Global Strategy Conversation

A global marketing strategy (GMS) is a marketing plan that includes an audience of countries from multiple regions in the world and has an objective to coordinate marketing efforts in those markets.

The internal objective of a global marketing strategy tends to be effort and resource savings in addition to increased efficiency if the activities have a level of consistency.

Global Preparation Check List

Working with the concept that marketing is about building relationships, being aware of the differences between locations is crucial prior to engaging campaigns.

• Identify global markets. Use a map to have a visual.
• Divide markets into territories. This allows for a manageable organization for the research needed.
• Research
  • Privacy laws vary from country to country
  • Local customs and users. Behaviors and expectations differ – develop an understanding of local markets.
  • Education is key for knowing the differing languages, by region in particular countries. Remember to factor in time for translation and reviews.
  • Time-zones. Like language, time zones can vary within countries and having a map on your wall is very helpful.  Plan campaign launch times and dates best on the best practice of that country.

Global Planning Check List

Ownership is key for the planning of complicated global campaigns. Take the responsibility for all communication and coordination around the campaign. Hopefully you already have a marketing strategy and campaign calendar with everything in one place so it is easy to visually identify overall plans. Global plans go there too. Be sure deadlines, responsibilities and deliverables (with notes if there are unique needs) are clearly documented.

• Identify
  • local, market-specific initiatives
  • current branding strategy
  • local initiatives and branding to be applied to global areas
  • marketing goals being driven globally
• Define
  • social media strategies (these are borderless)
  • global PR strategy
  • key metrics and goals at the start of the campaign
• Leverage best practice across markets
• Develop collaborative approach
• Establish close relationships with local sales/business development/marketing teams
  • Make conference calls and video meetings a priority.
  • Effective communication is important to avoid feeling disconnected
  • Competitive development conversations are key at team level

• Use Metrics
  • Define the goals and metrics being used to review them prior to campaign launch
  • Review metrics weekly with the global team
  • Take actions to address under-performance
  • Adjust campaigns

Build a strong, consistent brand culture

Social Media has changed the way marketers need to think and strategize globally.

Most digital platforms are borderless in the sense that anyone, regardless of geographic location, can see your company’s Tweets, posts on Facebook, articles on LinkedIn, videos on YouTube, etc. Marketing must face a new challenge to get individual pieces of content to work across every market. The digital platforms are now multiple and the global branding strategies, unified.

That said, the controversies currently around Net Neutrality (the principle that Internet service providers must treat all data on the Internet the same and not discriminate or charge differently by user, content, website, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or method of communication) are very serious and will potentially impact all businesses and marketing managers trying to strategize on level playing fields. That is as far as I will go on that as this is a marketing tip series and not a political post but all marketers should educate themselves on the facts around Net Neutrality and its impact on their strategies.

Let your brand reflect your culture. Put focus and effort into developing a strong culture into your brand.  Finally, be aware of your language and tone when developing brand culture.

In order to succeed in GMS, management needs a strong appreciation for the additional efforts necessary for cultural considerations and the diversity needs. GMS tends to develop as an ancillary strategy rather than duplicating one. The key to success will be the balanced approach.

Additional resources from the FOC team include:

• View the Glossary, Acronyms, Military Specifications for Connectors
• Q&A Resource: email technical questions to AskFOC@focenter.com

Here are the links to this full Marketing Blog Series:

• Branding Matters
• Building Relationships through Solution and Consultative Selling
• Marketing Objectives vs. Actions: Identifying Where the Discrepancies Occur
• The Dilemma of Online Strategy
• Promotion Best Practices
• SOP Development
• Global Strategy Conversation
• The Roles of a Marketing Team
• Trade Show Strategy Revisited
• Product Inventory Management and a quick snapshot….
• Business Development: An Honest Conversation
• Social Media Navigation