What Are Global Marketing Strategies? (Types and Examples)

Updated March 13, 2023

Creating successful global marketing strategies for a business is important when expanding your reach to other regions. There are many ways to execute a successful strategy, each having its individual strengths. Understanding the different types of strategies can help you determine how to reach customers across the globe. In this article, we review the different types of global marketing strategies, explore how they can affect the outlook of a business, and explain how these strategies lead to worldwide expansion.

What are global marketing strategies?

Global marketing strategies are a part of an overall business plan. It is the process of adjusting the marketing strategies of a company to better fit the needs of potential customers in other countries. Entering a new international market can give a company access to a new customer base, which can increase company revenue. This may also have several other benefits, such as reduced labour costs, access to additional resources, and the ability to diversify risks.

Creating a consistent brand that feels familiar to everyone is a priority when expanding to international markets. When executing your marketing strategies, some aspects of the business can remain the same, while other aspects can be greatly affected. For example, the name and logo can likely remain the same, although some businesses choose to change these aspects as well. Your marketing approach may also change considerably. For example, the messaging, advertising, and PR approach can change in every new market.

Effective global marketing

If you implement strategies effectively, it can benefit the bottom line of a company in various ways, including better public perception and increased profit margins. Embracing new markets can help you discover business potential and allow for new opportunities and stronger international relationships.

It's important to know your target audience. Understanding who needs your products, and how to deliver the messaging in a way that grows the company, is the core of global marketing. If a business chooses not to expand internationally, it can face immediate competition from international companies that are extending their presence.

Tips for developing a successful global marketing strategy

A global marketing strategy can act as a guide for the future and bolster a business' success rate in other locations. It can help a business expand internationally to increase sales around the world and generate more publicity. To develop a good global strategy, it's important to recognize how a business's products or services can perform in global markets. Consider the following tips when creating a global marketing strategy:

Know your audience. Familiarizing yourself with your customers' regions of origin and why they are choosing to support your products or services can help determine where a business is in higher demand.
Set achievable goals. It's important to determine what kind of customer retention you can realistically expect in every region where you expand. By setting specific goals, you can use them as benchmarks for your progress.
Recognize your competitors. As you expand internationally, it's important to identify other businesses that sell similar services and products. Understanding the culture of local competition in every region and how they approach the market can help you develop a better strategy.

3 types of marketing strategies

There are many approaches to global marketing. The three key types of global marketing approaches include:

1. Standardization

In a standardization strategy, you sell the same products in every location. A standardization strategy keeps all of the company's control centralized rather than delegating decisions to other local markets. Some of the benefits of a standardization strategy include the ability to develop products quicker and easily coordinate activities across locations.

Imagine that you run a luxury purse company, and are choosing to expand the business on a global scale. Using the standardization strategy, you may sell essentially the same purses at every location. Less variation in your products/services is important with this strategy. This strategy allows you to keep your products consistent in every market.

2. International

An international strategy involves importing and exporting products. Using an international strategy can allow you to work with foreign suppliers and sell to customers around the world while keeping your physical premises within your home country. Typically, international strategies still focus on the company's home market while doing some business overseas.

This strategy incorporates ideals from many countries. For context, the physical production of purses would still occur in your home country, but you would still export some purses internationally.

3. Multinational

When you use a multinational strategy, you can cater your products to each individual market. This includes physical business locations and staff based in these various locations. The key benefit of using a multinational strategy is the ability to alter the business to individual locations.

Using the multinational strategy, you create different luxury purses for each location that you sell. More variation in your products/services is important with this strategy. This allows you to adjust your purses to appeal to different markets. Prices may also vary depending on the demographic or the demand for the product in a market.

Utilizing e-commerce to your benefit

E-commerce enables companies of all sizes to expand internationally with the help of good global marketing approaches. The internet alters the way people shop and the way business owners are marketing their products. E-commerce allows companies to easily expand into other markets and reach a wider range of consumers without having a physical store in every region. Although expansion is more easily accessible, it creates a competitive market. Brands prove their products or services worthy to gain customers' trust.

Through social media, websites, and live chats, businesses can adopt new consumer shopping habits and learn what's trending. It's important to create an online presence for potential customers to learn about your brand. Plus, online platforms store data and can track results to improve the relationship between the business and the consumer. You can use online data from your platforms to refine your marketing campaigns and specify your goals. There is more to global marketing than simply selling your products or services internationally, but keep in mind that e-commerce relies heavily on trends and is a competitive field.

Localization and global standardization strategies

When selling products or services worldwide, some companies choose to localize their brand by adjusting their content and name to better fit the local consumer expectations. Whether you choose to use a localization or global standardization approach in your global marketing strategy, it's important to recognize the differences and understand how they can benefit the overall growth of a business.

Localization

The goal of localizing your strategies is to create an experience for customers that makes them feel like the company personalizes it for them. Determining what connects your customers is the most important factor in localizing your strategies. Whether it be your website, marketing materials or the actual product or service you sell, it's important to make consumers feel like it's designed and developed in their country of origin. This form of marketing may rely on instilling a sense of national pride in some cases.

Global standardization

A global standardization strategy is the ability to use consistency in every aspect of your brand. Using consistent messaging across your brand can create trust between the consumer and the company. Although global standardization can oftentimes cost less since it requires fewer campaigns, it's important to recognize when a global standardization strategy can be the most effective. Global standardization requires universal appeal despite cultural or locational differences. If there are no barriers in terms of understanding the product or service you're selling in each country, then a global standardization approach can be a good strategy for a business.

Growing with a business

To continue the growth of a business and maintain positive customer relationships, you can continually strive to create new products and services and enter new markets. By adjusting your brand in ways that follow contemporary trends and cultures, you can access more diverse markets. Marketing strategies set a business up for success in the future. Ultimately, a strong strategy incorporates the needs of all demographics beyond the needs of each country. A global marketing strategy usually consists of:

Consistent brand names, messaging, and packaging
Similar products and services
Coordinated pricing

It's important to keep an open mind when developing a marketing strategy. Whether you choose to use a standardization, international, or multinational approach, it's crucial to make sure that the company's team is adaptable and willing to change directions. Adjusting your global marketing strategy throughout the course of business expansion is vital when creating a campaign that's appealing to international markets. Developing a global marketing strategy means enhanced competition, so with a willingness to accept change, you can earn your place across the world.

What Are Global Marketing Strategies? (Types and Examples)