Multinational Marketing Strategy

Multinational marketing strategies help businesses of all sizes break into international markets. These global strategies can vary tremendously based on your industry and the regions you plan to expand into, but all emphasize easing the transition to a foreign market and ensuring the product sells in its new surroundings.

Rather than starting from scratch, you might do what many small businesses do -- partner with companies that already have multinational marketing teams. This helps you save on the legal and research costs involved with learning the intricacies of new international markets and provides a shortcut to sales. Local vendors can help with logistics, retail space and delivery services, which is especially important if your small businesses lacks the manpower, legal assets and time to invest in market development. Teaming up with the right people is the way to cut expenses and save time when entering one or more international markets.

The most important part of any multinational marketing strategy is the collection of local data and trends. Understanding the market requires more than just a knowledge of what products are in demand; it requires insight into the people of a region and what drives their buying decisions. A glimpse into the local culture helps to determine the proper market position for your brand and what your target segments ought to be. A misread of the local class structure or consumer habits can have you targeting everyone with a shotgun approach that reaches no one.

Although you may sell in multiple international markets at once, never forget that each location has its own culture and quirks. Linguistic nuances, local dialects and slang can make a seemingly innocuous ad campaign seem ridiculous if the message is lost in translation. For example, major U.S. fast-food chains that delve into overseas markets with the same menu used in the domestic market often have to adapt and add local treats to draw in consumers unfamiliar with -- or turned off by -- American food. Knowing what the local consumer wants and incorporating it into your marketing strategy is a huge part of multinational success or failure.

Most small businesses lack the resources that might help them survive a misstep on foreign soil, so they often study and groom an international market before diving in. This practice, called early marketing, helps small businesses gauge the potential success or failure of their efforts. It involves announcing the arrival of a new brand or product and measuring the interest level to determine if it's sufficient to support a product launch. Early marketing often reveals a need to alter the product for local consumption or to abandon the effort altogether.