Global Branding

City of 10000 snowmen

• City hoping that snowmen will bring visitors

• Lack of snow worrying city
• City still optimistic
 Country and State Branding

• Kerala, Odisha, Paschim Bangla

• UK, Australia, Turkey, Hong Kong
• Newfoundland, Winnipeg
• Rajasthan (1) (2) (3)
 Tim Hortons

• Canadian brand famous for coffee and chocolate

drinks and, of course, Timbits
• Entered India in August 2022
• 25 stores and expected to grow
• Gen Z/Millennials as the target market
• But, do Indians drink coffee or tea?
 Tim Hortons

• Why is the Indian market attractive?

• Be you at Tim Hortons (Always fresh. Always Tim
Hortons)
• Ideal self and private self and public self and so
many others
• Should they serve coffee or tea in India?
• Should they serve Croissants or something more
what Indians normally eat (Samosa)?
• Encourage selfies on Instagram
 Global Brands
• AC Nielsen criteria to be considered as a global
brand
– Billion $ sales, presence in all regions, 43 brands qualified
– Beverages (Coke, Pepsi) Snack foods (Pringle’s, Lays. Doritos) Pet foods
(Pedigree, Friskies), Tobacco, Battery, Hair care, etc

• What is a global brand anyway?

• What is a brand anyway?
• What if I were to say that there are no truly global
brands
– How about technology brands?
– How about industrial brands?
– How about services?
Why people are not buying Venezuelan
chocolate
• El Rey – processes some of the best Cacao
beans in the world – purchased by Belgium
and Swiss for their chocolate
• But El Rey is not available outside Venezuela
• Country of origin and authenticity
– Swiss chocolate/watch, French wine, Italian sports car
• GI status – what role does it play?
• Infosys – what issues do they face?
Why people are not buying Venezuelan
chocolate
• How do you handle the COO issue?
– Stick to colonial history
– Build a brand for the long haul
– Flaunt your country of origin
– Downplay your country of origin
– Hide behind a front country
How Perceived Globalness creates value
• Movement towards having global brands
• Why globalization of brands?
– Globalization can yield economies of scale
– Appeal of globalization increases as
» Similar segments of consumers
– Globalization speeds up the time to market
» By reducing time-consuming local modifications
– Consumer preference for brands with global image over local
competitor
» Even when quality and value are not objectively superior
» How can a brand become perceived as global?
– But how about consumer ethnocentrism?
 Local versus Global Brands
• Country’s level of economic development
• Degree of symbolism of specific product categories
• Brand quality and brand prestige on purchase
• Local (relative to global)
– Direct and indirect effects on purchase
– Role of global connectedness
Real differences between Local and Global brands

• Local brands
– Represent many years of marketing activity
– Well known in the market
– Build strong relationships with local customers
– Provide better response to local needs
– Flexibility of pricing strategy
– Possibility of responding to local/international competition
– Possibility of balancing a portfolio of brands
– Possibility of responding to needs not covered by international
brands
– Possibility of fast entry into new markets
How do we measure brand globalization?
• Whether the pattern of brand image dimensionality
– is similar across international markets
• Cohesiveness of brand image perception in global market
– Sensory, utilitarian, symbolic, and economic need as key dimensions
• Global brand image cohesiveness
– Summation of Euclidean distances
– between the column score of image dimensions of the home country (i.e.,
initial market)
– and that of foreign countries
• Nations clustered on the basis of column scores, and the
resultant clusters correspond approximately to
– groups of countries that share
– similar levels of economic development
– cultural dimension
– or geographic distance
 Doing Business on a Global Basis

