the U.S., the Gingerbread
Latte, didn't sell well in Germany even though gingerbread was a favorite
holiday cookie in that country. Sales of the drink increased dramatically
when Starbucks began using the German word for gingerbread and
rebranded the drink, the Lebkuchen Latte. If you are considering
translating names, don't rely on computer translation. "You don't want
what you think is an effective name to mean something opposite or offend
potential customers," Williams says. "Work with someone locally who can
help make sure you communicate what you intend."
Give your logo another look. Similarly, review your logo to make
sure that you don't use any wording or symbols that would offend in a
foreign market. "Ensure that any logos or symbols you use make sense
and don't offend," Williams says. "Do an international search to make sure
your logo isn't similar to that of another international company." For
example, if you are selling products in some Middle Eastern markets, a
logo featuring the face of a woman might not be appropriate. The best
way to understand these cultural sensitivities is to consult a branding or
design firm -- either a local one or an international firm that can research
cultural sensitivities.
Understand packaging requirements. If you're selling a product,
you need to consider the laws and customs and packaging requirements in
your new markets before deciding on packaging for your products. Your
packaging may use a clear plastic shell that hangs from a rod, but your
competition may package their product in a box that can go on a shelf,
Williams says. This may put you at a disadvantage. "If you're selling a
packaged product around the world there are incredible hurdles," Roth
adds. Shipping food across borders may require you to provide more
nutritional information on packaging, in more languages, and there may be
laws prohibiting the use of certain products in some markets -- even New
York City has a ban on trans fatty acids, for example. Learn the local
standards and ensure your packaging includes any necessary regulatory
information and meets transportation standards.
Register trademarks and domain names. Follow the process in your
new market to ensure you preserve patent and trademarks. Thanks to the
NAFTA Treaty your marks should already be protected in Mexico and
Canada, Williams says. If you're doing business in the European Union
filing for a Community Trade Mark (CTM) will protect you. Another
consideration is making sure the Internet domain name for your company
and product are available. You still want to register a dot-com, which is the
most popular domain worldwide for businesses. But you may also consider
registering domains using specific country codes -- .nl for the Netherlands
or .br for Brazil -- if you are targeting only one or two local markets and
plan on providing up-to-date translations of your websites into the local
languages.
In taking these steps to building a brand internationally, it almost always
helps to find local resources to help you understand and enter new foreign
markets. You might consider entering into business with a local distributor
The way to build awareness of your brand in these new markets -- and
increase sales because, let's face it, this is your goal -- follows the same
formula you use to increase brand awareness at home. "Craft and
communicate a message that is relevant to the needs and wants of your
customers," Williams says. "Deliver this message in the places they are
receptive to it, in terms they can relate to and understand, and through
the channels that will truly reach your potential customer."
Craft your message. Having done your homework and researched the
new foreign markets, and perhaps engaged the help of a local firm or
representative, you have hopeful honed your domestic branding for this
new audience. Be sure to note what the competition and other businesses
are doing. "What may have seemed witty or charming in the U.S. may be
misunderstood in your new market," Williams says. "Be careful playing the
'old and established' angle. An 'old' company in the U.S. can sound
impressive, but you may be doing business in a country that has bottles of
wine and rounds cheese older than your company."
Deliver this message through the right channels. Don't rely on
radio advertisements if your new market is a city in which people
commute by subway or bicycle. Make sure you are communicating your
message where it will be seen. Think about advertising inside the subway.
"What are the habits your customer base in that other country? Where are
they found? What is their lifestyle? What are they doing?" Williams says.
There is no secret answer. It's up to you to connect the dots and find the
right approach.
Communicate in the right manner. The manner and tone in which you
engage your potential and new customers is as important as the words
you choose, Williams says. "Manner and tone will come across through
your packaging, advertising, online, through your sales people, and even
the way you answer the phone," he says. What types of interaction you
will have with customers? What will be the tone you choose? What types
of sales process and policies will you use? Even though you are based
thousands of miles away, this is still a reflection on you and your brand.
Remember that.
If the company does not focus on the new reality in which the company
in collaboration with the customer creates value, then it will affect the
companys ability to attract and retain customers, employees, partners,
investors, the media and other target groups.
Lacking focus on the activities that create the companys brand reduces
the companys ability to:
Today most companies work with quality assurance. It is thoughtprovoking, that the economic value secured by this, amounts to less than
half of the companys market value.
So in order to navigate this new reality, it is necessary to oblige the target
group. Knowledge of the target groups experience of touchpoints
constitutes a competitive advantage and increases the companys value.
Reputation Quality Management secures the largest part of the companys
market value i.e. the brand in accordance with existing quality
management systems. Reputation Quality Management manages
Touchpoints like any other activity in the company.
Leading companies thought leaders now take the lead in the new
reality, and offer their target groups value through experiences, which
they actively and systematically manage with BTM.
Reputation Quality Management makes a complex topic straight forward
and manageable in everyday life.
Reputation Quality Management identifies and systematically investigates
activities that create reputation. The tool is simple and contains a
functional report identifying performance and gaps.
The results are presented in collaboration with management. Based on the
analysis managerial target areas are setup for the relevant Touchpoints.
The survey and the target areas are placed in a continuous system, which
develops the brand and thus enhances reputation. This way the
companys value is maintained and developed systematically.
By repeating the survey with regular intervals, the development of the
different activities, that create reputation, is stimulated.
Reputation Quality Management has been developed by Brand Architect
MAA Henrik Gabriel in collaboration with Bureau Veritas. Reputation
Quality Management builds on the structure of ISO 9001:2008 and has