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Brand + Culture -- The Best Winning Combination

2014/4/1 14:08:00 20

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for a company seeking to expand its overseas market, one of the greatest significance of globalization is how to balance standardization and customization.

From the brand point of view, this problem is even more important.

When some of the biggest brands in the world try to expand overseas markets, they are always reluctant to repeat some successful models in the new market. In fact, this is a routine followed by many companies.

The assumption is that consumers are particularly anxious about the reliability and sustainability of well-known brands.

brand is the channel of self expression

in the current globalized business world, brand symbol is not only a product identification mark, but the brand has surpassed the commodity trap and penetrated into every aspect of people's life.

Brand has become an important channel for people to express their personalities, attitudes and preferences, and to connect with people and communities.

Therefore, if the brand can provide consumers with the opportunity to express, the brand will succeed.

As a world-renowned brand, it is a difficult task to have deep-rooted identity and personality while adapting well to local needs. The following steps can help brands achieve a smooth pition:

understand local market: if a company can understand all the markets not only by some superficial parameters, even if it is a great help to oneself, because each market has its own unique characteristics and consumers' special preferences, most of its unique characteristics are rooted in the cultural foundation of the local society.

Truly understanding these potential parameters can help companies effectively attract local consumers.

subdivide the market for quick adaptation: the market is naturally made up of many factors. It is well known that market segmentation, as a basic operation of promotion, is indeed one of the basic tools to help companies allocate resources effectively.

As emerging markets gradually merge into the global market, diversification will become more significant.

Such a trend not only provides companies with good opportunities to increase potential consumers, but also helps companies make better use of this market situation through segmenting the market.

Companies must decide whether they want to subdivide elements, product category, product line, brand strategy or available channel.

Channel -- strategic brand factor: in many markets, the ability to influence consumers at the right place and at the right time has become the key to the success or failure of a brand.

In China and India, channel management is particularly important.

Many world-renowned retail brands such as WAL-MART, Sears and Kama are all inclined to use similar promotional methods in overseas and developing countries. This is not a good way to do so. In fact, in many Asian markets, unknown retailers still dominate.

Under such circumstances, if the international giants want to succeed, they must realize the importance of building a strong channel and adapt their models to the realities of the local market.

consumers in the bottom of Pyramid: Despite the rapid economic growth and huge expansion of consumption, emerging markets and developing countries are still regarded as an important part of the bottom of Pyramid.

These consumers are eager to integrate into the mainstream of business. They have fewer resources, stronger aspirations and ambitions. From a long-term perspective, they are more likely to become the most profitable target customers of businesses.

But most of these consumers are not yet ready to accept high priced goods.

Consumers always want to find products with high cost performance. This part of consumers also want them to provide high quality and low price goods, which poses a major challenge for international famous brands. These brand practices are either to provide high quality, high price goods, or to provide low quality and low price goods.

The bigger challenge is that local brands already have the ability to meet the high cost performance of consumers. The success of international brands depends on their adaptability to the local market and the speed and ability to respond to local consumers' needs.

the localization of global brands: the developing countries are finally seeing the dawn. Many countries, especially Asian countries, are in the stage of rapid economic development.

With the booming economy and increasing global trade, technology and outsourcing have nurtured millions of jobs. With the increasing disposable income, local governments are committed to helping their country integrate into the global economy.

These factors have led to the emergence of new consumer groups. They no longer define their identities based on the West. They have enough confidence and satisfaction with local brands.

Although these consumers like and are willing to buy international brands, they also have a strong preference for local cost-effective brands.

This once again forces the international brand to balance its international positioning and localization. This balance will help global brands succeed in the global market.

The above P recommendations will help global brands accomplish their localization smoothly and apply their experience to local markets to attract local consumers.

In addition, these recommendations provide justification for global brands to fully understand the enormous challenges of lack of localization strategy.

Unilever and NOKIA, the two largest international giants, have won the market through localization. Their success has verified the views discussed in this paper.

"P", Unilever is a classic successful representative in the global brands that occupy the local market through products with local characteristics.

Unilever's India Stanley HindustanLevelLimited is a pioneer in finding Pyramid's underlying business opportunities.

One of the characteristics of consumers at the bottom of Pyramid is the products that are eager to have low price and low price.

In response to this feature, HLL has developed a small bag shampoo, which sells for less than 2 cents.

This led to panic buying in local villages, and other brands also offered similar small capacity products, such as cleaners, coffee, green tea powder, coconut oil, toothpaste and so on.

Although the unit price is higher, rural consumers are able to afford smaller capacity products, which are more convenient for them to use.

another example is NOKIA, the mobile phone brand that has been leading the world.

NOKIA is also aware of the importance of rapidly growing rural consumers. In the India market, from 1996 to 2004, mobile phone users surged from 300 thousand to 55 million.

In the India market, NOKIA Mobile has introduced three functions, such as dust-proof keyboard, anti-skid grip and built-in flash. These changes are small but attractive to local truck drivers, thus helping NOKIA win a wider range of rural consumers.

These changes have made NOKIA popular with local consumers, because they can feel that NOKIA has truly fulfilled its commitment to meet the needs of local consumers.

conclusion .

this article attempts to illustrate the importance of inculcate cultural elements in the process of brand building. These cultural elements include local customs, consumer preferences, local pressures and buying habits.

This process is called global localization, that is, global brands strive to meet the unique needs of local consumers while maintaining their international norms.

socio cultural sensitivity is a required course for global brands, and global localization is an important part.

When global brands enter any market, they always tend to continue their consistent success mode, after all, these models have made the brand's strong position.

But being a leading brand and refusing to revise its standardization process, these brands tend to overlook the potential driving force that drives consumers to make purchase decisions in different markets.

With market integration and consumer migration, the potential driving force of similar decisions affecting buying will become more prevalent.

but this is only a far fetched idea.

Theodore, Leavitt, Professor of Harvard Business School at Harvard Business School, wrote in his landmark article, "market globalization," that one day, the global market will probably become very similar, and global company will be able to play the role of TheodoreLevitt.

Despite the globalization, the different markets will continue to maintain their uniqueness. Before the advent of a completely disappearing era, global brands must continue to respect the local market culture and adapt themselves to the local conditions. Only in this way can they succeed.