“How to prepare the company to enter the foreign market?”, — write: epravda.com.ua
Globalization of markets is a continuous process. For entrepreneurs around the world, building a strong and resilient brand is interconnected with entering new markets, expanding influence and audience. For Ukrainian businesses, foreign expansion is the main requirement for survival. After the Ukrainian market came to a standstill at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, brands that saw the need to fight and expand abroad gained rapid development. Our example – a Russian missile that destroyed a warehouse with a 9-month supply of products – became an impetus for action. However, for all businesses, the main reason is diversification, which leads to stability. After all, entering new markets helps not to depend on the domestic economic situation. Plan for the future I recommend determining the general course of expansion for the next 2-3 years. And then transform the path, dividing it into steps, choose a plan for the next year. Advertising: Read also: Expansion strategy: what Ukrainian businesses need to know before entering the US market It is worth taking into account that abroad, for example, in the US, from agreement to a year may pass after the actual signing of the contract. Add here more time for establishing contacts with potential customers, product selection and production, certification. The path to a new market is a long game. Give up what doesn’t work, even if you really want to Move in all directions at once is a mistake. For a high-quality result, you need to learn to refuse. Advertising: After all, expansion into foreign markets is a resource-intensive process. You will have to invest financially, fight with competitors, win a new audience. Doing all this simultaneously for many markets is difficult. We did not have a clear strategy in 2022 and were simply testing the markets. This is an experimental, very interesting, but not cheap method. Therefore, I advise you to first analyze the market capacity, the audience and its mentality, the relevance of your product. That is, whether the market will be interesting to you economically, as well as whether your products will interest a new consumer. Outline potential markets for yourself in advance and hit the target precisely. For example, we chose the US market because the country’s economy leads the world with a GDP of $23.315 trillion, the audience is similar to the Ukrainian one and likes to buy and test new products. And the USA sets the trends, so we had to be there. How to build recognition and loyalty to a brand in a new country Getting to know the brand is task #1. However, the most important challenge is to build a lovemark, to ensure that the values of your band are heard and accepted. If the first contract can ensure recognition, then the work on loyalty is never finished. You need to constantly strengthen your brand, make high-quality products and sell them to new partners, expand the number of points, constantly feed the audience’s interest in the assortment, surprise with novelties. You can’t stop! From my own experience, I will say that US retail chains may initially offer a smaller network of test points, but if you show a cool result and the demand for your brand is high, they will be happy to increase the number. This year we entered one of the largest US retail chains and initially received 500 points. Soon we were offered to expand to 2500, to go to Canada. How to choose a new product that will work? Creativity + mathematics in a pair give a cool result. I advise you to follow trends, but not in a niche, but in general. To look more broadly, to analyze how the audience’s preferences are moving and what they might be in the future. Your goal is to identify audience pain points and close them. Now Generation Z is coming to the fore – they influence values, set trends in social networks, and actively defend their own beliefs. And soon this generation will be the most solvent. On the one hand, Generation Z encourages simplicity and authenticity, on the other hand, self-expression. At the heart of all this is honesty. Honesty, true values not in words, but confirmed in actions – should be at the core of your brand. Then Generation Z will love you. Actively involve the team in planning Achieving high results is possible when the team supports the leader 100% and is equally interested in the execution of the strategy. And that is why communication, discussion, and joint planning are extremely important. For example, I really like big stratsessions. This year we allocated 5 full days for strategizing. Why so many? Because stratsession is an in-depth process and consists of several stages. It is necessary to determine the weak points in the company that prevent it from moving forward, set new goals and develop a plan to achieve the goals. It is important for a leader to offer his vision to the team and be ready to hear feedback. Next, the necessary processes can be broken down into blocks and employees can be asked to process them, turning them into projects. I also recommend holding brainstorms – this allows the team to release all ideas and thoughts, get to know each other better, feel the value, create something new. Such meetings make it possible to develop coherence. The life hack of a successful brainstorm: write all the ideas on paper for a few hours, and then try to create ten more. As a rule, all banal and simple ideas come up in the first hours, the last ten ideas can be golden. I recommend fixing the top-level strategy for 3 years, but it is worth checking with the plans every quarter. The basis of stability is diversification. And therefore, entering new markets can make your brand resistant to any economic or political processes. In the context of the upcoming new year, I would definitely advise brands to look abroad and try themselves in foreign markets. This is a good opportunity to test your strength, improve certification in accordance with foreign standards. Scaling is a long game, and the results of long-term work can only be evaluated later. However, it is an inspiring evolutionary process for the brand, a logical stepping stone on the way to long-term success.