As much as the Internet empowers, it also overwhelms with information and choice, to confuses and even intimidates. That's why the role of brands in building trust loyalty is so critical to the web experience. It is also why recreating success in the online world is such a challenge.
The competitive edge will go global to global marketers who recognize and embrace what we call "the 5 Cs" global brand management online:
1. Control. Who controls the online channel at the corporate level? How is regional control over local sales marketing balanced against corporate branding imperatives?
Building brands has always been about control - of time and space, frequency and audience, n most of all, the message. In other words, controlling - in its totality- the brand experience. The globalisation of the web is perhaps the most dramatic example of force obliterating control. Globally, these complexities multiply across divisions, product lines, markets and agencies. Multiply that again across language, culture and border-and yet again scores if websites, each using different technologies. Controlling brand identity in this environment demands extraordinary flexibility.
2. Consolidation. How can redundancies be squeezed out of the global marketing process and underlying infrastructure? Can work flow be simplified and unified on a global basis? How can resources and marketing assets be deployed effectively across both online and offline sales channels?
Nowhere is the brand chaos more evident that in this aspect. All too often, numerous campaigns, local executions, one-off production efforts and off-strategy branding slip out into the marketplace without knowledge of the CMO. (Chief Marketing Officer).
Consolidation restores control - unifying budgets and teams is the first step to effecting the organizational and cultural changes necessary for a successful globalization effort. Utilizing the Web as the central hub to consolidate data, assets and processes is the most logical and cost effective solutions.
While the web may traditionally be a technology challenge, CMOs must lead the way to ensure that all decisions solve marketing's business requirements.
3. Communications. How do regional marketing teams around the globe stay informed and participate in the go-to-market process? How do you orchestrate marketing efforts on a global scale? How do you simplify access to crical marketing information and expose ongoing strategic communications? The efficient use of marketing resources and budgets, particularly on a global scale, calls for expanded insight, overview, and communication by all parties in the process. A centralized communications hub eliminates most obstacle to integration.
This orchestration of multiple marketing initiatives and communications efforts requires simple, fast and accurate views of all marketing components and activities across the company, and a shared vision of marketing goals and branding objectives. This level of transparency and open communications will foster creativity and encourage new initiatives across all regions and results in rapid adoption of emergent best practise.
4. Culture : How do you allow for local variances in message, voice, and design without breaking underlying systems, creating a management night-mare, and fragmenting the brand? The seemingly contradictory forces of unification and centralization of brand processes on the one hand, and almost unlimited flexibility in global marketing processes and supporting technologies. Cultural relevancy exerts a powerful impact on brand perception and loyalty worldwide. The CMO can provide a vital function by demanding strategies that are globally viable from its advertising agency, in order to ease the rapid adoption and execution of these strategies from its regional marketing teams, while also providing a solid foundation for the brand online. The result is a communications platform that reinforces the integrity of the brand, while making it culturally relevant and thus stronger and more competitive, in all key global markets.
5. Creativity : How do you get maximum returns from your marketing resources regionally if the brand team spends all of its time cutting and pasting translations into webpages and recruiting corporate marketing efforts?
Given the pressures of accountability in marketing, it has never been more imperative for CMOs to focus on ROI. More disciplined approaches to global brand management save time and money, and create new levels of marketing efficiency.
Streamlining global brand management liberates time and resources for marketers to be the best marketers they can be. After all, the end game is snot about reducing costs so much as it is about enabling big ideas and igniting creative sparks that drive growth and build business.
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