Global Marketing – Marketing to Customers Ready to Buy

By Rodney Hiel

In today’s economy, marketing expenses face great scrutiny in attempt to ring out the last sale of an anemic western consumer. With skyrocketing costs to acquire new business, companies are tempted to spend more to attract customers in their home market. But those companies which excel in difficult times locate new markets and find new customers who are buying.

Although western consumer markets continue to be the world’s largest, emerging markets, along with countries whose governments have defined stimulus packages, should be the first place to look. Through leveraging the purchasing power of both governments and consumers, this sets the stage for creating a healthy, dynamic consumption base for your products.

Getting to these new consumers in a cost effective manner may be easier said than done. Perhaps previous attempts at international development efforts were fruitless. Fortunately, today’s global business environment has changed immensely over the last few years and offers several new ways to market products abroad. World events are dramatically changing the rules of the game of international market development. When strategically managed, these changes can make reaching new consumers much easier.

Traditional methods to export have well defined expenses, risks, and development paths. By taking a strategic perspective of using your internal competencies and assets along with leveraging all global options to get to your international customer, this perspective can accomplish the same goal at a much lower cost and reduces risk.

In a recent McKinsey Quarterly study (4/16/09), 80% of executives state their strategic-planning processes are significantly changing this year. Many will place a heavier reliance on scenario planning, and conduct a more rigorous approach to approving projects and capital spending. Other significant changes include the creation of strategies that are more dynamic, focus on the short term, and include more analyses.


With the current business environment commonly described as a sour lemon, a strategic perspective to global marketing can create the lemonade to refresh your organization and sustain your operations until western markets rebound.

See part two for the next step...

Rodney Hiel is the Managing Director for Asia Business Consulting. Minnesota based Asia Business Consulting strategically researches, develops, and tactically executes a proven process to create cost effective strategies for market entry in today’s Southeast Asia and China.