Despite the spectre of recession rearing its ugly head in the US and beyond, this is unliklely to deter a huge number of companies around the world forging ahead with expansion plans into new markets. To boldly go where untold wealth and success is in the offering.
So what are the likely scenarios driving the desire to venture further afield?
Opening up a new office in another part of your country or further afield? Made the decision to take your products overseas? Increasing competition in your home market making it necessary to establish a presence further afield? Export agency telling you it’s the right time and the right place? Appointing new overseas representatives to open up new markets? New joint venture looking attractive?
All of a sudden your company is faced with new challenges and new opportunities. New business culture. New people culture. New sales techniques. New documentation. New language considerations. Local staff to recruit. New packaging laws. New trademark considerations. More accountants’ and lawyers’ fees. All very challenging but nothing you can’t cope with, providing you have the necessary resources at hand.
But how will your brand cope with this? Unfortunately all too many companies get caught up with the excitement, allocate a team to move the opportunity forward and pay scant regard to the ability of their brand to go the distance and meet the new challenges.
Ask yourself these questions
Is there a similar name to yours already operating in the new market? Will your name be understood? There are many unfortunate examples of names that didn’t translate too well outside their home market. Several Japanese car manufacturers in previous years didn’t do their homework on overseas market consumer tastes when introducing new models such as Town Cube, Bongo Friendee and Cedric.
How will new consumers perceive your brand? Your way of doing things? The colour of your logo? The business etiquette of your executives? The imagery on your packaging? The faces you feature in your advertising? The content of your website? It took you many years of careful trial and error to establish your brand in its home market – what makes you think it’s going to be an overnight success in new ones?
The further the distance your brand travels, the more consideration and flexibility it must have to adapt and succeed in new environments.
Most brands start small, driven by visionary entrepreneurs seeking to make their presence known in local markets. Once this is achieved, new plans for growth and diversity begin to influence the need for brand change. However, what made your brand a success in your first location may not necessarily guarantee a duplication of success in a second. Perhaps the innovation that made your brand a household name locally is now faced with equally innovative competition in the new markets. Perhaps you now need more than innovation to capture the minds and hearts of new consumers?
Too many emerging companies have been seduced by the view that ‘what works in one country will work in another’. I see too many cases of inflated advertising and marketing budgets cranking out new collateral in an attempt to force headway into the market when the brand is just not appropriate for that market. This is not the way to achieve results from your brand.
Venturing into new locations and new markets is high risk. Considerable investment in time, money and effort is at stake. You have the finance organised. Your sales team are primed with market intelligence. A road show has been organised. Meetings with distributors have been arranged. A new office has been secured. Stock control and product distribution has been arranged. An advertising agency has been commissioned. Additional back office processing is in place.
But has the brand been reviewed? Why take the risk that it will not support your new objectives?
Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and joint founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
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