As more and more companies operate in the global, or at least multiple-country market, with the expansion of instant communications and easier route-to-market for many products and services, it’s never been more important for smaller marketing agencies who don’t operate offices in multiple countries to offer co-ordinated international marketing services to their clients.
It can be very beneficial to both clients and the agency: streamlining a marketing manager’s operational costs and time liaising with one agency and offering opportunities for revenue growth within small-to-medium size agencies.
So full-service marketing agencies shouldn’t shy away from the opportunity, as long as they prepare the groundwork sufficiently and watch out for some very common pitfalls that can be easily overlooked when working on behalf of international organisations and operating from the UK.
Here are a few watch-outs we’ve picked up along the way:
1. The language barrier:
Apart from the obvious when liaising with media / suppliers etc in foreign countries, UK marketers must watch-out for common colloquialisms, idiom or metaphors in both their dealings and creative campaigns on behalf of their clients.
- The good news is that as most of us in the UK are lucky to even consider ourselves ‘GCSE-level’ for a second language, English is so widely used in business around the world that you can normally make yourself understood to foreign suppliers / media etc when co-ordinating your campaign. It’s obviously always better to try and communicate in someone’s native tongue, but unless you specifically hire someone multi-lingual in all languages of countries you intend to operate in this isn’t always possible. I would suggest that at least learning some pleasantries in their language goes a long way to breaking down barriers, however.
- Though clever word-play may be successful for a UK-only campaign, you can bet that your clever line doesn’t mean the same in other languages and can leave audiences either scratching their heads in confusion or laughing hysterically (everyone remember the Ford Probe?)
- It’s best to ensure your translations stand up by having them checked by native language speakers of any foreign country your campaign / assets will appear – they can advise on adapting terminology to suit the point you’re trying to make.
2. Local knowledge:
On that point, having people with ‘local knowledge’ on the ground in each country can be a real benefit. If not a personal contact, it can be very useful searching out someone within the industries your client or your campaign operate in that country and building a relationship with them. They can be a huge help for a number of reasons, but the core of which we’ve found to be:
- Advising on the best media to use within that country to target your client’s audiences
- Knowledge of local customs or values that may dictate whether your campaign or message will work in that country
- With a good working relationship they can be a valuable sounding board. If you’re struggling to locate the right person, think about whether your client has distributors / offices within that country you can talk to, or perhaps look for an industry body (like the CIM / CIPR in the UK) that could prove useful in this way
3. Cultural sensitivities:
Though I said it in the last point, I stress that double-checking local cultural sensitivities is invaluable – some cultures are particularly sensitive to use of certain colours or subject matter. Also check any marketing rules or regulations specific to those countries – you need to know the legalities of how you can market to certain audiences with what subject matter in different cultures before you commence with your campaign, as ignorance is no excuse.
4. Costs and invoicing:
If you’re operating from the UK, here are some points to consider:
- Currency: not so bad if you’re only operating within the Eurozone (however that may be looking right now) but if you’re operating with lots of different countries with lots of different currencies you need to keep a sharp eye on conversion rates etc and set an agreed rate with the client beforehand – any agency mark up can be quickly wiped out if you purchase anything locally from a supplier one day, then charge it back to the client on another when the conversion rate has suddenly changed dramatically!
- Know local VAT regulations – it really does vary from country to country as to what goods or services fall under VAT and what you have to pay, charge on or recoup. You need to be aware of them for any purchases you make and of course for any invoices you subsequently charge on to the client or you might fall fowl to taxes you weren’t expecting to pay
5. Timing and planning:
- As with other local customs, knowing any national holidays, celebrations or particularly good/ bad times of year for certain industries can be vital to a campaign’s success
- Know how the local postal services work! If you’re doing a DM campaign or any other activity that involves internal postal services it’s worth knowing how good, or not, they are. If you’re working with a distribution house, check with them and plan accordingly for how long certain countries may take to deliver items compared to others – especially if you’re working on a time-sensitive campaign
- Be prepared for a consensus feedback process if your client operates in multiple countries and plan your timings accordingly: many clients will collect feedback from national markets and this consultation can complicate or prolong the process of producing creative work
In summary, the key is in the planning:
- Do the groundwork first, good and proper research upfront can avoid any nasty surprises when you’re further down the line
- Utilise any of your or your client’s local contacts as information sources – if you don’t know the market you’re intending to go into, find someone who does
- Get as much information as you can on local business customs, taxes, rules and regulations – once you know it for that country, it’ll make the next campaign a much more smooth process
- Make sure you can manage the additional time / resources required to operate in other countries and plan your budget accordingly
- Ultimately, don’t be afraid to open your experiences to operating in multiple markets – though it can seem like a lot of work at the time it can be very rewarding both to your work experience and to your business’s growth
