Australian businesses that want to operate internationally must develop and manage a brand that resonates with both global and local audiences. New research from The CMO Club and Oracle Marketing Cloud shows that there are six common elements required to building a global brand.
The study shows that, to navigate the enormous amount of complexity in building a global brand, leading chief marketing officers share six common elements that all begin with the same first step: developing a cohesive team culture.
A cohesive team culture and structure that embraces local diversity is — counterintuitively — the linchpin to building a consistent global brand, according to research released by The CMO Club and Oracle Marketing Cloud.
The study captures pragmatic insights and examples from The CMO Club with major brands such as Dow Chemical, Pearson, AON Corporation, The Patron Spirits Company, and Vencorex.
{loadposition ray}CMOs struggle with an increasingly pervasive dichotomy: to be a consistent-enough, cohesive-enough brand that captures the benefits of being global while still respecting and honouring local diversities and culture.
“Developing a global brand is a balancing act as well as a question of trust and learning,” says Hubertus (Huub) DeVroye, head of Marketing and Commercial at Dow Chemical, “You can’t think it’s just centralised or decentralised because it might be that some aspects are centralised while others are not.”
This study aims to help senior marketers navigate the complex global landscape whether building a global brand or marketing a brand, globally.
“Building a global brand can be so complex in managing not only the overall marketing strategy but how you manage a global team,” said Pete Krainik, chief executive, The CMO Club. “This guide helps provide go to approaches for what’s needed to develop a well-rounded global brand strategy, as well as how to motivate a global team to build the foundation for a more cohesive culture and brand.”
“At the core of building a successful global brand is the ability to pull together all of the key elements: culture, teamwork, legal regulations and technology, and be able to deliver the same fundamental brand messages to a global audience that resonates locally,” said, Sylvia Jensen, senior director, EMEA Marketing, Oracle Marketing Cloud.
Key areas included in this study to help CMOs navigate the increasingly complex and attractive global landscape are:
- How does your company articulate and create a global brand image and presence across different languages and cultures?
- How do you deal with the many varying laws and regulations when it comes to things such as email, privacy and data?
- How does your technology platform not only handle all the different laws and regulations – but also adapt as needed?
- How do you instil in your internal teams a cohesive culture that connects and transcends geographic and sociological differences?
- How do you balance marketing competencies to benefit your global team while simultaneously enabling local team’s needs to be met?
- How do you empower your team around the world to build relationships with customers in different geographic regions/countries?