“Retail today is as it was more than 500 years ago – it starts, breathes & dies with the customer.”
A fantastic quote from Cheryl Clifford, Head of International for Hobbs Ltd, to round off her keynote for Commerce Futures' Growth in New Markets event. And it couldn’t be more appropriate. When it comes to internationalisation, putting the customer first is the integral requirement. To see a business thrive, brands have to expand their reach and diversify their offering for different markets.
With this in mind, the wonderful team at Commerce Futures brought us their latest event ‘Growth in New Markets’ to look at the approach to global expansion…and the pitfalls to avoid!
How should a brand approach growth in new markets?
“It’s not for the faint hearted, but nothing worth having is easy.” Cheryl Clifford told the audience as she kicked off her keynote ‘Approaching International Expansion.’ Here are a few of our favourite insights from the fantastic presentation…
- Starting with the brand, companies should look at what the brand means to the local customer as this is the best indicator in terms of what they love about their product offering.
- Is the brand relevant to the new market, with an offering no one has seen before? If so, companies have to be 100% comfortable with their hook/USP in order to answer to customer demand and drive demand for their product.
- Legal requirements cannot be overlooked. Each market will have different requirements for each product offering, right down to how the product itself is manufactured. If a company ships its offering without considering this, it can prove a very costly mistake.
- Bricks & Mortar and/or ecommerce? Defining the line between these can be tricky; will a customer trust you if they cannot physically interact in store or will they trust you if there is no form of digital reference? Cheryl states that the “future generation will all be about online referencing.”
- Regionalise your online offering, from website to social media. Website preferences of each market need to be considered – western websites are cleaner and concise while Asian audiences like heavy imagery and bright graphics. Even Social Media differs between markets, as a high performing channel in the UK might be almost non-existent elsewhere.
Tips from the panel
Following the first keynote, the audience were treated to a wonderful panel discussion featuring:
- Spencer Hudson, Online Solutions Manager for GHD.
- Charlotte Thomée, International Marketing & Merchandising Manager for feelunique.com
- Paul Giuffredi, Finance Director for Baker Ross Ltd
- Moderated by Stuart Jeffrey, Director of Tacit Knowledge
With a great range of experience of different products and different markets, the panel offered great tips and insights…
- Have tailored payment methods for each market. Different audiences prefer paying in different ways so understand each market. Trust is important, so having payment methods the audience find reliable is a great start to building the consumers trust.
- Country specific promotional calendars are imperative to successful campaigns. Some countries have festivals & events that others won’t, while some mainstream buying days differ throughout the year, Mother’s Day being the prime example. The audience were shown a very interesting example of a brand targeting the UK audience for Bonfire Night featuring…a picture of a happy group dressed in beach wear gathered around a fire. Hats, gloves and coats are normally the go to garments on November 5th in the UK!
- Always look at mobile.
- International promotion plans should always be ready to go, and less fear when testing the waters of a new market is vital.
De-risking international expansion
The final keynote of the morning came from Bianca Mercer, Senior Ecommerce Consultant for Practicology, looking at the pitfalls of global expansion and how to avoid them. Here are just a few of the combative steps to dodge those pitfalls and make your mark on the global market…
- Lack of localisation? Find the right balance between localisation, standardisation and centralisation.
- Lack of planning? Make sure you adapt, test and learn the culture you are marketing to.
- Under estimate investment cost? Adopt an international mind set and understand the scale of your expansion.
Did you miss the event?
To get great insights from the Commerce Futures team, visit their website to find out what they are up to this year.