Key Steps for Success in Localized Markets
As the founder and localization expert at B2B Export Services, I have dedicated over 12 years to helping businesses adapt their products, services, and marketing strategies for the Nordic markets.
This blog post explores the concept of market localization and its critical role in marketing, particularly for companies aiming to expand internationally. A digital marketing strategy is crucial for engaging specific target audiences in localized markets.
Let’s dive into the fascinating world of localized marketing!
Understanding Marketing Localization
Marketing localization is about making your product or service feel at home in a new country.
Think of it like hosting a party for friends where you cater to their favorite food, music, and style, ensuring they feel welcome and comfortable. Similarly, marketing localization ensures your product resonates with the local audience. For example, if you’re selling a product in the US and decide to expand to France, you need to make French consumers feel like your product was made just for them.
Software development plays a crucial role in adapting digital products to meet local preferences and technical requirements.
This involves more than translating the label into French. It requires understanding their preferences, values, usage patterns, and even sensitivities to certain colors or words. Your advertisements may need to align with their humor and values, and packaging might need adjustments to meet their expectations.
Marketing localization is about making your product feel familiar and welcoming in a new market.
Defining a Localization Market
A localization market refers to a specific geographical area where a product or service has been adapted to fit local cultural, linguistic, and societal norms.
For instance, when Netflix expanded into Japan, they didn’t just translate their platform; they produced local content, adjusted the user interface, and implemented familiar payment systems to cater to Japanese customers. Similarly, a British company expanding into Denmark would need to understand Danish culture, language, business etiquette, consumer behavior, and market demands to succeed.
Examples of Effective Localized Marketing
1. McDonald’s:
McDonald’s is known worldwide, but its menu varies by country. In India, where many people avoid beef for religious reasons.
McDonald’s offers the Maharaja Mac made with chicken and includes many vegetarian options to cater to local tastes.
2. IKEA
According to George Business Review, IKEA’s promotional strategies in China focus on larger sofas, which align with Chinese consumers’ preferences for spacious living room furniture.
By positioning expensive sofas in the market, IKEA appeals to local consumer desires, ensuring their products meet the unique needs of Chinese customers.
Developing a Localization Strategy
A localization strategy is a detailed plan to tailor your product or service to meet the cultural, linguistic, and regulatory requirements of a new market. It goes beyond mere translation, incorporating aspects such as local customs, consumer behavior, and market preferences to ensure a seamless integration into the target country.
Imagine relocating your lemonade stand to a neighborhood where people prefer iced tea. To succeed, you would need to adapt by offering iced tea, perhaps with unique local flavors, at times and places that suit local preferences. Similarly, a localization strategy involves:
- Understanding Local Preferences: Researching how locals prefer their products, whether it’s the taste, packaging, or delivery method.
- Adapting Products and Marketing: Modifying recipes, creating appealing names, and adjusting marketing messages to resonate with local audiences.
- Optimal Timing and Placement: Identifying the best times and locations to sell your product.
In essence, it encompasses all steps necessary to adapt your offerings to meet the specific needs and preferences of a new market, ensuring successful market entry and growth.
Who Creates the Localized Marketing Strategy?
A localization strategy is typically developed by a team of experts, including market researchers, localization specialists, product managers, and marketing professionals.
They analyze the new market, understand local preferences, and design a plan to adapt the product or service accordingly.
For example, launching a popular mobile gaming app from the US in Denmark would involve:
- Market Researchers studying Danish gaming trends.
- Localization Specialists translating and adapting the game.
- Product Managers modifying the game to include elements popular in Denmark.
- Marketing Professionals creating a campaign that appeals to Danish gamers.
- Product Owners collaborating with product managers to ensure the game meets local preferences.
This collaborative approach ensures the product is tailored effectively for the new market, maximizing its potential success.
A Danish Example
When Spotify expanded to Denmark, they didn’t just translate their app into Danish.
They created playlists featuring popular Danish music and local artists, making the service feel uniquely tailored to Danish users.
Steps to Implement Localized Marketing Campaigns
Implementing a localized marketing campaign involves a series of crucial steps to ensure your efforts resonate with the target local market while maintaining your brand’s core message.
Here’s an expanded and optimized guide to help you implement a successful localized marketing campaign:
1. Understand the Local Market
Research Your Audience: Start by gathering in-depth information about your target audience.
This includes demographic details (age, gender, income, education) and psychographic insights (attitudes, values, lifestyles, interests). Utilize tools like surveys, focus groups, and social listening to understand local preferences, cultural norms, and consumer behavior. Collaborate with local experts or teams who can provide accurate insights and avoid treating entire countries as a monolith; focus on regional differences.
2. Develop a Localization Strategy
Plan and Adapt: Create a comprehensive strategy that adapts your product, service, and marketing messages to fit local preferences.
This includes considering cultural norms, traditions, and regional values. Ensure your strategy strikes a balance between customization for the local market and maintaining overall brand consistency.
