Brand Adaptation For A Global Audience: How To Reach Different Cultures And Languages?

Global marketing used to mean high street fashion names and a Starbucks in every city. To go global, multinational companies have established research teams in each region to study and analyse the needs of local customers in order to create accessible and high-quality products. However, global marketing is no longer reserved for companies with deep pockets. In fact, a new generation of global brands is emerging. A global presence is now possible for any business with a creative strategy and an understanding of global markets. Here are some steps you can take as you make the move from local to global, and reach different cultures and people around the world.

1. Market Research

What may have worked for a local audience may not translate as well to a foreign audience. In order to adapt products or services for new audiences, analyse customer demographics and employ marketing tactics such as positioning, targeting and segmentation to promote and sellthem. This gives your customers a tailor-fit experience. For example, if you are a cosmetics company, create different shades of colour for different ethnic groups, or for middle and upper-class consumers.

2. Adaptability and flexibility

Brand adaptation is not about setting up guidelines and frameworks on how to communicate your brand in a particular market. Global brands are successful as they are able to balance brand consistency with freedom to adapt their brand to leverage local growth opportunities. A certain degree of freedom is required so that your local office can adapt to local needs and does not become irrelevant to the market. However, marketers should not dilute the core values of the brand. Ensure that you constantly evaluate your brand adaptation strategy against your business’ vision and core mission to ensure overall consistency.

3. International Middle Management Team

A common mistake companies make in adapting their brand for a global audience is failing to consider the advice and suggestions of local employees in foreign markets. Set up an international multi-cultural middle management team to help with your strategic decisions as they are familiar with the behaviours and norms of local customers from different ethnic backgrounds. Set up a feedback system such that local perspectives and ideas can be heard and shared. To reduce tension between middle and senior management, which can hurt effective brand management, clearly define the roles and responsibilities in brand management in order to reduce overlaps.

4. Multicultural marketing

With these insights in place, adapt to different cultures through multicultural marketing. This means communicating and adapting your brand for different audiences within each ethnic group. Consider your customers’ culture, religion, celebrations, traditions and language. Your team should also have a firm grasp with differences in beliefs, motives and perception. In order to be successful, identify, understand and respect cultural differences. Rise to the challenge by creating new ways to communicate and adapt your brand and products to the requirements of each market.

5. Engage a professional languages and translation agency

Brand adaptation must take into consideration the target culture and cannot rely on literal translation. It is essential that you have good knowledge of how the products or service are designed for the people in the market. It is also vital to have the skillset in recognising when a phrase needs to be adapted or localised. This is the deciding factor between a successful and an unsuccessful marketing campaign.

To not undo all the hard work that you have done, engage a professional languages partner or translation agency to help you reach audiences in different cultures & languages. Translation agencies are made up of networks of native translators who can ensure that your content and your marketing campaigns are relevant to the target culture and can perform well.

Apply these best practices to make your next brand adaptation and global marketing campaign a success. At elionetwork, we understand each market’s institutional and cultural norms and can adapt your brand to the needs and preferences of the local market. Whether you are looking for tips, translation or transcreationexpertise, chat with us to get started today.