Global Promotion Strategies For The Newbie

Global Promotion Strategies deal with the way a business advertises when it expands to a global market and sells to a consumer base in a different country and culture. Global promotion strategies deal with delivery of marketing concept that does not always translate into the language of the target consumer nation. If global promotion strategies are done poorly by a business it could kill any chances of gaining market share in a target nation economy. Here are some global promotion strategies to consider if you are planning to market overseas:

Global Promotion Strategies 1: Use the right translator

Your global promotion strategies will include designing marketing and communications materials that are written in the native language of the target consumer culture. This is an obvious strategy however one must use the right translator to do this. Remember that translators only translate into a target language. If a translator is a person and this person claims that he or she can do translations from source to target and then target to source, be very skeptical. Unless a translator's target language (what the communication is getting translated to) is also that person's native language, it is highly unlikely you will get the proper translation for your marketing materials.

Global Promotion Strategies 2: Convey the right message

This goes along with point 1 but it has more to do with relaying the right message in Global Promotion Strategies. All study groups of global promotion strategies have considered the case of the marketing problems experienced with the Chevrolet Nova in Latin American countries. The name of the car, "Nova" means "does not go" or "no va" in Spanish. A literal translation of the word means "does not go" and there is really no other alternate translation. Of course the solution in global promotion strategies like these are to make sure the target audience understands that "Nova" is a proper name-the name of the product only.

Global Promotion Strategies 3: Be culturally sensitive

This should be obvious but each of us has a problem with it. If you do not do a cultural study into your target market and unilaterally create a marketing plan without consulting the locals you are headed for disaster. A very good example was the recent attempt by the United States to make a goodwill gesture by giving away soccer balls in Afghanistan with the flags of nations them. However there was one problem; the balls had flag images on them with the Islamic declaration of faith. It angered and outraged the locals there and rightly so. Someone did not do their homework before creating these soccer balls and it has serious consequences.

Global Promotion Strategies 4: Brand recognition

When you visit a country like Thailand where not even the written language looks like English, global promotion strategies should try to make logos appear as uniformly across markets as possible so as to associate a brand even if the buyer does not read and write that language. For example, when a foreigner visits Thailand, it is obvious what a bottle of Coca-Cola is even though the word "Coca-Cola" is not written in English but Thai. They designed the Thai font on the can to look like the English Coca-Cola logo. Since there are a lot of English-speaking expatriates in Thailand, you want to make sure that brand is recognized by everyone.