For all those reasons, taking a more nuanced approach is the better course of action. Developing global brands should not be the priority. Instead, companies should work on creating strong brands in all markets through global brand leadership.
Procter & Gamble uses worldwide strategic-planning groups of three to 20 people for each category to encourage and support global strategies. The teams have several tasks. They mine local knowledge about markets and disseminate that information globally. They gather data about effective country-specific marketing efforts and encourage testing elsewhere. They create global manufacturing sourcing strategies. And they develop policies that dictate which aspects of the brand strategy must be followed everywhere and which ones are up to country management.
There is no one accepted process model, but all models have two starting points: it must be clear which person or group is responsible for the brand and the brand strategy, and a process template must exist. The completed template should specify such aspects of a strategy as the target segment, the brand identity or vision, brand equity goals and measures, and brand-building programs that will be used within and outside the company. Although various process models can work, observations of effective programs suggest five guidelines.
In the bottom-up approach, the global brand strategy is built from the country brand strategies. Country strategies are grouped by similarities. A grouping might, for example, be made on the basis of market maturity (underdeveloped, emerging, or developed) or competitive context (whether the brand is a leader or a challenger). While the brand strategy for these groupings will differ, a global brand strategy should also be able to identify common elements. Over time, the number of distinct strategies will usually fall as experiences and best practices are shared. As the number shrinks, the company can capture synergies. Mercedes, for example, uses one advertising agency to create a menu of five campaigns. Brand managers in different countries can then pick the most suitable campaign for their market.
Most companies today have a decentralized culture and structure. They find it difficult, therefore, to persuade country teams to quickly and voluntarily accept and implement a global best practice. To ensure that local teams overcome such reluctance, an individual or group must be in charge of the global brand. Our research suggests that responsibility for global brand leadership can follow four possible configurations: business management team, brand champion, global brand manager, and global brand team. The first two are led by senior executives; the latter two by middle managers.
A brand champion approves all brand-stretching decisions (to put the Carnation label on a white milk chocolate bar, for example) and monitors the presentation of the brand worldwide. He or she must be familiar with local contexts and managers, identify insights and best practices, and propagate them through sometimes forceful suggestions. In some companies, such as Sony, the brand champion owns the country brand identities and positions and takes responsibility for ensuring that the country teams implement the brand strategy. A brand champion has credibility and respect not only because of organizational power but also because of a depth of experience, knowledge, and insight. A suggestion from a brand champion gets careful consideration.
P&G plans to evolve over the next decade toward a brand champion approach. It believes that it can achieve greater cooperation and create more global brands by concentrating authority and responsibility in the hands of high-level brand champions. At the moment, P&G regards only a handful of its 83 major brands as global.
In many companies, particularly in the high-tech and service industries, top management lacks a branding or even a marketing background. The branding expertise rests just below the top line managers. Such companies are often decentralized and have a powerful regional and country line-management system. Effective global brand managers are necessary in these cases to combat local bias and spur unified efforts across countries.
Some global brand managers have sign-off authority for certain marketing programs, but most have little authority. They must attempt to create a global brand strategy without the ability to mandate. There are five keys to success in these situations:
Global brand teams typically consist of brand representatives from different parts of the world, from different stages of brand development, and from different competitive contexts. Functional areas such as advertising, market research, sponsorship, and promotions may also be represented. The keys to success with these teams are similar to those for the global brand manager.
Some companies partition the global brand manager or team across business units or segments. For example, Mobil has separate global brand teams for the passenger car lubricant business, the commercial lubricants business, and the fuel business because the brand is fundamentally different in each. A global brand council then coordinates those segments by reconciling the different identities and looking for ways to create brand synergy.
The team or manager may have authority over its visual representation and brand graphics, for example. In that case, the group or the individual would have to approve any departures from the specified color, type-face, and layout of the logo. Or a global brand team may have authority over the look and feel of a product. The IBM ThinkPad is black and rectangular; it has a red tracking ball and a multicolored IBM logo set at 35 degrees in the lower right corner. The global brand team must approve any deviations from that look. In another example, the global brand manager at Smirnoff has sign-off authority on the selection of advertising agencies and themes.
Global branding is not the cheapest thing, nor is it a simple task. To achieve success in this mission, first and foremost, you need to find the best global branding agency that meets your requirements and fits your budget. Second, you need to be 100% sure that this is what you need at this particular stage in your company's lifecycle because not only an enormous devotion and commitment to the cause will be required from your side but also a thorough understanding of the potential needed for adaptation in international marketing.
For those who are unsure, we are going to clear things up. Let's dive a bit deeper into the definition of global branding, find out global branding advantages and disadvantages, and examine some excellent international branding examples.
As globalization is becoming more and more tangible every day, and the World is becoming more and more connected, more and more companies are starting to consider global branding as a real thing and the next step to take. However, before doing this, it is crucial to understand the concept of world wide branding and the reasons to embark on this adventure?
Global brand marketing is a management of a brand in different countries with a consistent mission, personality, look and feel. This process involves planning and developing a global branding strategy, positioning, and advertising that ultimately turns a local brand into a global one.
The global brand is a company recognized across the World or the most significant part of it. It has a unified approach to global brand strategy to increase its strength and recognition in the markets as well as support its development in new regions.
Companies with global branding and positioning use a similar approach in presenting and promoting their products and services. While some stick to the standardized global branding strategy enforcing unified policy and actions from country to country, others adapt their brand identity, including packaging and even the product itself (for example, flavors), to the local market due to cultural differences and language nuances. Take the US-based Lay's potato chips company as a case in point. Not only is it sold under different names in different countries, but its flavor range also varies depending on the country's preferences.
Localization is a crucial part of global branding adaptation. It is the act of adapting elements of your brand identity to the selected region. It aims to make the product and company (including its visual identity and personality) resonate with the target audience by incorporating elements of their specific culture in their communications to meet the market's preferences, expectations, and needs.
The global standardization strategy implies unified marketing campaigns and strategies and delivering the same message to create a consistent customer experience around the World. The most popular companies that adopt this approach are McDonald's, Starbucks, and KFC.
As we have already noted, global brand recognition is not the cheapest thing, nor is it a simple task. You need some strong reasons to develop and, most importantly, adopt global branding solutions. Let's examine some motivations to go for international branding:
Whatever reasons you may have to start your global branding campaign, one cannot deny that the World does become flatter, making it a tiny place where everyone is connected through the Internet. This offers a golden opportunity for companies to widen their market even when they are just at the beginning of their lifecycle. However, before taking any steps in this direction, it is crucial to understand all the pros and cons of this move. So, what are the advantages and disadvantages?
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