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Multinationals and branding

| multinationals and branding

Demographic preferences and cultural differences have a strong impact on how a brand is experienced. There are many stories told in insider circles, pointing out the traps multinationals can fall in from choosing bad names for their products, out of unfamiliarity with the language, to not being able to root in their new environment and to have to pack in and leave. A very expensive adventure indeed making stakeholders freak.


The pitfalls of multinationals

Internal communication is not reduced to one Continent but offices are spread all over the world. Language barriers, understanding and comprehending and fore all accepting the different culture and it's values doesn't make it an easy job and it seems nearly impossible to orchestrate the brand that it is reflected with one melody. Demographic differences need to be acknowledged and integrated into the brand itself to make it a global brand. If a too much and too intensive
>> fragmentation of a brand , into the preferences of each country, takes place the brand looses it's strength. Multinationals will be pointed out as not that big and important, because the brand is not experienced as a global player. Expressing the brand as to be globally accepted, is a true art, when executing branding.

There should be one organization in the company providing and guarding the guidelines of branding. This office should have the task to provide and guard the rules, enabling offices abroad to express the brand loyal to the brand personality. The office should provide an archive of imagery, logos in the required sizes covering all communication needs and favicon.ico for web sites. The brand message needs to be consistent around the globe vibrating the brand personality as one identity. Web sites need to fulfill the criteria and guidelines before they can be launched.
>> The style guide is indispensable for an enterprise to guard and protect their brand. There are some companies that do a brilliant job being global players: BASF and HP, Mercedes just to mention three.

Protecting the brand promise

Global operating businesses should have clear guidelines in order to protect and guard the quality of their products, produced in Asia. Fact is that top global brands loose attractiveness to the Asian clientele, when they come from local factories. In the opinion of the clients the Brand does not have the same quality and does therefore not satisfy their expectation. Made in Europe or America is experienced as: "the body lotions are richer", "electronic devices more reliable" and "furniture more elegant and modern".

Events

Organize events to introduce your brand. This is the way to go, all people love events. Held in Shopping Malls where your products are sold, a demonstration of the brand benefits and the unique attributes to clients, will prove very effective when it is accompanied by models, music and a tombola. Or a brand can sponsor an impressive music event or sports. Events are just a great way to show, who you are and which values the brand personality cherishes to create an associative factor for your target group.

Training staff

Your foreign staff are representatives of your corporate and just as your products are packaged and advertised, the sales staff, consultants or any other that is interacting with the clientele personally is experienced by your customers as an extension of your knowledge, services and support. You should initiate training on the department manager level and include all personal that is in direct client contact. Educational development in the new markets of Asia and the mentality require often to hire people with at least bachelors degree for many positions that can be easily filled in the US or Europe with less educated folks. Not being aware of these facts can lead to writing off this adventure of expanding into the new markets as a loss.

Imported goods

Lets talk about Thailand: Financially well off Thai customers prefer to buy rather the expensive imported goods than the product of a brand which stands for top quality in Europe or America, but is produced in Thailand. Thai shoppers explain this choice with their love for genuine and high quality products. Our research shows that Thai people have less confidence in their own brands than Germans have in Thai brands. The grass is always greener on the other side, seems to hit the point. So if you are targeting the upper class of the population, made in Thailand will most likely not bring the desired results.

The world of make believe

Made in Germany seems to be the absolute top when it comes to household goods and you could state this for cars anywhere on the planet. Nowadays most of the parts are manufactured in China, Taiwan and Thailand and then put together in Germany or at the location where it is produced and then shipped to any required destination. The entire machine can even be built by some nameless company, located somewhere on the globe producing for this admired brand. ... As long as the brand takes the responsibility to guarantee quality and the product fulfills the expectation of the buyer this should not be of any relevance to the client - however the term "made in" is very often the crucial factor to actually purchase a product. There is always a certain standard associated with the production country.

More and more companies are moving East to lower the cost of production and to make more profit. How this decision will finally effect the markets will be very exciting to see. Acting purely on digits, stats and numbers, without considering the psychological effect a decision like this will have on loyal clients of the brand, can result in an unpredictable outcome.
Where will the Asians get their beloved foreign goods from when all is produced in Asia? Or how much is a Volkswagen still a German Volkswagen when it is built in China? Why not then get a Japanese car right from start and save lots of money? Japanese protect their brands and produce top technology still or better say again solely in Japan.