Developing a global strategy

Today we live in a global economy in which the time taken for people to move between continents has been significantly reduced and in which Internet and other connections make instant connections possible. The business response of large business organisations has to recognise that they now operate in a global market place and to develop appropriate strategies. A global strategy is an organisational plan that takes into account these new global realities. For example, in food manufacture companies like Nestle, Kellogg's, and Cadbury Schweppes they have developed global distribution and marketing networks, based on powerbrands i.e. market leading brands that are recognisable in nearly every country in the world. Key aspects of global strategy include: 1. Treating the global market as the domestic market. 2. Creating a global marketing mix, which at the same time recognises regional and national differences, such as differences in language and tastes. 3. Creating global production and distribution systems, e.g. superfactories covering major areas of the world. 4. Concentrating on powerbrands - the most successful brands and products. Because the global market is so large there are substantial benefits to be gained from economies of large scale production, marketing and distribution. Rather than producing thousands of different products it makes sense to narrow down the range to a much smaller number in order to support these brands across the globe.

The future of TV and advertising

There's a great deal of excitement around digital being the future of TV and it sure has its place in a 360° advertising campaign but globally TV still counts for the largest slice of ad spend and agencies' business models are built around these production margins. In order to delve into this we first need to divorce content and platform. Content has evolved significantly in the past 10 years, and right now, the TV platform is undergoing a major revolution that will change consumer behavior. This means that brands and ad agencies must adapt their thinking now and adopt new skills if they want to be as strong in a post-interruptive era. Brands would need solid systems and platforms in place that align their content, products, promotions and data coordinated across a multitude of platforms. While this major shift won't happen overnight it will happen, and it will happen faster and with more impact than it did with the print industry because the infrastructure is all there - more ready to go now than it was when the web took out the newsstand.

What is your brand's social identity?

Does a brand need a social identity online, like a person needs a personality? If you were to remove your company logo from every piece of content you made, could people still recognise it to be yours?' The reason this question is necessary, is because every time a brand enters the social media space, people can play around with it and change it, but also because social media encourages attention deficit - a brand doesn't have even 30 seconds to get its brand message across. In order not to be tuned out by consumers, brands are now creating "strong, authentic un-logoed content that still conveys the brand identity" . There is no doubt that marketers are still struggling with the fact that they don't own their brand message in the realm of social, as social media users dictate the social rules, depending on the culture of users on each platform."Social rules are dictated by the culture of the users on each social platform, and they will decide if your content is welcome or not. Your adverts will rarely gain social reach, but your content might if it's relevant. The trick now, is to make your brand stick out, by having a defined and consistent approach to social content.