First, understand your target groups mindset:

• Do they look for international reference because their markets are globally oriented (such as Finance, IT) or is their focus on their own soil (e.g. Agriculture)?
• Are there big international events that play a significant role in that industry’s communication, or is it all regional and local?
• Are they happy to think and read in English or is the local language a must?

Then, consider the spread of different cultures:

• Is it a reasonably close-knit region like DACH (Germany, German-Speaking Switzerland, Austria)?
• Alternatively, do you go virtually anywhere around the world, from Bombay to Boston and Stockholm to Singapore?

Assess the skills and roles of the local teams on the client side:

• Are these subsidiaries staffed with salespeople who do Marketing communications on top of their „real“ duty? Or do you have full-time marketers who have the time and the priority to work with local partners to accurately adapt creative and content to local needs – while still understanding what needs to be maintained for global consistency?
• Is there a clear communicated approval structure for local implementation and a mutual understanding where the responsibilities are for Central and Local teams?

That exercise is a good foundation for any new significant branding and communication concepts. Campaign experience itself shows several essential points in the process of developing and implementing these:

• Make sure the project brief is built on insights and requirements from all relevant regions, but consolidate and prioritise it from a global perspective so that the agency team knows their must-haves and might-be in the objectives and deliverables.
• Get key regions to participate in a core team that decides on strategy and concepts – and let the other local groups know they are represented at Central decisions.
• Ensure the cultural acceptance at a very early stage. BBN’s Culture Check is a proven example: communication experts from around the world evaluate the idea shortlist for local understanding and potential issues. While this is not a representative market survey, it’s quick and easy – and alerts you to risks. Ask a German why “Silver Mist” as a liqueur would never appeal to them, or an American why the tagline “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux” for a new line of vacuum cleaners was bound to fail and you know how crucial this step is.
• In the choice of channels and the budget allocations, listen to local specialists and their recommendations on how to reach their audiences. Keep in mind that fast-moving local content, Digital Advertising and PR needs to be managed and steered locally – but following a global strategy.
• When ready to implement, involve the local decision makers first: Present the concepts to them (if possible, share some decision-taking with them such as the choice of the final key visuals on a given creative idea).
• Make sure the local agency partners are on board and well-briefed on the campaign background, targets and priorities for regional roll-out. The more you rely on this global to local procedure, the more essential an international ‘lead’ and local agency set-up that guides the local agencies and ensures their work fits with the global strategy – in turn, taking much of the domestic communication rollout work off the shoulders of the client team.

Above and beyond all of this, a methodology like BBN’s Navigator that links all communication to the brand is vital. Because it secures consistency and regular contributions to your global brand capital across all individual campaigns – whether you choose to express it in Dollars, Yen or Euros.

This is an article from BBN’s Buzz Magazine on B2B marketing without borders.

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