How to Improve Client-Agency Communication During Market Expansion

In recent years, the globalized nature of digital marketplaces has sparked reasonable fears of social, creative and cultural homogeneity—a sort of mass standardization of what we purchase and how we do so. In large part due to the reach of social networks, trends rapidly expand from a single post to a global audience, and anyone in pursuit of this virality knows that you’re most likely to achieve it by riding an existing stylistic wave. A byproduct of this shift is false optimism on the part of consumer brands in the midst of market expansion. The thinking goes that the built-in global reach of digital channels—marketplaces, social media, traditional media—precipitates global demand. Reality is often much starker: Demand for a brand just expanding into the U.S. is, more often than not, approximately zero. Search data for branded keywords shows it plainly. For a brand that did, say, $100 million in global revenue in 2021, the discovery that 2022 will be a year of building awareness from scratch is nearly impossible to stomach. Still, success—both financial and in terms of your client-agency relationship—depends upon it. Here, the proper mix of politics, sensitivity and, of course, data will save you. Celebrate your nuances The distinction between experience and applicable experience is an important one. Recently, a client in the French cosmetics market pushed firmly against a digital-first U.S. launch strategy, arguing they’d never had to do so before. However, with some 60 international brands on the roster, at least half of which we’d launched in the U.S., we were the ones with the playbook. In the absence of first-party data of our own, we leaned on the client's knowledge to develop content for digital channels. An open recognition of our blind spot made him more accepting of his own—a tit-for-tat approach that gave shape to a more collaborative, more understanding relationship. Is Your Brand Living Rent-Free in Consumers’ Minds? Brands over categories Frequently, when I ask an international brand for their first-year U.S. revenue forecast, I receive the same equation: local revenue multiplied by the relative size of the U.S. market. This is where category data becomes problematic, even if it can be a helpful sub-argument to demonstrate the extreme saturation we’ve experienced over the last five years. Instead, point to brand-specific data, particularly branded search volume across search engines and key platforms—indirectly and uncomfortably demonstrating, in the plainest form possible, the absolute lack of consumer interest. I’ve found it to be the only means by which brands with dominance in their local markets, even those with annual revenue in the nine figures, can understand that the market size is an opportunity but not a guarantee. Protect the brand One fact remains true: A brand’s values—the positioning and framework upon which it has been built—must be understood and maintained. To cut through the noise, every brand needs a point of distinction, and the truer that point of distinction—the deeper and more foundational it goes—the more likely a brand is to succeed in doing so. Our job as marketers is to evolve the presentation and positioning of those values to make them digestible to the American consumer. Take, for example, a brand that sources ingredients from Tuscany: To an Italian consumer, the name has a familiar association with farmland. To the U.S. consumer, however, only the name will be familiar. Storytelling will need to start at the beginning: Tell the history of the region and produce content on the ground, then gradually narrow the lens to the product itself. This approach has the added benefit of not only celebrating the cultural differences that persist in light of this market homogenization, but also making clear to your clients that your tactics are not counter to their values. In fact, your tactics are simply the means by which you can do their story justice, reiterating the importance of aligning around a shared end goal but trusting in your local expertise to carve the right pathway to reach it. While this formula isn’t foolproof, an open recognition of brand perception and values allow us to cultivate and shape a more collaborative relationship with our clients and customers. 2 Legacy Brands Adapted During the Pandemic to Grow Their Revenue. Here’s How