The 3Cs of global marketing that can’t be underestimated

That is hard enough to do for any organisation. It’s harder still if you do not have the skill and presence to support such a client. The following 3 aspects provide a playbook on how we manage our international communications.

A term that appears often throughout this issue of Buzz and although it may seem counterintuitive, true collaboration is difficult to achieve. It requires not only an understanding of the other people and organisations involved in a project – but to make it mutually beneficial – each has to understand the motivations, challenges and goals of the other. This takes effort that goes beyond mere business discussions. True collaboration requires everyone to be invested in the relationships with the other people and companies. And, to ensure alignment, each group working with the collective objectives in mind. As part of collaboration, one of the challenges we often find is the management of time zones…it’s hard, and adding a world clock app has been a must-have for all of us doing international business. The further the distance, the less likely each participant will have an ideal time to hop on a call or Skype. So, we rotate “the pain” and acknowledge those who get up early or stay up late.

Where things can get off-track is a lack of cultural awareness. While it is noted that historically closed societies such as Saudi Arabia or China are becoming more open, there still is a lot that we need to understand before we begin marketing in a particular part of the world. We owe it to ourselves to do two things specifically:

1. We never underestimate the importance of culture and understanding their norms and expectations. We use a number of resources that aid our understanding of a particular culture and how they conduct business. Specifically, I tap into Doing Business guides from sources like The World Bank, United Nations and Business Development organisations in a specific country.
2. To bolster this, we also take time to learn from the people we work with from other countries, using each opportunity we have to speak with them to show interest in the way they do business. This is a bit of a mantra around BBN and most conference calls or meetings we have are rife with exchanges around cultural nuance. Most are funny episodes of people getting it not-quite-right, while other times it is a genuine effort to stop somebody from making an inadvertent offence.

Another cultural pitfall that occurs while cross-border collaborating can be the use of colloquialisms. What may be shorthand or easily understood in one language often fails to resonate when it gets translated or relayed to non-native speakers. This is ever prevalent and head-scratching in my business where our two largest offices in the UK and US epitomise the saying of two cultures separated by a common language. The number of stories we have just between these two offices could be the subject of a book, but it highlights the point… we keep it simple until everyone learns the shorthand and we make every effort to learn and teach the shorthand.

The last C is a bit tricky because while value is relative, the cost of doing business in one part of the world is very different from doing it in other parts of the world. This can be all at once a good and a bad thing. We are always mindful of the money when working internationally as we want to ensure that neither party suffers unintentionally. Things we consider are:

• The price of labour and how that might be different depending on the market. But, we are also aware of the standards, which in the digital space (for example) can vary widely, so we make sure we understand what it is we are purchasing.
• Currency exchange rates are something we constantly keep track of – particularly if we are doing a significant amount of business overseas. If we do more than $500,000 in business internationally and start paying more than 1.5% in exchange fees, we speak to our bank and ask for a better rate or work with a broker who can keep the rate competitive.

Obviously, there is more to working with clients and partners across borders but the foundations for success are laid when we collaborate, are conscious of cultural nuances and mindful of the cash. More importantly, we are social beings and the concept of eradicating borders is one that will only enrich how marketers evolve and better serve their clients.

To learn more about how BBN is helping organisations grow their brands and market their services and products all over the world contact: annette@bbn-international.com