Hitting the BRICs - B2B in Emerging Markets

If your company is international, or wants to be, you’ve probably heard the term BRICs as the “place to be”. BRIC is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China, although it’s become a euphemism for all the emerging economies with similar profiles.

Simply put, these economies are growing at breakneck speeds and look like they will for some time to come. For many companies who are topping out in competitive and slower growing mature markets like the US, these emerging markets look like potential growth engines for years to come.

In some ways, marketing into these emerging economies is actually easier, although not without challenges. Prospects in these new markets are not the targets of consistent marketing, and as a consequence, not as jaded and much more open to great marketing messages. However, the lack of available data for targeting, and infrastructure challenges, like inconsistent mail and slow Internet speeds, impede even the best campaigns into these countries.

Here are a few things we’ve learned from implementing campaigns in these markets:

• Be ready. Extending your business into new markets involves more than just reaching out and waiting for the orders to roll in. Run a simulation from first contact to sale and support and make sure your business can handle the new geography. One common pitfall we’ve seen with clients: Business applications that can’t handle double-byte data. Something as simple as the inability to enter a new customer’s name into your systems can halt the best laid plans.
• Pick your targets first. More often than not, the limiting factor in marketing to BRIC countries is the difficulty in targeting the right prospects. Direct mail lists? Good luck. Online targeting? Hit or miss. Existing events? Sporadic. As the most difficult component, we recommend starting with the “who” part of the equation, then building your campaign around that available audience. That way you can structure a program that addresses what may turn out to be an eclectic mix of industry associations, hand built lists, local events and other limited sources.
• Build in cultural review. Don’t make the mistake of simply reproducing your US campaigns for emerging markets. People are different everywhere, and too often what works one place will completely fail somewhere else, or worse, be offensive. Unless you have in-market representatives or partners willing to help review your concepts and do translations, allocate budget to outsource to an expert cultural review and translation partner for each market you plan to address.
• Make it personal. Appealing to prospects on a personal basis is a very effective tactic, and even more effective if you already have some brand recognition. While in the US we’ve learned to tune out the torrent of constant marketing, prospects in emerging markets are much less saturated, and therefore more likely to consider your message. “Big International Company has specifically selected YOU for a special program” is much more impactful to a Brazilian businessman than his US equivalent. Mix with telemarketing and local events for the best impact.
• Offer strategy. No one is immune to the lure of a good offer — many of the same marketing rules apply when approaching emerging markets. However, fulfillment can become a lot more complicated, depending on how many countries you are addressing. Even Canada and the US have very different laws governing sweeps and contests — you’ll need to review with legal counsel to ensure compliance. When delivering whitepapers, welcome kits or other ‘hard’ collateral, it’s usually more cost effective to produce all your materials at one provider, then ship bulk to a partner in each country for in country mailing and delivery.
• Leverage the web. Global marketing would be much more difficult without the internet. Luckily we can expect most B2B prospects in BRIC markets to have access, particularly when we’re talking about larger businesses and enterprise sales. Keep in mind connections are often slow, but it’s absolutely appropriate to use the web for signup and registration, and to use email to cultivate prospects long term.

One last thought: Be sure to give yourself the runway to succeed. It may take an effort or three before you really start to see results, but the long term potential of these markets more than compensates for the difficulty involved in getting started.