This is an excerpt of the full article by Brianne Moore & Katie Rigby-Brown,  Business Consultants at SDL, published in the Brand Quarterly & Brand2Global ‘Global Marketing’ Special Edition.


Brand Quarterly Global Marketing Special Edition

How does a global organisation manage to execute a marketing campaign across 30+ markets while keeping its story in line with the global brand positioning; and retain the message that cultures and distinguishing characteristics of consumers are valued? Experienced global marketers have been searching for the answer to this challenge for years.

There is one very important answer: localisation must be prioritised in the global strategy. Time, effort and budget come to mind immediately when thinking of localisation and today timelines and budgets are often shrinking. However, the need to have culturally relevant content and messaging is what drives innovation strategies in today’s global business. It’s the need to find clever, cost-effective ways of speaking many languages, while maintaining one brand message.

Traditionally market researchers have conducted surveys and focus groups to get some level of understanding about how to improve experiences with a brand or advertising material. Researchers would ask what the imagery of an ad made the viewer feel and receive an answer, “warm and fuzzy”. Unless the business was spending large budgets on observational research, you wouldn’t get the answers to the questions not asked.

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You can read the full article online at BrandQuarterly.com as an individual website article or check out this and much more great content in the Brand Quarterly & Brand2Global ‘Global Marketing’ Special Edition.