What do global brands communicate

We asked respondents to reveal brand preferences by asking them to divide 11 points among the three brands in each category. We then derived weights for each of the global dimensions by modeling the extent to which each factor explained brand preferences.

We also examined how those importance weights varied by country, category, and segment. We found that quality signal, global myth, and social responsibility are highly significant, while American values is not. Consumers watch the fierce battles that transnational companies wage over quality and are impressed by the victors. Consumers also believe that transnational companies compete by trying to develop new products and breakthrough technologies faster than rivals. Consumers look to global brands as symbols of cultural ideals.

They use brands to create an imagined global identity that they share with like-minded people. Transnational companies therefore compete not only to offer the highest value products but also to deliver cultural myths with global appeal. Further, no longer are myths created only by lifestyle and luxury brands; myths are now spun by virtually all global brands, in industries as diverse as information technology and oil.

They expect firms to address social problems linked to what they sell and how they conduct business. They are making so much money, they should be giving back. Such expectations are as pronounced in developing countries like China and India as they are in developed countries in Europe. Since American companies dominate the international market, critics have charged that they run roughshod over indigenous cultures in other countries. That debate has cast a long shadow over American firms, and they have become rather circumspect about revealing their origins, culture, and values while doing business overseas.

Many have tried to position themselves as more global than ugly American. To be sure, many people said they cared. That finding is all the more remarkable considering that when we conducted our survey, anti-American sentiment in many nations was rising because of the Iraq war. The relative importance of the three dimensions was consistent across the 12 countries we studied, indicating that the calculus used by consumers to evaluate global brands varies little worldwide.

They have the smallest impact on U. The drivers also have less impact on consumers in Brazil and India. That may be because of vestiges of anticolonial cultures, the strength of local manufacturers, and growing nationalism in those countries. Such people may value global brands particularly highly because they represent a way of life that they cherish—a way of life that may be under threat from religious fundamentalism. The percentages shown in the chart are the averages of survey responses from 12 countries.

When we grouped together consumers who evaluate global brands in the same way, regardless of home country, we found four major segments. Most consumers worldwide fall into one of four segments in terms of how they relate to global brands. The relative sizes of the segments are quite consistent worldwide. Fifty-five percent of respondents, on average, rely on the global success of a company as a signal of quality and innovation.

At the same time, they are concerned whether companies behave responsibly on issues like consumer health, the environment, and worker rights. According to our study, the United States and the UK have relatively few global citizens, and Brazil, China, and Indonesia have relatively high numbers of them.

They see global brands as quality products and readily buy into the myths they author. Thirteen percent of consumers are skeptical that transnational companies deliver higher quality goods. Their brand preferences indicate that they try to avoid doing business with transnational firms.

First, economies of scale may prove elusive. It is sometimes cheaper and more effective for companies to create ads locally than to import ads and then adapt them for each market. Moreover, cultural differences may make it hard to pull off a global campaign: even the best agency may have trouble executing it well in all countries.

Language barriers and cultural differences have made realizing such benefits difficult for most companies. Second, forming a successful global brand team can prove difficult. Developing a superior brand strategy for one country is challenging enough; creating one that can be applied worldwide can be daunting assuming one even exists. Teams face several stumbling blocks: they need to gather and understand a great deal of information; they must be extremely creative; and they need to anticipate a host of challenges in execution.

Relatively few teams will be able to meet all those challenges. Honda means quality and reliability in the United States, but in Japan, where quality is a given for most cars, Honda represents speed, youth, and energy. And consider market position. For all those reasons, taking a more nuanced approach is the better course of action.

Developing global brands should not be the priority. Instead, companies should work on creating strong brands in all markets through global brand leadership. Global brand leadership means using organizational structures, processes, and cultures to allocate brand-building resources globally, to create global synergies, and to develop a global brand strategy that coordinates and leverages country brand strategies.

That is, of course, easier said than done. For example, companies tend to give the bulk of their brand-building attention to countries with large sales—at the expense of emerging markets that may represent big opportunities. But some companies have successfully engaged in global brand management. To find out how, we interviewed executives from 35 companies in the United States, Europe, and Japan that have successfully developed strong brands across countries.

About half the executives were from companies that made frequently purchased consumer products; the rest represented durables, high-tech products, and service brands. Four common ideas about effective brand leadership emerged from those interviews. Companies must:. A companywide communication system is the most basic element of global brand leadership. Managers from country to country need to be able to find out about programs that have worked or failed elsewhere; they also need a way to easily give and receive knowledge about customers—knowledge that will vary from one market to another.

Creating such a system is harder than it sounds. Another problem is one that everyone in business faces today: information overload. To overcome those problems, companies must nurture and support a culture in which best practices are freely communicated.

In addition, people and procedures must come together to create a rich base of knowledge that is relevant and easy to access.

Offering incentives is one way to get people to share what they know. American Management Systems, for example, keeps track of the employees who post insights and best practices and rewards them during annual performance reviews. Regular meetings can be an effective way of communicating insights and best practices. During the week, country managers present case studies on packaging, advertising, and promotions that were tested in one country and then successfully applied in another.

The case studies demonstrate that practices can be transferred even when a local marketing team is skeptical. Formal meetings are useful, but true learning takes place during informal conversations and gatherings. And the personal relationships that people establish during those events are often more important than the information they share.

Personal ties lead to meaningful exchanges down the road that can foster brand-building programs. In addition to staging meetings, companies are increasingly using intranets to communicate insights and best practices. E-mail is useful, however, for conveying breaking news about competitors or new technology.

The key is to have a team create a knowledge bank on an intranet that is valuable and accessible to those who need it. Mobil, for example, uses a set of best-practice networks to do just that. The networks connect people in the company and sometimes from partner organizations who are experts on, for example, new product introduction, brand architecture, and retail-site presentation. Each network has a senior management sponsor and a leader who actively solicits postings from the experts.

The leader ensures that the information is formatted, organized, and posted on an easy-to-use intranet site. Field visits are another useful way to learn about best practices. In some companies, the CEO travels to different markets in order to energize the country teams and to see best practices in action. The teams have several tasks. They mine local knowledge about markets and disseminate that information globally. They gather data about effective country-specific marketing efforts and encourage testing elsewhere.

They create global manufacturing sourcing strategies. And they develop policies that dictate which aspects of the brand strategy must be followed everywhere and which ones are up to country management. Another way that companies can communicate information about their brands is by sharing research.

Ford operates very differently from country to country in Europe, but its businesses share research methods and findings. For businesses that are unable to position themselves directly in local markets, partnering with a local agency or business that already has the know-how and familiarity with the local market is highly advisable.

Once a business has solved the mystery of how to reach the target demographic, the brand must appeal strongly enough to actually motivate consumers to take action. The key, then, to keeping the message consistent is for all factions and operations in the company to be telling the same story.

In terms of getting over the language barrier, going for visual-based communications is the most appealing. We take that central vision and granulate it into stories that resonate on a local level. While there are more ways than ever to reach a consumer, from social media and use of influencers and thought leaders, to paid media and surprise marketing, the key to maximizing the message is to research and understand consumer behaviors and consumption habits beyond the surface level.

The branding message must not only connect to the consumer but also compel them to take action in a way that will benefit the business. Seven Latino-owned businesses to celebrate and support this month and beyond.

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