Building strong global footprints
In the East, global brands are seen as daring, high quality and on-trend, whilst local brands are seen as reliable, popular and down to earth. By contrast, global brands in the West are seen as distinctive and high-performing leaders, whilst local brands are seen as trustworthy, straightforward and obliging.
In the WARC Best Practice paper, How global brands resonate across cultures, Sue Mizera and Alessandra Cotugno, senior executives at Young & Rubicam, observe that to be relevant in global markets, brands must "immerse themselves not just in the language and habits of a culture but in its value system, vernacular, idioms, humour, customs, beliefs and philosophies."
Changing tone of voice to fit a new market can be risky, a path to losing brand identity. Discovering how your brand can add value to a local community is a more genuine way to approach these potential new customers. As local governments and councils struggle to fulfil the needs of their communities, there’s an opportunity for brands to step in and create a positive and lasting impact on a more local level.
When UK laundry brand Persil launched Dirt is Good, the aim was to give parents insights into the intrinsic value of play. Since its launch in the UK in 2005, the campaign message has grown to multiple global markets from Brazil to Turkey. In Vietnam, the campaign had a direct impact on education policy, with the government subsequently supporting compulsory playtime in schools.
The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer found that 87% of global consumers believe business should place equal weight on societal issues and business issues. The better a brand brings its societal purpose to life in everyday operations, the more successful both business and social impact will be.
In our multi-cultural world, global brands need to embrace local relevancy in order to build strong cultural footprints in new markets around the world.
Due to their low income, 8 million Colombians cannot join the banking system. This means they’re unable to save or even purchase certain essential goods and services. To help, telcomms provider Tigo-Une created the Payphone Bank; an operating system that turns Tigo-Une Payphones into micro-saving devices, which work like digital-era piggybanks.
When a user punches in the code #555, the central VARS system takes over the pay phone. Next, the user enters their ID number to access his or her Payphone Bank Account. The menus are voice activated and allow users to add coins, pay in instalments, buy public transport tickets, and pay for utility bills.
The objective is to give millions of low-income Colombians the possibility of saving, allowing them to pay for products and services and access micro-loans. This, in turn, lets them increase their quality of life, build credit history and ultimately join the financial system.
Agency: Grey, Columbia
Whirlpool, a brand that prides itself on celebrating the value of everyday care, launched Care Counts, a program to see if something as important as school attendance could be impacted by something as simple as laundry. They installed washers and dryers into schools across America to give at-risk students access to clean clothes. As part of the program, they created data collection devices for each washing machine that linked to individual students. To help tell their story, the brand filmed a documentary spanning a full year of the program. The film revealed how Care Counts impacted not only attendance, but the academic and social well-being of students as well.
Agency: Digital LBi, Chicago
Boost Mobile’s brand mission is to help their customers be heard, particularly low-income and working-class minorities across the United States. Voters in these neighbourhoods have fewer voting stations and are more likely to have to wait in line for hours. The Boost Your Voice campaign was a unique partnership between local governments and the mobile provider. Utilising their storefronts, digital and social channels, POP, events, influencers, and custom apparel, Boost Mobile created a campaign that gave unheard voters a louder voice. In Boost precincts, voter turnout increased 23%. A get-out-the-vote event hosted in partnership with Chance the Rapper and Turbovote led to the highest early voting turnout in Chicago history.
Agency: 180LA, Santa Monica
AP Thailand, the leading property developer in the country, wanted to portray its belief that ‘space can change one’s life’ and demonstrate how efficient the company is at utilising spaces in urban living environments. In some of the poorest areas of Thailand, the property developer transformed small wasted spaces into a series of irregularly shaped football pitches that fit perfectly into each of the local areas. The brightly coloured pitches broke the traditional limitations of the football game whilst keeping the pitch symmetrical to provide fair play. The idea received global PR and was selected as 1 of 25 best inventions of 2016 in TIME.
Agency: CJ WORX, Bangkok
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