Using An International Branding Firm To Boost Your Brand Globally

Founder & CEO of KUOG CORPORATION which specializes in Logistics for the DoD and private sector for MRO, PPE and material support.

Brands are quickly realizing the need to take their products and services online and reach a global marketplace. Having access to a global marketplace and servicing can be a challenging task to take on if, prior to Covid-19, your focus was based on a local or regional clientele. As an entrepreneur, aspiring entrepreneur or a business executive with oversight into growth, it might be beneficial to consider partnering with a branding firm to handle global clients based outside of your current country as a tactical strategy.

Adaptation and growth are what successful firms do well. Sometimes this means engaging in a branding firm that knows their craft and is able to make a message resonate and have an online presence as an authority in that domain now and for the future. Is your brand positioned in a way that someone in Australia, Singapore or New York could see the value in your product or service online, one that speaks to their customs, ethics and localities? What type of messaging will you consider so that your brand stays authentic while not being insensitive to those whom you are seeking to reach?

Our firm is partnering with an international branding firm, and these are some of the options we identified as being critical for our growth and reaching a global marketplace for the sustainment of the company.

Empathy is becoming a major pillar in business interactions. Brands in general need to pay attention to how they speak and engage with one another and their customers. No longer will companies be able to survive with insensitive messaging and branding that doesn’t convey true care and understanding of those they service and support. Firms needed training and consulting on this before Covid-19 and need it even more now. -PAUL GUNN

A company seeking to go global and establish a reach online should ensure their agency and top-down management is focused on the empathetic messages being sent. If you are going to reach a demographic in an area you have never been before, then you are going to need to verify that your agency’s collective mindset is focused first on the buyers in the areas you are seeking to reach.

Culturally Specific Content

If you don’t send the right messaging or gather the correct details on your locality, you can hurt your brand online and in your current service area. Sometimes the best strategy is to engage a partner outside of your area of expertise that has proven itself on a global scale and is willing to help your firm no matter the size. The right firm will be able to speak in nuances of unwritten rules for communication in surrounding areas.

It is critical to ensure you find a partner that understands how to develop content and uniquely position your firm and media to an audience who, as a group, thinks and views things culturally different. Some areas are torn from historical differences, so messaging on a global scale to target these audiences needs a tactical strategy with an understanding of the demographic along with your global target reach. The firm should be up to date on current events on a national scale and how your messaging, along with your content timing, could affect your overall brand.

Lessons Learned

We found that engaging an INTERNATIONAL BRANDING AGENCY has adjusted our consulting offerings and is allowing us to increase our expertise to help further our brand. During the process to find a firm, we assessed each company’s track record in their local area along with other countries they worked with. The public portfolio of the work that a firm does and showcases makes it easier to align with the one you want to engage with. For example, we noticed that the social media and ads created by the firm we chose matched the messaging we wanted to pursue. Finally, review the work a firm does for the country you are located in. When we checked the completion of work done for the brands our partnering firm represented, it matched the public persona for the agency and made the selection easier.

Your messaging is critical to the growth of online commerce. Business experts suggest building your brand and then selling, so it pays to get this global area correct. The best firms have a working knowledge of your market with proven results to show for it. Select an agency whose leader exemplifies empathy and authenticity in their actions, align this with their portfolio of work and references and then combine their total packing price and weigh it against the value of the outcome.

Timing in business is important, and now is a great time to revamp your branding to grow globally. You should be able to recognize if you have found a good partner during the discovery phase of engagement. If they can’t show empathy and understanding to you and your brand — the very thing you are looking to deliver to your global clients — how are they going to deliver the right message you are engaging them to send?