• Local – think local, act local

• Global – think global, act global
• Glocal – think global, act local
• Global strategy
– Uniform product, uniform message
• Glocal strategy
– Uniform product, customized message
– Customized product, uniform message
• Local strategy
– Customized product, customized message
 What do we mean by Glocal?
• McDonald’s has beer in Germany, wine in France, mutton pies
in Australia and McSpaghetti in Philippines and Maharaja Mac
and Veggie McNuggets in India
• Fanta offers country-specific flavors. In Romania ‘Fanta
Shokata’ is available based on the socata, which is a
traditional cordial made from elderflower. In China consumers
enjoy green apple Fanta, while Portugal and Spain have
watermelon Fanta
• For the Chinese market, Danone changed its product base to
a less lactose based yogurt, because the Chinese are lactose
intolerant
• Louis Vuitton bags are sold from stands in shopping centers in
Hong Kong and United Arab Emirates because these markets
accept this as a valid method of distribution.
 What does global branding mean?
What does a branded product consist of?
Brand elements Product elements
(Marketing elements) (Production elements)

Brand & sub-brand names

Positioning Product formula or design
Imagery
Product form, packaging Product form, packaging
Fragrance, Color Fragrance, Color
 What does global branding mean?

• Standardization of brand elements?

• Standardization of product elements?
• Standardization of both?
 The rationale for global branding I
• The world is homogeneous--or getting there
• Isn’t there heterogeneity even within a country?
• Yes
• But provided you segment the markets in the right way
 Rationale for global branding II

• Retailers are increasingly global, and buying globally

• Simplifies ordering
• Global category management:
– manage the category the same way everywhere.
• Quantity discounts.
• Global retailers want to deal with global
manufacturers
– Global brands belong to global manufacturers
 Rationale for global branding III

• Cost savings from production & marketing standardization

– On the production side
– Centralized production with high economies of scale
– But transportation costs may be higher/lower
– Fewer SKUs. This translates to longer production runs, fewer set-ups.
What are the benefits on the marketing side from
global branding?

• Cost savings from branding and marketing the

product identically in every country.
• Positioning strategy
• Execution
 Positioning standardization.
Where do the savings come from?
Execution standardization. Where do the savings
come from?
 Is going global the answer?

• Economies of scale may prove elusive, especially

for media
• Forming a successful global brand team can be
difficult
• May be difficult to impose global brands on all
markets
• Key question is
– What should the brand do?
To summarize, the cost savings from global
branding may be elusive because

• The same product or positioning cannot

be used in different countries
– because consumer tastes actually differ
• Even if positioning is the same
– advertising executions have to differ because of
language and cultural differences, etc.
 Why is best practice different among
countries?

• People’s tastes are different

– But sometimes taste differences not as deep-rooted as
marketing research seems to imply.
• Cultural differences
• Marketing institutions (e.g., distribution
channels, marketing methods) are different
• Competitive conditions (e.g., local competitors
are different in the German auto market versus
the English auto market) are different.
• Histories are different
 Is marketing best practice less country-
specific for some product categories?

Yes
– Technology-driven products
– “Modern” product categories
– Utilitarian products not subject to cultural variation
– Industrial products
– Travel industry
 Are some brands more amenable to global branding
than others? If so, best-practice doesn’t come into the
picture

• Brands that have global appeal as representing

a particular country.
• The country image is the common appeal.
– Clearly Canadian
– Marlboro
 Other global branding stories

• One Toy Fits All

• eBay closes Japan site
• Beer brands in China
• It is a Grand Latte World
Same brand name, and product, positioned
differently in different countries

• Ariel

Germany France Spain India?

Premium Premium Premium Premium

Care Moderate-high High- Best in cleaning

performance performance
But Tide is also
in the market
Same product, branded and positioned
differently in different countries
• Product sold as Persil in Germany:

Germany France Netherlands India?

Persil Le Chat Grune Persil Henko

Premium, high- Premium, Premium, Premium

performance care “green”
Mr. White also
 Lenovo

• Four brand architectures

– Master brand solution
– House of brands (1) (2)
– Hybrid solution (Diesel 1 2)
– Lexus/Toyota solution
• X41 Tablet (2005), Think Pad Z60/X60
(2006), 3000 family (2006), ThinkStation S10
and D10 (2007)