Branding plays a crucial role in a company’s international expansion. A strong brand structure is a key component to leverage a brand into other markets or to incorporate acquired brands. With more and more talk of a global market and the growth of competition on a worldwide scale, companies are having to expand their operations, either by acquiring companies in other countries or taking their brand international. As a result, companies need to pay more attention to integrating and coordinating their marketing strategy across a variety of markets.
Branding Policy
A big part of a marketing plan is its branding policy. Strong brands help establish the company’s identity in a market place and develop a solid customer base. Strong brands provide the basis for brand extensions, which strengthen the company’s market position and enhances the company’s value. When considering expanding into an international market, a critical issue is whether the brand name should be the same in different countries to leverage brand strength across borders or whether local brand names would work better to draw in local customers.
This mostly depends on how a company’s international operations are organized as well as the number of levels (corporate, house/product business and product) of brands. You need to decide who will have custody of international brands and be responsible for positioning them in national or regional markets. Some companies, such Proctor & Gamble and Coca-Cola expanded by leveraging their domestic “power” brands in international markets. Because of this, if they decide to expand even further, they have to decide whether to develop brands geared to regional or national preferences. Other brands, such as Nestle, have used country-centered strategies by creating or buying a mix of national and regional brands.
Packaging and Logos
Many companies, however, keep their logo and packaging the same in international markets as they do in their native market. Take a look at these packages and logos. Can you tell what brands they represent?
The first one might not be obvious, but I hope you knew the other two: Coca-Cola and Pepsi. The first package is for Colgate toothpaste. If you look on the shelves here, you’d see the same packaging, just in a different language.
The designers for these posters and packaging had to design something that would work in all different languages. You need to be sensitive to languages and cultures when you brand yourself internationally. Insulting a culture is no way to get a piece of the market place! Be sure you research the country’s culture you are trying to break into.
It’s also a good idea to research what other similar products are successful in the country you’d like to expand to. If no other U.S.-based candle maker has had a successful transition to a country, you might want to think again about expanding there.
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