Summary

Intricacies of International Learning

When brands enter international markets, they need to consider certain factors before taking the
plunge, which include taking into account the prerequisites of branding and deciding on a
branding strategy before entering a global market.

Prerequisites for entering a Global Market

Brands need to take care of four prerequisites of branding before entering a global market. These
are:

1. Culture - It refers to the ideas, customs and beliefs of a particular society or country, which reflects
on aspects such as religion, cuisine, colours, gestures, and so on. Companies need to do research on
the culture of the market they are entering to ensure that all their branding-related activities and
communication are culturally sensitive.
2. Demographics - It refers to factors such as literacy rate, income levels, male-female ratio,
disposable income, and so on. These factors need to be taken into consideration before deciding on
the branding-related communication. For example, a low literacy rate requires brands to place more
pictures than written content on their packaging, advertisements, etc.
3. Language - It refers to the language differences between people of different cultures and countries.
Companies need to ensure that their brand names, product names, taglines and other marketing
communication make sense to consumers in local translation. An improper translation of Pepsi’s
tagline ‘Come Alive! You’re in the Pepsi generation’ led to it becoming ‘Pepsi brings your ancestors
back from the dead.’
4. Purchase behaviour - It refers to the consumer’s purchasing habits, choices, etc.. This covers
consumers’ buying preferences such as whether they purchase from retail stores or online, whether
they purchase in bulk or in small quantities as per requirement, whether they prefer traditional
departmental stores or modern trade stores, and so on. Brands need to take this purchase behaviour
into consideration before deciding on the brand communication in an international market.

When Airtel entered Africa with a single ad campaign for the entire African continent, it failed miserably. It
didn’t conduct any demographic or ethnographic research and hence, failed to understand that all Africans
don’t look alike. This is why a single ad campaign didn’t work for the entire continent

Airtel didn’t factor in the cultural differences and showed people using coins in the ad campaign when a
majority of the African population uses bills instead of coins.
It also didn’t consider the purchasing behaviour of the consumers and showed people using data services in
the ad, whereas at the time, the African population purchased a sim only to make calls or send messages

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 International Branding Strategies
According to a framework developed by Schiffman and Kanuk, there are three marketing
strategies available for a company that’s going global.

This framework considers the product as well as the communication as variables, which
can be standardised globally or customised according to market requirements.

Communication Strategy
Product Strategy
Standardised Communication Localised Communication

Global Strategy Glocal Strategy

Standardised Product
Localised Product
Uniform Product/ Uniform Uniform Product/ Customised
Message Message
Glocal Strategy Local Strategy
Customised Product/ Uniform Customised Product/
Message Customised Message

1. Global Strategy - Global strategy means establishing a global brand for all the markets. Here, both
the product and the communication are maintained in a standardised form across different markets.
The taglines and brand communication can be translated into local languages, but the brand
campaign and the essence of the communication stays the same. A company should choose this
strategy if the product has universal appeal and specifications, and if customers across the world
seek similar features.

Microsoft offers the same Windows software across the world, and has consistent communication in
all its markets. The global automobile giant Mercedes-Benz also has consistent communication and
offers the same brands, such as the Mercedes-Benz
C-Class, across all its markets.

2. Local Strategy - In this strategy, companies use individual brands for each market. Here, both the
product as well as the communication are customised according to the market needs. A company
should choose this strategy if the living standards, economic conditions and customer preferences of
the target market are extremely different..
KitKat whose tagline is ‘Have a break.. Have a KitKat’ implemented a local strategy while entering the
Japanese market. It changed its tagline to ‘Kittu Katsu’, which means ‘Surely Win’ in Japanese. It also
introduced a range of flavours in Japan that were not offered in any other country. These range of
flavours were in-line with the taste preferences of the Japanese population.
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3. Glocal Strategy - In this strategy, companies maintain a global brand name and certain global
themes while changing some aspects of their branding strategy. Here, either the product or the
communication is customised while the other is maintained in the standard form. A company should
choose this strategy if it wants to achieve standardisation across markets while also keeping the
local preferences in mind.

P&G’s Mr. Clean brand has the same product but under a different name in different markets. It is
known as Mr. Clean in the US and India, Maestro Limpio in Mexico, Don Limpio in Spain, Meister
Proper in Germany, and so on.

Fast food chain McDonald’s has consistent communication across all its markets with the tagline ‘I’m
lovin’ it’. However, it customises its product offerings to suit the tastes of the market it enters. It
introduced a whole new range of vegetarian items in the Indian market while it has an entirely non-
vegetarian menu in some Western nations.

Since the glocalisation strategy allows brands to maintain a standard global image while also taking
into account local differences, it is the most commonly used strategy by a majority of brands.
Glocalisation is the way forward for all brands looking to go global.

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