Global Branding: How to do Global Brand Management
What if you could consider the whole world as your operating market?
Without borders for branding, your company could reach people from many different countries and cultures.
Do you like the idea? Then, you need to learn more about global branding!
Arriving in a new country and making your brand relevant is not exactly an easy task. You’re like the outsider cowboy in bang-bang movies: you get the locals’ attention, but everyone seems suspicious of your presence.
If you want to be welcomed, you need to demonstrate what you have to offer.
In the case of global companies, they need to show their value and adapt to each region where they want to act while keeping their identity and their values.
Complex. But nothing that good international branding management can’t solve.
This article will explain everything you need to know about global branding, showing how brands can trace an efficient strategy to conquer markets worldwide. Keep reading to learn:
What is global branding?
Global branding refers to the management of a brand in different regions of the world, intending to increase its strength and recognition in the markets in which it operates. This strategy may also be called global branding or international branding.
Global branding involves planning how the brand wants to be perceived worldwide and how it will position itself in each market to generate such perception.
With global marketing strategies, it is possible to transform this idea into concrete actions that impact contact points with consumers (price, product, place, and promotion).
Branding is already a challenge in local markets. It is hard to obtain your space in the consumers’ minds in your city or country and make your brand recognizable and remembered.
Imagine, then, doing this in several different places — each one with its culture, demands, rules, and organization’s logic.
Globalization in the 1980s allowed brands to cross their borders. Until then, only giants could do that.
However, the reduction of transportation costs and a new means of communication (look at the internet!) enhanced the integration between countries and facilitated the expansion of brands of all sizes.
While globalization has affected local cultures, it has not standardized local customs, cultures, and rules.
As a result, brands found themselves faced with the challenge of entering markets in different regions without overlooking their particularities, which would be a recipe for failure.
It is not enough to push your products into another country; it is necessary to build positive brand awareness and present your value proposition to your target market.
That’s the importance of a global strategy: more than creating a .com site or delivering to several countries, global branding consists of orientating which brand elements should be preserved globally and which should be adapted to each region.
What are the advantages of global branding?
For brands that have already increased their regional market share and want to grow, expanding to other countries could be the natural way to go.
This decision can bring a series of benefits to brands, as we will see below:
Increase the brand’s reach
The most obvious advantage for brands that become global is to reach more people in new markets.
The brand has become well-known worldwide, attracts more clients and enthusiasts, and has become stronger in sales.
Increase brand value
Globally recognized brands gain market value. Just look at the list of the most valuable brands in the world, according to Brand Finance:
Amazon (US$ 220,8 bi);
Google (US$ 159,7 bi);
Apple (US$ 140,5 bi);
Microsoft (US$ 117 bi);
Samsung (US$ 94,5 bi);
ICBC (US$ 80,7 bi);
Facebook (US$ 79,8 bi);
Walmart (US$ 77,5 bi);
Ping An (US$ 69 bi);
Huawei (US$ 65 bi).