29/06/’20 – If your company is struggling with an international development project, there are many possible ways and each one has different characteristics. There are realities, but also organizations of the chamber system, that promote participation in trade fairs, there are direct contacts with distributors and multi-brands, there are the openings of a retail space, in the form of a pop-up, a temporary or a stable point of sale.
The path to bring the brand to one or more foreign markets can be measured according to two fundamental variables:
– the time necessary for the company to see the first results;
– the costs necessary to support one or the other work program.
The goal of any business is to reduce both of these variables, therefore it is important to study and implement the best method, trying to develop activities that are coherent and well organized, able to grow the brand on the market, affirm it and make it sought after by customers as much as possible.
One of the most interesting aspects of an international development program is the possibility of initially working according to an in 3 stages:
To frame this scheme of work , we look carefully at Department Stores as commercial contexts with high attendance of potential customers, as points of reference in the commercial logic for the debut in a foreign market, therefore as a place dedicated to the promotion and presentation of the commercial advantages that my company can put in place.
How do you proceed in that case ? The presence, initially also of a desk, in a department store it allows you to start a presentation process to the foreign market, with reduced investments because the buyers will in turn make an investment in our company, once this has been positively evaluated. There is an application and approval phase to be passed by the buyer, Sometimes this may require changes to the packaging or to the product itself and this step can take a while’ of time. But if the product is placed, it is possible to benefit from a presence recognized and approved by a large and well-known operator in the sector, therefore being able to align your communication with that – certainly impactful and imposing – made by the department store.
At this point, it is on the foreign market with a great partner, the company is able to play a very interesting game in communication, being able to count on a qualified presence to direct potential customers in order to physically make contact with the product and with the corporate values summarized in the image and philosophy of the brand, also combining a social-digital strategy for the management of profiling and loyalty relationships.
Subsequent developments on the market can be linked to an evolution (as space and as position) inside the department store. A presence in a festive period with a pop-up store, even small, becomes – in a key moment from a commercial point of view – a double presence on the market, offering the possibility of “play” with specific promotions and with different assortments in the two sales contexts. The department store itself often offers tailor-made solutions for holidays or special celebrations, with shared presence in the window, rather than additional corners or totems in the common areas, thus allowing to animate the image of the brand with reduced and limited investments over time.
Communication remains a fundamental asset in this type of strategy. There are three levels of communication to be carried out, in parallel:
corporate communication, what the brand communicates on its official channels in relation to the project in question and in the context of customer loyalty activities.
promotional communication, mainly managed through social channels, therefore very slim, fast, it can also be thought of with solutions “live” in some moments, both in store, and in other contexts created in the meantime on the market.
in-store communication, with promotional material, specific events, promos agreed with the department store.
With such an organized strategy, it is possible to aim for international development by balancing costs at best, resources, times, taking into consideration that a serious and structured project can never be managed in an improvised way, at no cost, in a short time.
For information about your project:
www.mito.org.uk/start-project
management@mito.org.uk
