"Act Globally, Think Locally" isn't just a cute bumper sticker
anymore. With an entrenched global economy and the media growing
more and more fragmented every day, crafting global brands for
local taste has become imperative for any organization that wants
to maintain its share. As 30-second ads lose their appeal in the
age of TIVO there are many ways that PR is playing a larger role in
localizing global brands. These include creating "local
celebrities," cultivating local reporters and/or working closely
with local salespeople on the kinds of communication efforts that
will truly push product.
When companies attempt to localize global brands, learning local
languages, cultures and customs is a given. (This counts for
domestic markets, too, since there's a good deal of difference
between marketing a product in Pittsburgh versus Peoria.) Many
companies have stumbled when they go into markets and announce:
We're No. 1. But that may not be the best strategy when the locals
haven't even heard of your product, no less your market
position.
Helene Solomon, founding partner of SolomonMcCown, a
full-service PR firm in Boston, knows a thing or two about giving
the local citizens a stake in the brand. Since she started working
with Pfizer five years ago, Solomon has helped the pharmaceutical
giant develop The Boston Heart Party, an annual program designed to
promote cardiovascular awareness among women.
Now in its sixth year, the program -- which is strictly local --
consists of free cardio screenings that take place from the first
day of spring through Mother's Day. To help get the word out, the
program is cross-pollinated with several Boston-area restaurants
that show their support by aligning the free testing with
heart-friendly foods. The program has multiple sponsors among local
hospitals, including the Boston Medical Center, Massachusetts
General Hospital and New England Baptist Hospital.
"The best background for local marketing is having experience in
politics - not the partisan kind - but having a sensibility for
touch points that will resonate with the community," says
Solomon.
Although there is no "magic bullet," localizing global brands
first requires a long-term commitment to education and raising
awareness. As Gina Rudan, director of International &
Multicultural Marketing at PR Newswire, puts it, localizing global
products can be a "tricky game," in which a lot depends on the
market/ region, the particular product or service and any partners
contracted to help educate the company on local flavor.
The old paradigm in localizing global brands was a
one-size-fits-all message shoved down from above. But in the
current climate, collaborative efforts -- between advertising and
PR, the home sales office and sales folk in the field -- are most
effective.
"It's not Motorola dictating the [marketing] message, it's 'Hey,
Motorola, 'this is the message and this is where we're taking it,"
Rudan says. "Flexibility is the key and salespeople at the local
level need buy-in from top executives" on what the execution is
going to be.
Rudan offered four essential ingredients for effectively
marketing global products at a local level:
- Making marketing materials available in multiple languages
- Deep knowledge of local media mores
- Understanding that the stakeholders in foreign countries --
journalists, analysts, consumers - are entirely different from the
States - Developing partnerships
Aside from mega brands like Coca-Cola, IBM and McDonald's,
companies can ill-afford to localize global brands with a singular
message, says Simon Sinek, president and chief strategic officer
for Sinek/Gomes (New York), a marketing consultancy whose clients
include the Brooklyn Historical Society, GE Advanced Materials and
Key Energy Services.
"If you're too general and broad you risk becoming irrelevant,"
he says. "You need to first identify the low-hanging fruit and
market directly to them, and that could change from one region to
another. But you need to organize your marketing tactics around
that one group and then move on to the next one."
One popular strategy for localizing global brands is to let the
infantry call the shots. For Sinek's client 1-800-Got-Junk, which
has 95 franchises across the United States, local mangers have been
selling themselves to the media as experts in junk removal, a
relatively new phenomenon. "This has helped get local press," Sinek
says. "It's important to have that local function combined with a
national presence."
New York-based Global Ad Strategies deploys a similar strategy
for its client Rexair, which sells high-end vacuum cleaners. In an
effort to target Americans of Central and Eastern European descent
- 20 million-strong with $410 billion in spending money, behind
only Hispanic-Americans - Rexair recruited Russian-Americans to
help sell the product.
"This is head-to-head marketing, where you have the prospect
saying, 'This is someone who understands my culture,'" says Alex
Romanovich, VP/Development at Global Ad Strategies. "If a large
company comes into an area and puts up a big billboard with a
little PR help it might be enough for American consumers, but
there's a lot less trust among people from East Europe. First you
have to show them the product works, and the PR can strengthen the
idea that the product is reliable."
Salespeople at RE/MAX, one of the top real estate brokerages in
the country, also market themselves as experts at the local level.
Throughout the country RE/MAX agents arm themselves with a real
estate study showing that RE/MAX agents outperform the industry by
3-to-1. "It's a matter of going into markets and saying, 'I'm the
guy who outperforms the industry by 3-to-1," says Rob Frankel,
president of Robfrankel.com, who represents RE/MAX (as well as
SeaWorld and Honda). "It's taking that message and customizing it.
You might have a guy who moves to Orlando from L.A. It might not be
the same salesperson he's dealing with but it's the same message,
surviving a 3,000-mile transition."
Contacts: Rob Frankel, 818.990.8623, [email protected]; Alex
Romanovich, 212.964.0030, [email protected]; Gina Rudan,
305.507.2576, [email protected];
Simon Sinek, 212.475.9945, [email protected];
Helene Solomon, 617.695.9555, [email protected]