Products which succeed in global markets have climbed the rungs of the ladder by being flexible and creative about their approach to rolling out their product to the international consumer. As a business person I would like to share the following company strategies which pulled these brands into markets hitherto unknown.
1. Coca Cola
It’s official: Coke is it. The Coca Cola brand has ranked number 1 in the global markets for some time now and controls more than half of the non-alcoholic beverage market, marketing to 200 countries worldwide. Just how did a soft drink brand reach this level of power?
From its invention in 1886, Coca Cola brand perfected winning mixture between the standardised (wherever you go in the world, you know you can pick up a cold coke and it will look the same and taste the same as back home) and the diversifying (The Coca Cola company brand produces everything from Sprite to Minute Maid). In logistical terms, it has simplified supplying global markets by delivering a concentrated version of the soft drink to a local franchise, who produce, bottle, market their Coke and make the best inroads into local strategic delivery.
As a brand, Coca Cola knows that a global industry works by centralising certain decisions – such as important global marketing strategy – and devolving others – such as working locally to integrate itself in home infrastructure, regulations and cultural consumer market. Coke is not just sold in supermarkets or bars, but at gas stations, in youth clubs, prisons and in remote kiosks seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
So successful was this strategy in fact that, with the onset of AIDS, supply of free and cheap condoms was sent along established Coke routes all over Africa and India: wherever there were people, more often than not there was also Coke.
2. Nokia
Leading telecommunications brand Nokia now operates with a global annual revenue of over $60 billion, selling in 150 countries.
Since the beginning of the race from the 1960’s, when military and in-car telephony was invested into, Finnish brand Nokia has lead the way. Mobile telephony should by its very nature be global industry, but counter-intuitively it was difficult to standardise even a neighbouring country’s telecommunications system so a phone could function across borders.
Investing into research has always been a key part of Nokia’s global marketing plan and come to fruition in the early 1980’s when the second generation Nokia phones were launched using Global System for Mobile Communications technology: now mobiles could carry data as well as voice.
Then, after some attempts at diversification into television, in 1992 Nokia made another crucial global marketing decision: to sell off all other assets, and focus on telecommunications. This one brand decision alone was responsible for Nokia overtaking all competitors in the North and South American markets, as well as in Asia: Nokia had begun its climb to the top.
3. Gucci
Being one of the world’s most successful global fashion houses has not stopped the folks at Gucci aspiring to greater things. Now available in over 150 countries Gucci is a brand with a truly global consumer.
How did it all come about? Well Gucci profited from the same success of other 1950’s fashion houses, who clothed new-found superstars in the birth of Hollywood. But by the end of the 1970’s, finding the balance between the exclusive and profit meant Gucci had lost its way: it had become an airport brand, appealing to the wrong global consumer for a luxury brand.
Overhauling their global marketing strategy Gucci made two key decisions in the 1980’s: they went public, selling 50% of their stocks on three financial markets. And they diversified: Gucci perfumes, watches and accessories became a hugely profitable arm of the global Gucci brand. This cash injection allowed Gucci enough slack to raise its profile as an extravagance purchase and the brand has since gone from strength to strength.
4. Disney
We’re all familiar with Mickey Mouse (Disney’s official mascot) and want one day to visit Disneyland, but legends alone aren’t what’s made this a successful global brand.
From its foundation in 1923, The Walt Disney Company was in the right place, at the right time. Entertainment was the new big thing, and Disney created icons like cartoon characters, which even today remain at the heart of many cultures and many global industries.
Always willing to diversify but always cautious with licensing off that which they could best do themselves, Disney’s first strategic marketing decision was an easy one to take global: theme parks gave the Disney consumer the chance to touch and feel that which they’d only seen on screen and this proved a very profitable hit. There are now successful Disney theme parks and resorts operating in America, France and Japan with plans to expand in Asia and Europe.
By the 1960s it had become clear that the future of the screen was in the home, and Disney laid the tracks to ensure its television arm would be ready to be rolled out internationally as soon as the global consumer was. Founding a strong advertising partnership with ABC, Disney found local television stations were ready to accept their children’s channels as a package, giving new vehicles through which to sell their expanding VHS/DVD collection and other Disney products.
As global consumer markets grow, Disney Consumer Products and Disney Publishing are able to franchise and relicense their goods to an ever-expanding, new audience: the perfect global strategy!
5. United Parcel Service (UPS)
The cage battle between FedEx and UPS had been raging for some time when UPS had a change of heart: it no longer wanted to fight, it wanted to win.
It was 1991, and at that time UPS had an excellent global infrastructure and a good global market share in the transportation industry. They defined themselves as “the leading package delivery company”, but their expansion was slow and needed a kick start if UPS was going to see off their long-term competitor, FedEx.
They went back to basics, they considered what they had (a great infrastructure, reliable global brand, good staff) and what they lacked (investment into online technologies to facilitate deliveries, and a culture of innovation). From that time, they invested $1 billion a year into online technologies for internal and customer use, into training their staff and facilitating bottom-up solutions. They also changed their global marketing strategy to stress their new client focus: their mission statement became ‘UPS, the enablers of global e-commerce’.
Today UPS is the world’s largest package delivery country (by revenue and by infrastructure), operating in 200 countries with 15.5 million pieces per day worldwide. They pride themselves in their innovations, and in their employee culture, and say both are fundamentally responsible for their brand’s success.
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