Branding & Global Branding

MS 214
ABM
Introduction
• Forty years ago, there were only a handful of truly "global brands"
and they were made up of only the biggest corporations -- Coca-Cola,
PepsiCo, Colgate-Palmolive, IBM, Shell.
• Then a rash of upstarts came along, such as Nike, Microsoft, Apple,
and Honda, and pushed their brand reputation further than their
actual sales footprint.
• But now that barriers to international trade have come
down and the Internet has helped small and mid-sized companies
compete on the global stage, building an international brand is a
realistic goal for more and more businesses.
Introduction
• "Thanks to the Internet it's hard to keep your brand just localized.
Once you're on the Web, you're accessible pretty much anywhere in
the world. It doesn't necessarily make you a global brand but you
have to be mindful of the implications."
How to build a brand internationally?

What a global brand is?

• Branding involves what people think about your business and your
products. "Think of a brand as a reputation," says Paul Williams,
founder of the international marketing firm, which helps companies
build their brands. "Building a reputation in any new market,
including overseas, involves a first impression, which
comes from the initial interactions someone has with your
company, products, and services."
 "A brand is essentially a short
cut, it is a way for a customer
to get an instant recognition on
what the promise is of a
product or service and how
that will benefit them,"

• Businesses can attempt to shape or form the branding of their company or

products in many ways: including advertising, media, word-of- mouth, and
contact with your products or services.
• A lot of thought and effort goes into branding, including naming
products, designing logos, and ensuring that service is uniform
throughout the business.
• Through continued exposure over time, your brand -- or your
reputation -
- is formed with potential and existing customers.
 "A brand is essentially a short cut, it is a way for a customer
to get an instant recognition on what the promise is of a
product or service and how that will benefit them,"

• The reason businesses spent time and money

developing brand recognition is so that they can charge
a premium for a product or service.
• People will pay more for a brand name product or
service if it is recognized as a leader and a trusted brand
and they know what they will get.
• Apple, for example, can charge more for its
computers than some other companies because of its
brand reputation for offering innovative design and
quality electronics. The same can be said about
Mercedes or BMW automobiles.
How to build a brand internationally?

What you need to expand?

• When businesses try to expand their brand globally, those goals don't
change. But there are several steps you should take to make sure that
your products or services will have a market overseas, that you can
maintain quality in delivering and/or distributing your goods
or services, and that your business or product branding meets
cultural expectations -- and doesn't insult anyone -- in different
parts of the world.
Building International Brand
The following steps may help you in building an international brand:
1. Make sure you have a market.
2. Make sure you can deliver.
3. Re-examine your business and/or product names.
4. Give your logo another look.
5. Understand packaging requirements.
6. Register trademarks and domain names.
Building International Brand Awareness

Craft your message:

• Having done your homework and researched the
new foreign markets, and perhaps engaged the help
of a local firm or representative, you have hopeful
honed your domestic branding for this new
audience.
• Be sure to note what the competition and other
businesses are doing.
"What may have seemed witty or charming in the U.S.
may be misunderstood in your new market,”
Building International Brand Awareness

Deliver this message through the right channels:

• Make sure you are communicating your message where it will be
seen.
"What are the habits your customer base in that other country? Where
are they found? What is their lifestyle? What are they doing?"
Williams says. There is no secret answer. It's up to you to connect the
dots and find the right approach.
Building International Brand Awareness

Communicate in the right manner:

• The manner and tone in which you engage your potential and new
customers is as important as the words you choose.
• "Manner and tone will come across through your packaging, advertising,
online, through your sales people, and even the way you answer the
phone,“
• What types of interaction you will have with customers? What will be the
tone you choose? What types of sales process and policies will you use?
Even though you are based thousands of miles away, this is still a
reflection on you and your brand. Remember that.
Symbols in the Global Culture
In modern societies, communication takes many forms:
• ATL and BTL , and, of course, advertising and marketing
communications. For decades, communication had circulated mostly
within the borders of countries, helping to build strong national
cultures.
•Toward the end of the twentieth century, much
of popular culture became global.
•Not surprisingly, consumers ascribe certain
characteristics to global brands and use those
attributes as criteria while making purchase
decisions.
BTL Promotion
Global Consumer Segments
• Although we didn’t find much
variation across countries,
when we looked for differences
within them, we found that in
each country, consumers held a
variety of views about global
brands. When we grouped
together consumers who
evaluate global brands in the
same way, regardless of home
country, we found four major
segments.
Dreamers, Doubters, and
Other Global Consumers :
Most consumers worldwide
fall into one of four segments
in terms of how they relate to
global brands. Global citizens
care about firms’ behavior on
the environment and other
issues; global dreamers
readily accept brands’ myths;
anti-globals try to avoid
buying transnational‘s
products; and global
agnostics don’t regard
brands’
Global Citizens