3. Localize Your Product or Service
Product Customization: Adapt your products or services based on local tastes and preferences.
This could involve changes in product features, packaging, or even product names to better resonate with the local audience. Ensure translations are not just literal but also culturally relevant, employing native-speaking linguists to capture local dialects and colloquialisms effectively.
4. Localize Your Marketing Materials
Tailored Messaging and Visuals: Customize your marketing materials to align with local aesthetics, values, and cultural references.
This includes adapting your advertising copy, imagery, and overall brand presentation to fit local sensibilities. Use visuals and symbols that are culturally appropriate and resonate with local audiences.
5. Implement the Campaign
Use Local Channels: Launch your campaign on channels that are popular and trusted in the local market.
This might include local social media platforms, traditional media like TV and radio, or community-specific digital forums. Understand where your target audience spends their time and tailor your channel strategy accordingly.
6. Monitor and Adjust
Track Performance: Continuously monitor the performance of your localized campaign using analytics tools.
Track metrics such as engagement, reach, and conversion rates to gauge the effectiveness of your efforts. Be prepared to make data-driven adjustments to optimize the campaign’s impact.
7. Learn and Iterate
Refine Future Efforts: Use the insights gained from your campaign to refine future localization efforts.
Collect feedback from local audiences and continuously improve your strategies based on what works best in each market. This iterative process ensures your localization efforts remain relevant and effective over time.
Effective project management ensures that these localization efforts are continuously improved based on market feedback.
Examples of Localized Marketing Campaigns
For instance, a US-based fashion brand expanding into Norway might launch a line of durable, weather-resistant clothing.
Marketing campaigns would highlight these features, using images of local landscapes and references to Norwegian weather conditions to make the brand relatable.
Key Elements for a Successful Marketing Localization Strategy
Creating a successful marketing localization strategy involves several critical steps to ensure your brand resonates with the local audience.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of the key elements based on extensive research:
1. Understanding the Market
To begin with, thorough market research is paramount. This involves understanding local culture, consumer behavior, norms, and business practices.
Market research provides valuable insights into the target audience’s needs, preferences, and purchasing behavior, which are crucial for tailoring your localization strategy effectively
2. Transcreation of Content
Transcreation goes beyond direct translation. It adapts the core message to be culturally appropriate and engaging.
This process ensures that marketing messages resonate on an emotional level with local audiences, maintaining the essence of the original content while making it relatable in the new context
3. Localization of Visuals
Visual elements, such as symbols, colors, and gestures, must be culturally appropriate.
Different cultures perceive colors and symbols differently, and these perceptions can significantly impact the effectiveness of your marketing materials. Adjusting visual elements to fit local preferences can prevent cultural missteps and enhance brand acceptance
4. Adapting to Local SEO Practices
Local SEO is critical for visibility in new markets. This involves using local keywords, optimizing for local search engines, and complying with local regulations.
It’s essential to understand the local search behaviors and preferences to effectively optimize your content and improve your search rankings
5. Using Local Influencers
Leveraging local influencers can provide credibility and authenticity to your brand.
Local influencers have established trust and rapport with their audiences, making them valuable partners in promoting your products or services. Collaborating with influencers can enhance brand visibility and engagement
6. Legal and Regulatory Compliance
Every market has its own set of legal and regulatory requirements. Ensuring compliance with local laws is crucial to avoid legal issues and build trust with the local audience.
This includes everything from product standards and advertising regulations to data protection laws
7. Regular Evaluation and Adaptation
Localization is an ongoing process. Regularly reviewing and adapting your strategy based on market feedback, performance data, and evolving market trends is essential.
Continuous improvement ensures that your strategy remains effective and relevant in a dynamic market environment. By incorporating these elements into your marketing localization strategy, you can effectively bridge cultural gaps, connect with local audiences, and achieve sustainable growth in new markets.
Remember, the key to successful localization is understanding and respecting the unique characteristics of each target market while maintaining the core values and identity of your brand.
A Localized Product Example
KitKat in Japan
Nestlé offers over 200 unique KitKat flavors in Japan, including matcha green tea and wasabi, catering to local tastes and traditions.
Apple’s Siri
Siri is programmed to understand and respond in Nordic languages and handle local accents and dialects, offering a localized user experience.
Fun fact: Siri was actually named by a Norwegian, Dag Kittalaus 🙂
Localization in Advertising
Localization in advertising adapts campaigns to fit the culture, language, and preferences of a specific region.
This process is a key component in ensuring that your product management efforts resonate with the local audience. It involves modifying imagery, colors, music, humor, and even including local celebrities to enhance the relevance of the ad.
Localization in Digital Marketing
Localization in digital marketing is essential for successful product managers and digital marketers.
It involves adapting online strategies and content to fit the language, culture, and behaviors of a specific market. This comprehensive approach includes:
Website Localization
Website localization includes translating and adapting your website to the local language and cultural context.
