Consumers across the world are becoming more global than ever before. We are increasingly travelling for work / leisure, migrating to new markets and integrating with people from diverse backgrounds. This impacts brands that serve these consumers as people expect an experience either better or at least at par with what they are familiar with.
Having worked with various leading brands over the last decade, one question always comes up in Glocal (Global+Local) strategy discussions…
Should markets dictate brand experience decisions based on their local knowledge or work cohesively across markets to deliver a uniform brand experience globally?
This is a highly debatable subject as many of us would feel that, in order to act locally, we must deliver an experience that is tuned and sensitized to local sentiments. I agree, that must be the approach, but it also needs a broader vision to ensure that brand does not get diluted by being portrayed incoherent across markets.
To take this into context, I would like to pick on the example of the brand website experience, an extremely important moment that matters in any consumer journey. I wanted to determine how leading brands approach this subject. Do they let each market define their ideal consumer journey and experience or they leverage a standard template approach. Is it an Adopt & Apply model or Adopt, Adapt & Apply model or a Refer & New Build model?
So to start our analysis, let us review the top 10 leading global brands (According to the Interbrand 2016 report). I went on to the websites of each of these brands across multiple markets to determine the similarities and differences in the experience across their websites. Interestingly 9 out of 10 brands ensured they delivered a uniform experience across markets.
Similarities
- The same UX (look and feel) globally
- Same set of Capabilities
- Reused content
- Standard and predictable user journeys
Differences (Not necessarily a difference as such, but more of adaptation / localization)
- Localized human / product imaging
- Language / Translations
Let us look at some examples below,
- Apple : Undoubtedly a premier in brand experience, Apple maintains the same template across the world. Every Apple country website, irrespective of which market it serves, has a uniform consumer journey. One more interesting observation is that Apple uses just one domain name www.Apple.com and then serves country specific versions through www.apple.com/in/ (India) or www.apple.com/uk/ (UK). This helps them save money on unnecessary domain names, hosting & maintenance costs as well. The biggest advantage of this approach is that it gives Apple ultimate control on its global experience, it is uniform, predictable (in a good way) and more efficient.
- Uber : The Uber website is primarily a B2B or B2E (Business to Entrepreneur) focused asset. Although they do deliver capabilities for end customers as well, the website targets the wheels of their business, Drivers. End customers or Riders are encouraged to use the mobile app. Uber also follows suit with Apple by delivering a uniform global brand experience through one parent website www.uber.com and country specific versions under the parent domain.
- L’Oreal : This is where I saw a great amount of localization by infusing imagery and content suitable for local audiences. Although, do make a note, the overall content architecture, content and design template did not change much. Some images were adapted for a market but the core essence prevailed and was pretty clear. Check out the following links and you will see what I mean https://www.loreal.co.in/group/company-overview/key-figures.htm and http://www.loreal.com.tr/grup/sirkete-genel-bakis/onemli-rakamlar.htm. Both pages have the same content but use slightly different coloured images (which say the same thing). I did notice that the brand used different domain names for each market, which could be because of various reasons. I would avoid speculating through them for now (maybe in another blog post), however would definitely recommend the brand to move to a uniform domain name and use country specific versions as extensions to the core domain.
- Colgate : Another iconic brand sold in over 200 countries around the world delivers a uniform template and content across the world with some language and image localization. Teeth whitening article in Australia is the same as in India. Consumer journey across the assets being uniform is such a blessing for both consumers and brands.
Uber App Experience : Going back to the Uber example, this time I am looking at the Riders experience. Irrespective of where you board an Uber, whether it is in Japan, Europe or North America, the App is uniform. You dont see a different version for Japan attuned to Japanese customs.
Now since we know that the majority of global iconic brands strive to deliver a uniform brand experience, let us look at some of the reasons behind, why they do it:
- Unified consumer experience & improved life time value
- Faster turnaround, Quicker Go To Market and initiative roll outs
- Increased Re-usability of capabilities, templates and content
- Reduced Costs (Penny saved is penny earned)
- KPI tracking & bench-marking
- Knowledge Sharing across markets
Now looking at some examples of the not so uniform brand experiences
Well, I have a long list, but I wont publish it because that is for me to know and you to evaluate. Look at the websites of your favorite brands across the world and look for what is similar and whats different. If you are a brand custodian and hold stake in critical decisions, look at how your brand is portrayed across the world and take a conscious decision, whether you follow global standards and best practices or you tread through to create your own path.
So why does this happen?
Again this is a controversial topic, but the above image does summarize it aptly. 🙂
This article was originally published on Linkedin