In order to remain competitive in today’s business environment, companies must operate on a global scale. Engaging the global marketplace helps companies accelerate growth and take advantage of an array of opportunities including access to a new consumer base. Gaining access to a new consumer base helps companies establish new revenue streams and gain a competitive edge against competitors.
What Is the Global Marketplace?
The Cambridge Business English Dictionary describes the global marketplace as, “All the customers or possible customers for a product or service in all areas of the world considered together.” In other words, it’s the sum of all the people in the world who want or might want your products.
John Schuyler, of Hartford writes, “On average, businesses that export grow faster, generate more sales, create more jobs and even pay higher salaries than those that are not involved in international trade. By having a global market of customers, a company can ride out regional economic instabilities.”
In some industries, the global marketplace is rather defined. For example, airlines use the same jets in every airport across the globe. However, for most businesses, the global marketplace is better defined by an amalgam of local marketplaces into one larger market.
How to Engage the Global Marketplace
To engage the global marketplace, businesses should focus on investing in local markets with a global strategy. The key to a good global strategy is to remain flexible when entering new markets while maintaining some consistency in your brand.
Here are some examples from well-known businesses about how these global strategies work:
- Coca-Cola tastes the same no matter where they sell it, but they change their marketing and packaging depending on local expectations and customs.
- Starbucks keeps to their roots with coffee, but they also offer different foods depending on local tastes such as offering dragon dumplings in Hong Kong.
- Kentucky Fried Chicken has branded itself as a Christmas treat in Japan and people line up to order KFC for the holiday.
Flexibility means more than changing how you market your products or what you offer. It can also mean learning from the markets you engage with. Companies can benefit from working in other regions by bringing international processes and technology back to their domestic company to improve operations.
While the United States uses chip cards as a payment method, many countries have designed more efficient systems to pay for goods and services. For example:
- Contactless cards are used throughout Europe. Rather than swiping a card through a card reader, users wave it past a sensor.
- Alipay, a division of Alibaba, generates a QR code that can be used to pay for a range of things. Visa also uses QR codes in countries like India, Kenya, and Vietnam.
- As India de-monetizes, Paytm has offered a cashless system for paying for nearly everything, and it has more than 100 million users and 60 million transactions a month.
Opening local sites is a key way to both understand the market you are entering and to glean innovation from it. There are many ways to establish a local presence in a new country, from establishing a legal entity to working with a global HR parnter.
Contact our team to learn more about your global expansion options!
