Emerging markets such as India, China and Brazil are becoming more important in the growth agendad in many multinational firms.  But are the marketing strategies local enough?

Developing economies are becoming increasingly diverse and competitive.  The marketing strategies needed to succeed in these countries need to be focused and targeted. China, for instance has roughly 150 cities with at least one million inhabitants.

The right city clusters in China to choose to market to will be a very important issue.  Factors such as industry structure, demographics, scale and geographic proximity will be able to help a company boost the effectiveness of its distribution networks.

In China, culture is a major factor.  Reputaion is key and word of mouth is a very important and useful marketing tool.  Relationship are also paramount to any business deal.  Also, marketing activities are in limited reach of national media because  even though China has over 3,000 television channels, only a few are available across the country.

When KPMG went public in 2001, their new CMO needed advice on heading a new marketing campaign.  Cisco who was formerly a client of KPMG and was now partnered with KPMG to become a strategic parner in technology marketing.  Their relationship became very beneficial to KPMG.

Now as a public company, KPMG had a chance to tell the world their story and communicate their brand. This in essence would bring them leads to new contracts and new relationships.  They thought it was vital to have the right relationships of tapping into the knowledge of their Board of Directors.  The relationship with Cisco became even stronger after a Senior VP of Cisco was put on the Board of Directors.

Since the internet was the best opportunity to be strategic to their campaign, they also were able to get another senior manager from Oracle to sit on their Board of Directors.  Going forward they were ready to begin their advertising campaign.

It is essential for every company’s marketing strategy to build their global brand.  That is also the case in B2B.  The internet and globalization has made a way to standardize product offerings, but it is important to remember that for each international market, there are differences in preferences and tastes.

Modification and adaptation is essential in producing a global product line, however a successful product will keep the company’s goals and values in mind.  The differences in social structure, language, religion and education will reflect on the marketing strategy in each market.  The best way to make sure you are making the right adaptations is to consult an advisor who is native to and is currently living in that country.  Adaptations can be costly so choose wisely.

Don’t forget to also make sure you remember product and technical standards of that country may be different, so make sure your product lines will work with the local laws. Also, International communication and what is considered rude is different from country to country.

Internet brought about many conveniences for companies. However, it also brings about change that sometimes creates challenges.

The idea of Internet and E-Commerce has changed the way businesses operate. With e-commerce booming along with the global business sphere, there are challenges for B2B companies. Relationships among these Global B2B companies becomes imperative. However, the most challenging aspect of this would be how to keep these relationships in tact on a global scale. Companies have to be on their game 24/7 in order to keep up with the world.

Not only does the time frame of the support system change, but the idea of culture also comes into play here as well. Companies need to realize the diversity they are dealing with when playing on the global field. Things related to culture can make or break a relationship.

As more and more companies grow to a global scale, the more diverse the communication gets. You are no longer dealing with just US Citizens or only Chinese people. Marketing channel communications becomes more diverse with different cultural factors that need to be taken into consideration when dealing with distributors and third party vendors.

So what does this mean for businesses? It means that if communicators do not understand the different cultures that are being faced, it may bring about difficulty when conducting business. This is especially true when dealing with e-commerce business.

Companies may want to consider training for the marketing department on culture. This can give the team members a better idea of who they are dealing with. It will also give them a better understanding when negotiating deals and such for meeting distribution goals.

Here are some tips on improving your Search Engine Optimization when creating an online Global B2B Marketing Campaign.

- Find out what search engines are most popular in that target market.  For instance, Baidu is the number one search engine in China and is also the third largest in the world.

- Pay attention to translation. This is done best by working with native speakers currently living in the country

- Remember to localize search terms.  Use local dialect, vernacular, cultural references, current events and regional word preferences.

- Stay educated about choosing the right technology for your target audience and keeping best practices

- Pay attention to the trends in web development, social media and mobile media.

Not too long ago, Intuit used viral marketing in order to get the attention of small business owners. They wanted to engage their users. It was a word of mouth campaign intended to spread the word about their QuickBooks software. They also had another campaign where they encouraged customers to enter into a Rap contest to promote their TurboTax software.

I think this is an interesting marketing tactic considering it’s very different from other B2B marketing strategies. It is also probably a more effective tactic because people are more likely to trust the recommendations from their friends and colleagues versus billboards and TVs. However, I think the important thing to note about a viral B2B campaign is the call to action. It should not be just about how many will hear about it, but rather how many will do something after they hear about it.

Firms should remember that in some cases marketing strategies for business-to-consumer (B2C) can also be useful for marketing B2B.  This is why Superbowl B2B ads have shown also to be quite effective.  The viral nature of Superbowl ads creates that kind of call to action that firms need to get brand awareness.

This blog features a study comparing the levels of customer experience management at b2b, b2c, and b2b&b2c companies. The findings are that all three sectors place high importance on the customer experience factor. The b2b companies have less formalized customer experience programs and less involvement of the senior level executives. Overall, the author argues that b2b is lagging behind b2c companies in giving the customers an experience.

I think customer experience plays a bigger role when it comes down to global business because there are more competitors and more players in the market that sometimes makes it more difficult to differentiate. Giving clients the customer experience they expect can be a differentiating factor for b2b companies who are competing in the global market. It plays an even bigger factor when dealing with the high context cultures, where they expect more than just business. They want that relationship and trust before conducting business.

I found this blog post on b2b marketing budgets, which discusses the trend towards more inbound marketing during this digital age. More b2b companies are heading towards inbound marketing tactics and decreasing outbound strategies. As research shows, the inbound marketing is more effective compared to the traditional advertising ways (direct mail and print advertising). As stated in our earlier post, website design and management proved to be most effective for b2b marketing. Many b2b companies put a lot of their budget spend on these very effective inbound marketing tactics. In addition, research also shows that the b2b companies are investing more in the websites, email marketing, and social media campaigns and decreasing their spend in print advertising, trade shows, and direct mail.

I think it’s smart that b2b companies are engaging in inbound marketing tactics. For one, it’s more affordable. Two, it’s more targeted towards the right consumers. And third, it’s the trend. It’s where people are, it’s where the customers are.

However, there is argument out there that even Internet marketing is becoming a nuisance as traditional marketing is. E-mail marketing is losing customers’ attentions because of the amounts of junk/spam in their inbox. So what if internet marketing becomes less effective? What next? I think search engine marketing will still hold onto its strengths for the fact that many use it as a resource for things ranging from answers to questions, researching products, etc. I think b2b companies should definitely continue investing in PPC and SEO in order to keep up with the business.

Websites can be a major tool for B2B Marketing especially in the global perspective.  Many factors must be researched to make sure the website design is focused for your target market, especially for B2B. There has been much more research done about website design preferences for B2C websites but it is equually important for B2B relationships.  Factors such as design and content preferences can vary by country.

B2b companies tend to be smaller or medium sized companies with a strong cultural identity.  That is why websites should be customized toward the customer’s preferences in context, content, design and communication style.
The purchasing style can consist of a single purchase or long term exchanges.  The choices a company makes for the website can impact a b2b international relationship.  Things such as creidibility, reliablilty, quality and commitment to meeting delivery dates can be inferred from the website design.  This is why researching preferences is key.

Not only is language important in B2B marketing, Web site characteristics such as information accessibility, web site interface, web site navication, company information, contact information, product cues and transaction cues can determine if a sale or relationship can be made with a customer.  These all can be tailored to the preferences of the country in which the website will be shown.  Low context, more interactive web sites are prefered by western cultures, while high content, explicit communication is prefered by easterns cultures.  There are so many dimensions of customization and preferences that market research must be made prior to designing a website for international B2B marketing.