• Fifty-five percent of respondents, on average, rely on

the global success of a company as a signal of quality
and innovation. At the same time, they are concerned
whether companies behave responsibly on issues like
consumer health, the environment, and worker rights.
According to our study, the United States and the UK
have relatively few global citizens, and Brazil, China, and
Indonesia have relatively high numbers of them.
Global Dreamers
• The second-largest segment, at 23%, consisted of
consumers who are less discerning about, but more
ardent in their admiration of, transnational
companies. They see global brands as quality
products and readily buy into the myths they
author. They aren’t nearly as concerned with those
companies’ social responsibilities as are the global
citizens.
Anti-global
• Thirteen percent of consumers are skeptical that
transnational companies deliver higher quality
goods. They dislike brands that preach American
values and don’t trust global companies to behave
responsibly. Their brand preferences indicate that
they try to avoid doing business with transnational
firms. The antiglobals’ numbers are relatively high
in the UK and China and relatively low in Egypt and
South Africa.
Global Agnostics
• Such consumers don’t base purchase decisions on a
brand’s global attributes. Instead, they evaluate a
global product by the same criteria they use to
judge local brands and don’t regard its global nature
as meriting special consideration. While global
agnostics typically number around 8% of the
population, there’s a higher percentage of them in
the United States and South Africa and a relatively
low percentage in Japan, Indonesia, China, and
Turkey.
New Opportunities New Responsibilities

• Global brands usually compete with other One person in ten

global brands. In most countries, Toyota
wouldn’t buy
battles Ford and Volkswagen. Nokia faces off
against Motorola and Samsung. Sony takes global brands if
on Nintendo and Microsoft. given a choice.
• To succeed, transnational companies That’s an
must manage brands with both hands. extraordinar
They must strive for superiority on basics y number.
like the brand’s price, performance, Companies must
features, and imagery; at the same time,
earn the trust
they must learn to manage brands’ global
characteristics, which often separate of that
winners from losers. segment.
Manage the dark side
• Just because companies are globally successful doesn’t
mean that consumers have only positive perceptions about
them. Transnational companies often have a “dark side”
that they must manage.
• In the early 1990s, IBM discovered that while consumers
believed the company was quality focused, they also
thought it was arrogant and bureaucratic.
Treat Anti-global as Customers

• Most transnational companies are unsure how to treat the

people who dislike them.
• As NGOs have become adept at staging media-friendly
protests, corporations have been working hard to get off
the activists’ hit lists. They assign the problem to
government- or community-relations directors, who court
the favor of NGOs in backroom dialogues. However, these
“civil society” organizations are only the tip of the iceberg.
Turn Social Responsibilities into
Entrepreneurship
• While most companies have launched
corporate social responsibility initiatives, the
impact of such activities is questionable.
• Most efforts appear to be a new form of
public relations. Even when companies are
proactive, initiatives are often limited to those
that are “sustainable”—a euphemism used to
describe moneymaking activities that happen
to benefit society.
Conclusion
Strategies to Build a Global Brand
Strategies to Build a Global Brand

1. Understand customer behavior:

Just because consumers have certain buying
preferences or habits in one culture, doesn't mean
that such preferences are universal.
2. Position yourself properly:
Good brand positioning includes truly understanding
your competition and then looking at your
competitive advantage.
3. Know how your brand translates:
A clever brand or product name in one language may
translate into an embarrassing misstep in another.
Turn Social Responsibilities into
Entrepreneurship
4. Think broadly:
Since your company may need to expand into
offering new products based on regional market
demands, it's important that your company
name be broad enough to accommodate those
changes.
5. Find good partners:
To ease market penetration in global market,
good local partner will strengthen your brand
awareness and add to your firm a competitive
advantage.
Thank You