If you want to enter overseas markets, how can you overcome cultural differences?

When brands go overseas, they often encounter many unknown factors. If they do not do enough homework and simply copy the domestic methods, they may not be able to adapt to the local environment. So what do you need to prepare before entering the overseas market? The author has collected some localization cases of international brands and discussed the three cultural characteristics that brands need to pay attention to when doing localized marketing, so as to carry out creative marketing accordingly.

Why do brands repeatedly encounter setbacks when going overseas, and why do they have no idea how to enter new markets?

When brands enter overseas markets, everything is unfamiliar and unknown. There are many factors that are difficult to grasp, and cultural differences are the most difficult to deal with. If brands going overseas do not do enough homework and simply copy their domestic experience to overseas markets, they may face the situation of "not adapting to the local environment" and suffer heavy losses.

To this end, Inpander has collected some localization cases of international brands and explored three cultural characteristics that brands need to pay attention to when doing localized marketing, so as to develop different marketing ideas for different regions and achieve “one policy for each region”.

01 Three cultural characteristics that influence consumer behavior

When formulating marketing plans, overseas brands should understand the underlying cultural characteristics of the place in advance and how they affect the way we enter the new market.

Characteristic 1: Individualism or Collectivism

In different cultural environments, some regions tend to be more individualistic, such as the United States, which is a highly individualistic society; while others tend to be more collectivist, such as China, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, etc.

Individualistic cultures generally believe that "I" is more important than "we", while collectivist cultures put the group before the individual.

Reflected in consumption behavior, consumers who tend to be individualistic consider their own personal needs more, are often more keen on chasing trends, and are attracted to customized products that suit their unique tastes.

In contrast, some countries that tend to be collectivist place more emphasis on groups or communities. They are more likely to be proud of their cultural traditions, which leads them to prefer domestic brands rather than foreign brands. Therefore, brands going overseas to Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea can consider taking a thorough localization route and shaping a more localized brand image to gain recognition from locals.

Feature 2: Brand loyalty

National culture and identity also affect consumers' brand loyalty. For example, Italians firmly believe that San Marzano tomatoes have a taste and consistency far superior to other competitors, so when they make Neapolitan pizza, they will only use this variety of tomatoes, and no other will do. And they usually have a favorite brand supplier (big brands such as Cento and Mutti), and they will be loyal to it for life.

Obviously, brand and product loyalty can be influenced by many different factors – cultural traditions and local tastes being one of them.

Where brand loyalty is low, people are more sensitive to price increases and are generally more willing to try new products.

On the other hand, when brand and product loyalty is high (e.g., Cento's San Marzano tomatoes), consumers are less affected by price changes and are less willing to try other brands.

To offset the risk of low brand loyalty, global brands would be wise to allocate resources to building multiple purchase channels to increase accessibility and meet demand—while holding off on creating brand loyalty or rewards programs until overall customer loyalty improves.

Feature 3: Are you willing to accept new technologies?

Another factor that influences brands’ overseas marketing is the willingness to accept new technologies. After all, consumers in some countries are more hesitant than consumers in other countries when it comes to adopting new technologies.

Take Iceland, for example. 99% of households are connected to the internet and 86% of Icelandic adults own a smartphone—the highest rate in the world. When launching new technology to Icelandic consumers, brands don’t have to focus too much on persuasion and outperforming their many competitors.

In contrast, countries such as Ethiopia and Kosovo have been slower to adopt new technologies – although this is often the result of barriers beyond individual consumer behavioural choices. It is not so much a lack of consumer interest in new technologies as a lack of access.

So, when tech brands want to enter countries where the willingness to accept or acquire new technologies is low, you should adjust your marketing campaigns accordingly – whether it’s making emotional appeals or using simple, easy-to-understand language.

02 Deepen local culture and plan localized marketing

1. Understand the cultural nuances of each market

For example, the OK gesture we commonly see, in Greece, Spain and Brazil, represents a hole in the body, and making an OK gesture to someone means calling that person a bastard. In some countries in the Middle East, the OK gesture symbolizes the evil eye.

If you want to have a deep understanding of these differences, you can't just do superficial work, but you need a team to conduct in-depth market research. The fastest and most convenient way is to cooperate with locals or send people to the target market for field visits and investigations. However, due to the impact of the epidemic, it is not so easy for Chinese companies to set up local teams overseas. At this time, it is very important to choose a reliable influencer marketing company with employees in the target market to cooperate with.

For example, you can work with Inpander. We have foreign operations from Europe, America, Southeast Asia, Latin America and other regions. We can help you understand the nuances of culture that you may never understand yourself, and help you conduct personalized promotional campaigns for local audiences to achieve success.

2. Find the universality in culture

While it’s generally unwise for multinational companies to launch unified marketing campaigns across multiple markets or regions, sometimes a campaign that works in one country can translate perfectly to another—with just a few tweaks.

The TV commercial "Voices of Children" by the German candy brand Haribo is a typical example. Although there are no children in the entire video, the commercial uses real children's voices to discuss candy. It easily shows the characteristics of candy and uses a joyful atmosphere to make the audience feel the joy of eating candy.

The innocent and playful comedy fit in perfectly with the brand and its products, and the concept was used as a template that has since been successfully adapted to many other markets around the world – such as Japan.

What makes this ad’s reach so broadly relevant?

The reason is that it captures a genuine, childlike enthusiasm that makes “boring” adult environments seem more interesting, so it can be applied to countless possible scenarios, cultures, and languages.

3. Create localized social media accounts

For brands going global, creating localized social media accounts should be a top priority. To succeed in the overseas social media market, a "one language fits all" solution is definitely not the best option. Data shows that more than 88% of brands have created regional accounts on various social media platforms.

However, depending on the popular social media in different regions, brands should also choose social media in a targeted manner.

For example, for Europe and the United States, brands need to strengthen operations on mainstream social software such as Facebook and Instagram; while in Japan and South Korea, they need to pay attention to the operation of Twitter accounts; similarly, for Southeast Asia, it is necessary to open a brand TikTok account.

4. Explore and deepen local trend culture

At present, millennials and Generation Z are the main consumer groups overseas. In this case, brand marketing can appropriately incorporate local trend culture, such as North American street culture (such as Supreme), HipHop style, etc., which is a way to please.

The most typical brand among them is "Sprite".

As early as 1986, Sprite invited rapper Kurtis Blow to appear in the brand's ads, which continued into the 1990s with the "I Like the Sprite in You" campaign, which featured several of the decade's top artists.

In 1994, Sprite continued to use the slogan "Obey Your Thirst" and continued to use hip-hop stars as advertising protagonists, which was welcomed by the hip-hop culture crowd.

Enter a subculture → use concepts and images that are suitable for this cultural circle to create → persevere in consolidating this impression. Ultimately, this link will help the brand form a "symbolic" brand awareness in this cultural group.

5. Leverage the influence of local KOLs

When someone you trust recommends something you need, you are more likely to buy it.

For companies going overseas, product promotion overseas will inevitably encounter serious problems with acclimatization. However, through the endorsement of influential local influencers, the credibility of both the brand and the product will be greatly enhanced.

Of course, although KOLs’ precise product placement can save brands a lot of ineffective promotion, they are mostly good at single-point operations. They still need a professional team to integrate and screen marketing priorities to match candidates who are highly compatible with the brand tone and create highly disseminated marketing events.

Author: Inpander

Source: WeChat official account: "Inpander Going Global (ID: gh_eeba4131474f)"