Companies are constantly struggling with competition and have to come up with innovative things in order to remain competitive. Gone are the days of relying on traditional media such as print ads and TV commercials to reach out to customers. Now, social media grasps the marketing side with a strong grip, hovering over an economy that continuously changes every single day. With these volatile factors, global brands have to be ready to adapt to a new landscape, have to take several steps for going global and implement strategies that are both flexible and effective.
The Road Block
Any brand that achieves domestic success will try to explore opportunities to market the brand on an international level. Multi-national companies are always seeking new ways to grow their market shares by going into emerging markets. Being the most attractive market there is, companies are edging out one another to fight for a demographic of a large middle class with financial stability and strong economic outlook. But before they can even reach to these markets, brands have to be ready for the challenge at hand to grow their business.What Are These Challenges?
• Budget
Rolling out a global marketing campaign can easily be hindered by budget. Not only will the campaign be time-consuming on the planning part, but it can also be expensive on the implementation slot. And to deliver a global marketing campaign, brands have to be ambitious and take risks with their money. But with the rapid innovations in content management systems and other media platforms, marketing campaigns and its costs are reduced significantly without losing the ability to track ROI.• Uniformity and Customization
International markets can be quite challenging to reach out to for brands due to the struggle of customization and uniformity. What may work for one country may not work for the other.And entering a market without first-hand knowledge can be disastrous for your marketing campaign. This is one reason why brands and their marketing campaigns fail even before they’re launched. The lack of cultural knowledge and professional translation skills can affect new product launching in a new market, and this isn’t evident up until the campaign has been launched.
Brands also feel the need to customize their marketing campaigns to adapt to foreign markets, however, this can be quite taxing on their budget. That’s why it’s often advised to conduct thorough market research to determine what needs to be changed for any existing marketing campaign prior to launching it.
• A Volatile Digital Landscape
Trends in the digital world and the Internet marketing industry are ever-changing, and brands have to be on top of it in order to stay relevant. Company websites and their social media profiles are now direct bridges between the company and potential consumers. But without a direct and clear strategy, companies end up losing a major opportunity.• Consumer Reactions
The brunt of any brand’s marketing message and campaigns likes in its ability to reach out and emotionally connect with consumers. Viral content can instantaneously reach out to millions of customers in a matter of minutes at the fraction of the cost of traditional marketing media. But steps for going viral are most likely affected by the 2nd challenge – uniformity, and customization. Are brands knowledgeable enough of the content they produce that it won’t offend their target audience from another country?The challenge here is what kind of content will a brand’s audience appreciate and react to. Considering the first two challenges mentioned above (Budget and Uniformity), a viral campaign can make or break any brand’s international marketing potential.
• Tracking ROI For Global Marketing Campaigns
Companies always try to cut costs and to do that, they need to be able to determine the ROI for any marketing campaign. However, marketing campaigns usually take a hit as a hurried attempt to cut costs and this is where it goes down for most brands and where customer retention and acquisition go out the window. Companies that are trying to reach out on a global scale need to treat marketing as investments, not costs. Measuring ROI is the challenge for any brand and its marketers, considering that campaign performance varies from different regions and budgets are at stake.The ultimate goal here is to determine the performance of the campaigns based on the value they’re providing according to the ROI.• Creating Objectives To Overcome Challenges
From the start of the campaign, it’s imperative for brands to be clear with their objectives and goals, so all teams know what needs to go out, what needs to be evaluated, and what needs to be removed. A campaign that does not do well may need to be put on hold and re-evaluated to identify possible flaws and errors before improvements can be made.Thanks for reading along, don't forget to drop us a comment and share with your friends. Before you go, also check out the top 25+ hot information marketing ideas that work very well in Nigeria.
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