This might involve modifying design elements, currencies, date formats, and content to align with local preferences. A localized website is crucial for product managers as it helps to ensure that the product’s core functionality is easily understood and appreciated by the target market.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Localized SEO requires using keywords and phrases familiar to your local audience.
It also involves adhering to the preferences of local search engines, which may not always be Google. For instance, product managers and digital marketers must conduct thorough market research to understand the preferred search engines and optimize accordingly.
This enhances website traffic and ensures that marketing efforts are effectively directed.
Social Media Localization
Different regions may favor different social media platforms.
Localizing social media content means translating posts and creating content that resonates with local users, engaging with them during peak activity times. This approach is crucial for cross-functional teams, including the marketing and development teams, to ensure cohesive and targeted social media marketing campaigns.
Content Marketing
Localizing blog posts, videos, infographics, and other content ensures it connects with your target audience.
This might include focusing on locally relevant topics, using regional references or humor, and highlighting local events or influencers. Successful product managers understand that content marketing is vital in establishing a product’s presence and value in a new market.
Email Marketing
Email marketing localization entails adjusting your email content, subject lines, and even sending times to align with local norms and preferences.
This is part of a product manager’s responsibilities to ensure that every aspect of the product lifecycle is tailored to meet customer needs effectively.
Ads Localization
From PPC campaigns to social media ads, the text, imagery, and overall message should be customized to appeal to the target audience, enhancing their effectiveness.
Product managers and project managers need to collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure that digital ads are well-received and generate the desired impact.
Integrating Localization in Product Management
A successful product manager must integrate localization into the product management process.
This includes working closely with the sales team, engineering team, and other key stakeholders to align the product strategy with localized marketing efforts. The product manager defines the product vision, ensuring it meets the business objectives and customer needs of the target market.
Agile Product Development
Incorporating agile product management practices allows for continuous feedback and adaptation.
Product owners and technical product managers must ensure that the development process is flexible enough to incorporate localized customer feedback, thereby delighting customers and enhancing the overall customer experience.
Strategic Thinking and Market Research
Product managers must have a deep understanding of the target market and strategic thinking skills.
Conducting research and data analysis helps in developing a strong business case for localization efforts. This ensures that product features are tailored to meet the specific demands of the local market, ultimately driving product success.
Enhancing the Product Manager’s Role
The role of a product manager is multifaceted, involving day-to-day responsibilities that range from strategic planning to direct reports and managing development teams.
Strong communication skills are essential to keep everyone on the same page, from the project manager to the digital marketer. This ensures that the product roadmap is clear and aligned with the product’s lifecycle. Localization is not just a marketing tactic but a fundamental aspect of product management.
By adapting the product and its marketing strategies to fit the local context, product managers and digital marketers can ensure greater relevance and success in diverse markets.
Utilizing localized SEO, content marketing, and agile product development practices, businesses can achieve their objectives and meet the needs of their customers effectively.
Conclusion
Market localization is crucial for businesses looking to successfully enter and thrive in new markets.
It’s about more than just translating content; it means adapting products, services, and marketing strategies to align with local cultures, languages, and consumer behaviors. Making your offerings feel native and familiar builds trust and loyalty among local consumers. Developing a solid localization strategy requires teamwork from market researchers, localization specialists, product managers, and marketing professionals to ensure every aspect of your business is tailored to the new market.
Companies like McDonald’s, IKEA, Spotify, and KitKat highlight the importance of this approach.
Effective localization includes understanding the local market, creating culturally appropriate content, and adapting your digital marketing strategies to fit local preferences. By implementing a thoughtful and comprehensive localization strategy, businesses can enhance their global growth and connect with new customers in a meaningful way. Product managers are pivotal in this process, collaborating with cross-functional teams, including the development team and sales team, to ensure the product features meet local customer needs.
A product manager’s role involves defining the product vision and guiding the product’s lifecycle, from market research to development and launch.
Key components of a successful localization strategy include:
- Adapting the product management process to incorporate local customer feedback.
- Collaborating with the engineering team to adjust core functionality.
- Working with digital marketers to create targeted marketing campaigns.
- Utilizing social media marketing and video marketing to engage with the local audience.
- Conducting data analysis to measure the effectiveness of digital ads and PPC campaigns.
- Ensuring strong communication skills among team members to keep everyone on the same page.
In technology companies, product managers and project managers need a deep understanding of the target market and strategic thinking skills to create a product roadmap that aligns with business objectives.
Agile product management practices can help development teams respond quickly to local market changes and customer feedback. Leveraging search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing, digital marketers can drive website traffic and increase visibility on search engines. Paid ads, such as Google Ads, can also effectively reach the target market.
Successful product managers recognize the importance of traditional marketing techniques and digital channels in building a strong customer experience.
They work with product teams to ensure the product meets local market needs and delights customers. Stay tuned to B2B Export Services for more insights and expert assistance in localizing your business for global success. A well-executed localization strategy ensures your product or service resonates with people, building trust and loyalty.
Follow our blog for more insights, and contact B2B Export Services for help with localizing your business for global markets.
Victoria 
