Communication can mean the difference between successful global expansion and total failure. There is often friction between local teams and those in new markets or at “head office.” Whether it’s implementing new processes, balancing workloads or even changing internal hierarchy, adapting your strategy will inevitably involve adjusting your communication methods.
Following guidelines for Marketing and Sales alignment will help you in this process, such as enacting service level agreements, assigning responsibilities, scheduling consistent meetings, and conducting training. You can also ask yourself the following questions:
Which stakeholders have a say in marketing campaigns, ideas and decisions?
Are decisions made top-down or are local marketing teams heard?
Which teams or departments should work together?
Are you listening to feedback from your sales and service department?
Remember that while a global strategy may influence high-level decision-making, lower-level local teams such as sales and customer service should be consulted to provide insight into customers, opinions, local cultures and physician database markets. Poor communication will lead to dissatisfied or overworked teams, wasted time and resources, ineffective campaigns, lack of brand consistency, etc.
4. Be culturally relevant and visually appropriate
It is important to conduct extensive cultural research before launching your brand in a new market . Concepts, words and images intended to provoke a certain reaction in your target audience may not be perceived in the collaboration with a powerful partner same way in all countries or regions. Factors such as history, politics, religion, humour, gender equality and social codes will determine what is acceptable and appropriate.
Let’s look at an example: Mr. Clean’s Mother’s Day ad.
mr clean regional marketing strategy global mistake
This 2011 ad implies that a woman’s real job is to clean the afb directory house. This terrible idea spread not only in print campaigns but ended up all over social media, creating negative publicity for the brand and outrage among its customers and potential buyers. Remember that a brand’s reputation is built very slowly and destroyed in just a second.