When the growth of domestic traffic and demographic dividend slows down, brands are eager to explore new business opportunities and trends. Expanding abroad has been regarded as a means to revitalize sluggish growth, and indeed, it can be. However, brands often encounter common challenges during their international journey:
Where to sail?
Overseas expansion is divided into different regional markets, such as Japan & Korea, Europe & America, and Southeast Asia. Most successful outbound brands typically adopt a conservative approach: conquer one market before moving onto the next. Each target market presents a fresh global challenge for brands.
What to sell?
Products like beverages and cosmetics have varying industry standards and strong regional preferences across markets. To succeed, brands must understand local cultures to grasp consumer tastes, preferences, and aesthetic trends. Therefore, prior to venturing out, brands should possess profound insights into their target audience within specific niches.
How to build a team?
Should brands build a domestic marketing team or establish a new team in foreign markets? Regardless of the model, it is crucial for outbound brands to recruit talents familiar with target markets, capable of global communication, and adept at localized marketing – the linchpin of successful overseas marketing.
While numerous brands have ventured abroad, we tend to focus on those who have excelled due to the survivorship bias. Why do some brands thrive overseas while others leave no trace? Landelion identified five common misconceptions in overseas marketing to help enterprises avoid pitfalls:
Misconception 1: Setting up on an overseas e-commerce platform constitutes full-fledged overseas expansion
When brands embark on their overseas ventures, they often initially opt for establishing a presence on foreign e-commerce platforms. Once the steps of product listing, sales, shipping, and transactions are fulfilled, they may mistakenly consider their overseas expansion as accomplished. In fact, this is a starting point, and a comprehensive overseas presence requires broader outreach and ample untapped potential from a long-term development perspective.
Beyond e-commerce platforms and independent websites, there are more channels to engage consumers. For example, Pop Mart not only uses these channels but also combines offline retail stores, pop-up shops, and robotic vending machines to diversify its touchpoints.
Misconception 2: Overseas marketing equates to “one-size-fits-all” content dissemination
Falling into the trap of replicating traditional marketing tactics, many brands blindly distribute content across various overseas markets without understanding how to build a brand identity and attract audiences in foreign territories.
They fail to realize that each target market boasts its own distinct social ecosystem, characterized by unique content aesthetics and community cultures. Brands seeking to enhance their influence through media distribution channels andsocial platforms should tailor their content creation specifically to the local cultural characteristics, user preferences,language styles, and KOLs, instead of distributing uniform content across different geographic markets.
Misconception 3: Domestic popular products guarantee success abroad
A domestic popular product doesn't mean it will resonate equally well overseas. Market demand and consumer tastes evolve continually, and what works in one region may not translate elsewhere.
Brands should seek growth by considering the unique value propositions and personalized consumption nature that genuinely appeal to consumers in target markets rather than solely focusing on sales volume. This prompts brands to localize their products when conducting overseas marketing efforts. Product localization encompasses two dimensions:
On the physical product localization front, brands should adapt to the target market by tailoring their product designs, raw materials, product logic, and even sales methods.
Regarding product channel selection, brands can devise localized channel layouts by considering target market, product category attributes, and consumer habits.
Misconception 4: Ignoring communication and interaction with users
Similar to domestic environments, overseas social media platforms provide fertile ground for brand marketing. Many direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands owe their early success to leveraging these platforms’ technology and traffic to foster close ties with consumers.
However, some outbound brands merely replicate content across different platforms with low-frequent updates after they opened social accounts on different overseas platforms. It's crucial for brands embarking on overseas ventures to prioritize active engagement and interaction with users on foreign social platforms, as everyday posts and interactions allow consumers to better understand brand ethos, personality, founder stories, and view some interesting things, ultimately accelerating their brand recognition, emotional connection and sales conversion.
Misconception 5: Chinese brands must always emphasize Chinese elements in overseas marketing
Whether to incorporate Chinese elements depends on the strength of the relationship between product offering, brand philosophy, and Chinese identity. If the connection is strong, Chinese elements can act as a catalyst for brand recognition and competitive edge. Conversely, if the relationship is weak, highlighting Chinese elements could hinder brand export. In such context, brands should focus on their distinct advantages, aligning with market demands, and crafting brand stories effectively.
The above is all the content shared today. Landelion is an integrated communication service provider focusing on cross-border business. If you have any questions or requirements related to overseas brand marketing and talent assignment services involved in this article, please feel free to call us at 400 097 8816 or email marketing@landelion.com.