16 Aug The Importance of Branding for the Export market
With a small domestic market of 23 million people, it is important for Sri Lanka to look at a higher economic growth through exports. With the increased access to the Internet, the barriers to expand to International markets are demolished. Therefore, there are limitless opportunities to grow a business globally. Keeping the brand in the center of the plan is a pivotal strategy when expanding internationally.
The lack of market information, buyer expectations, intense competition from International players, and insufficient knowledge of trends are numerous challenges companies face when they reach International markets. Many exporters tend to work on short-term strategies that are product-focused and sales-driven – produce something you can easily manufacture, find an order, fulfill the order, and close the sale. In a globalized economy, this approach only drags an exporter into a price war, with little room for long-term development, product differentiation, and recognition. The goal of every exporter should be to move from demand and supply exporting to market-driven, long-term, and sustainable business success.
The million-dollar question arises. How do we differentiate ourselves from the competition in a global context? One of the crucial differentiation factors is Branding. To be at the top of the choice-list of the consumer, branding is the fundamental element adding value to an ordinary product. Branding is more than just the visual and physical characteristics of a product or service but a holistic approach of all functional promises made by a manufacturer to the customer.
Let us understand why Branding plays a big role in the export market and how we can work on overcoming the lack of brand awareness.
The importance of Brand awareness
If people are aware of your Brand and your Brands’ name :
· They are familiar with your product, have heard about the brand, and are more likely to trust you.
· They are more likely to look for your brand when they look for a related product or service.
· They will most likely buy from you as they have already heard about you, trust you based on your brand’s values, visibility and reputation.
Therefore, branding is very important both in B2C and B2B in the export markets.
Lack of branding in the export market
Most companies have a great brand presence in the home markets. In a small market like Sri Lanka, it is relatively easy to create brand awareness through word of mouth and digital mediums.
The problems arise when local Brands try to Internationalize their businesses. Suddenly, the reputed brand in the local market is no longer known. As a result, low trust in the brand and search for the brand is low.
At this stage, the brand website traffic from the chosen export market is very small and a considerable reduction of visitors to the website resulting in low leads generated by the website. Furthermore, even in a given scenario, the website is found, the brand lacks credibility, thus resulting in hampering lead conversion and sales.
Understanding Branding and how Brand awareness helps a business is very important when developing a marketing strategy in the market that you intend to export to. The business should be asking questions such as :
· The level of your brands’ awareness in the target export market
· Where does your brand stand with the main competitors in the target export market
· Brand search driving website traffic in your home market
Increase your brand awareness in the Export market
If you are a new company and a Small to Medium Entrepreneur, usually your Brand awareness is relatively low in the new International market you operate in. Therefore, it is important to figure out and embed strategies to the Marketing plan to increase brand awareness in the new market. Building the brand and the awareness of your Brand should be done sustainably and is very time-consuming. Therefore, let’s look at some quick strategies a Brand can adopt as a short-term counteract to build brand awareness.
Brand awareness Strategies in the Export markets
Acknowledging the fact that your brand awareness is low, it is important to work on boosting the Visibility and making your Brand name familiar in the new market amongst the target consumers. The following strategies can be adopted swiftly :
· Build your social media presence with the target consumer
· Create content that optimizes your Search Engine Optimization, so people find your social media and website when they look for the product or service you offer.
· Use Online Advertising such as Social media ads, search ads, and display ads.
· Work with credible influencers who promote similar products and services you offer.
The above tactics are all to do with the visibility of your brand found online and the aim is to get your brand name seen. The target should also be to increase organic visibility in the new Export market.
About the author – Nayomi Handunnetti
Nayomi Handunnetti is an Award-winning Entrepreneur & Marketing specialist, Fitness Enthusiast, Speaker, Blogger, Global Goodwill Ambassador & Mentor @ Women Empowered Global.
Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/nayomihandunnetti/
Email – nayomi@thesiren.lk