7 examples of really interesting international marketing strategies
Because there is no one-size-fit-all approach to marketing, you often can find the best examples of marketing strategies by brands dominating in their respective industry. On this post, we will be listing 7 examples of very powerful and brilliant global marketing strategies to help paint a picture of what a great global marketing strategy looks like.
Airbnb
Airbnb’s global marketing strategy because of its localization, the brand had a dedicated localization department responsible for making the site accessible around the globe. They also focused on the power of local storytelling. This helped the brand develop trust and a sense of community between hosts and travellers. Another factor that helped the brand was social media, they launched a social media campaign with the hashtag #OneLessStranger. They referred to their company as a global social experiment where they asked locals to perform random acts of hospitality for strangers. They encouraged users to share these acts of hospitality on social media. Just three weeks after the launch of the campaign, over 3,000,000 people worldwide engaged, created content, or were talking about the campaign.
Nike
Nike has been able to evolve its global presence through the careful selection of international sponsorships such as its previous long-standing relationship with Manchester United. Although sponsorship spending can be fairly unpredictable these partnerships have certainly helped the brand capture the attention of a global audience.
Nike’s NikeID co-creation platform serves as another strategy that the company is using to appeal to international markets. By putting the power of design into the hands of the consumer, Nike is able to deliver customized products that align with different cultural preferences and styles.
Coca-Cola
Cocoa-Cola is a prime and most well-known example of a brand with a powerful and brilliant global marketing strategy. One of the things that helped Coca Cola succeed in other markets was its bottling operations. The beverage company was able to brand its drink in such a way that it was uniquely and easily identifiable. This is made it instantly recognizable by anyone around the world.
Another reason Coca Cola was very successful in local markets was that they also gave local operations leeway to adjust the taste to fit cultural preferences in their market. The brand also adapted adverting, promotions, distributions and pricing to each local market. For advertising and messaging, Coca Cola focused on universal values that will resonate around the world like sharing and happiness. They then localized their campaigns by featuring local celebrities and cultural references. The brand also focused on small community programs and small scale charity efforts.
Apple
Apple’s global marketing strategy is another prime example of a great global marketing strategy. Though Apple took a huge risk with the one size fit all strategy for its iPhone design. The brand’s customer service protocol didn’t follow the same strategy. Apple tailored its customer service protocol to fit the local taste of each market. By having a standardized design the brand was able to make its product easily identifiable all around the world. But with its customer service protocol, they were able to meet each market’s needs specifically. This two contrast worked perfectly for the brand.
Spotify
In 2018, Spotify was newly considered one of the best global companies in the world, according to Interbrand*. We’ve all heard of Spotify (no pun intended), but how did it suddenly, and so quickly, expand from Sweden into other countries?
Spotify’s business model is focused on helping you find something new. It’s one thing to select a genre of music to listen to, another thing to select a “mood” to listen to.
By changing how they describe their content, Spotify gets users to listen to music that goes beyond their favorite genres, and instead satisfies habits and lifestyles that people share all over the world. This allows international artists to access listeners from other countries simply because their product is being categorized a different way.
Red Bull
Austrian company Red Bull does such a great job with global marketing that many Americans assume it’s a local brand. How?
One of its most successful tactics is to host extreme sports events all over the world. From the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix to the Red Bull Air Race in the United Kingdom to the Red Bull Soapbox Race in Jordan, the brand’s powerful event marketing strategy takes them here, there, and everywhere.
Colgate
Rather than just shoving their products down people’s throats, Colgate has taken a very different approach over the years and has chosen to educate consumers instead. This strategy has helped the brand to not only sell tubes of toothpaste but to also become one of the leading and most trusted toothpaste products in the world.
In marketing there are a few ways to promote trust, but nothing is more effective than educating customers and proving just how your product can work to benefit your consumers. This strategy may seem obvious for a toothpaste brand, however any business can adopt this strategy and make it work for them.
Colgate may have a multi-million dollar marketing budget to make spiffy videos and create content, however all you really need to do is go into the minds of your consumers and deliver to them what they really want.
*See all the information here: https://www.interbrand.com/best-brands/best-global-brands/2018/ranking/spotify/
