A guide to avoiding pitfalls in overseas marketing

How popular are brands going overseas? According to customs statistics from December last year, private enterprises' imports and exports increased by 26.7% in 2021, an increase of 2 percentage points. Among these figures are the popular beauty brand Huaxizi, as well as the clothing brand SHEIN that started overseas and became popular in China. In addition, new tea drinks and trendy toys have also been the most active force in going overseas in recent years.

Is the overseas outlet suitable for all brands? What are the pitfalls to avoid and points to pay attention to? We have sorted out and summarized some content here for your reference and discussion. If you have similar troubles or opinions, you are welcome to leave a message in the comment area.

The reasons why most brands go overseas can be summarized into three categories: opening up new markets, growth in overseas demand, and increasing brand premium space. Compared with overseas, Chinese brands have inherent advantages in supply chain and logistics. Therefore, when domestic competition is fierce, overseas becomes a strategic step for small and medium-sized brands with a firm foothold and stable rear to seek growth. At the same time, with cultural exports and the user acceptance and strong product strength accumulated by early overseas brands such as Huawei, Xiaomi, and OnePlus after years of deep cultivation overseas, "Chinese brands" are becoming a quality assurance and trust label in the minds of overseas users.

According to the "Global Beauty Consumption Insights Report" released by Twitter in 2021, the three most important factors influencing overseas users' purchase of beauty products are product quality, cost-effectiveness and reputation. Therefore, the demand for Chinese products in overseas markets is becoming increasingly strong. In addition, when a Chinese brand succeeds in overseas markets, whether it is reported by foreign media or sparks heated discussions on social media, it is undoubtedly an endorsement of the brand and products, and going overseas is tantamount to "gilding".

However, going overseas is not a smooth road for all brands. Some misunderstandings still exist, such as choosing the wrong overseas location, incomplete localization, wanting to dominate the world with one move, and having sales but no brand. What are the problems with these misunderstandings? What are the manifestations, consequences and solutions? Let us discuss this through some cases, data and observations.

1. Choice of sea destination

Southeast Asia is the most popular destination for brands going overseas that is most frequently reported by domestic media. Leaving aside policy factors, big brands do not choose these locations casually, but because of the similarities in culture and living habits, thereby reducing some communication costs for brand promotion.

According to the latest market trend report from Mintel, an internationally renowned market research and consumer product innovation research company, Southeast Asia has been listed as a "future market" that the global cosmetics industry focuses on developing. It is expected that by 2025, its market size will exceed US$300 billion, among which Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand have the potential for growth of more than 120%. The reason behind this growth rate is that the platform still has traffic dividends and the market conditions for channel dealers have high entry barriers.

As we all know, the per capita GDP of the Southeast Asian market is lower than that of China and the United States, and user consumption is in the stage of pursuing branding. At the same time, cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Shopee, Lazada and AliExpress also provide convenience for beauty brands to go overseas. So we see a number of well-known domestic brands such as Perfect Diary, Juduo, and Huaxizi expanding overseas one after another.

In 2020, Perfect Diary began to focus on its overseas business, and by the end of May 2021, it won the title of Vietnam's beauty sales champion, Singapore and Malaysia's cosmetics sales champion, and the top sales title in the loose powder category in the Philippines market; Juduo entered the Southeast Asian e-commerce platform Shopee, and its products are sold to Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Japan.

For the same reason, new tea brands such as Heytea and Nayuki’s Tea prefer to open stores and launch new products in Japan. Since both are Asian countries, products that sell well in China will most likely be accepted and liked by local people in terms of culture and aesthetics. In addition to opening stores, the brand also remembers to adapt to local conditions and get closer to consumers through localization from products to marketing.

HEYTEA JAPAN's Twitter interface HEYTEA has launched "durian" ice cream and "salted egg yolk" ice cream in Singapore in response to Singaporeans' love for durian. Nayuki's Tea's first store in Japan is located in Dotonbori, one of Osaka's most prosperous commercial districts, known as the "World Kitchen". It has launched three new "Japan limited" products - Matcha Custard, Butterfly Pea Custard, and Takoyaki bread based on Osaka's specialty "Takoyaki", which are designed to be small and exquisite, in line with the small and exquisite characteristics of Japanese food.

The above are just rough assessments and are not absolute. There are also many small and medium-sized Chinese brands that are very popular in the European and American markets. For example, on the Black Friday Shopping Festival in 2021, the product was sold out on Huaxizi’s official website, and its overall sales doubled consecutively, which shows that American users are very receptive to the product. In general, the most exported categories are milk tea, beauty products, trendy toys, and clothing. It is recommended to start testing the waters in Asia, where the culture and living habits are similar to those in China.

However, brands still need to realize that, due to cultural differences, hot products in China may not necessarily be hot abroad. So whether it is a hot product going overseas or a small or medium-sized brand with low popularity going overseas, they should enter the target market after research.

2. Completion of localization

With users in 220 countries and regions around the world, SHEIN's Google search volume in the United States is more than three times that of Zara, and its popularity is second only to Amazon. SHEIN is known as "China's most mysterious billion-dollar company" and has become an unavoidable topic for brands going overseas this year. In the view of AdChina, SHEIN's success is inseparable from its localization strategy from products to promotions. It is also through this communication and interaction with users that SHEIN is able to gain accurate insights into the market and users.

In terms of product design, SHEIN closely follows European and American trends and local aesthetic characteristics to design products, and hires local people who are familiar with local consumer preferences as employees, thus realizing the localization process of integrating production, education and research. On the marketing level, the establishment of an independent website enables SHEIN to have first-hand user operation data, maintain sensitivity to consumers from clothing design to price, and guide brand decisions.

It also actively uses social media, especially cooperates with bloggers with multiple user dimensions and traffic levels such as KOL and KOC to try on products, thereby establishing touchpoints with users on multiple platforms, and constantly communicates with consumers through activities in fan communities to create a sense of brand presence.

Data shows that as of the first half of last year, the number of SHEIN posts with related tags on Instagram reached 3.05 million, and the number of interactive posts reached 62.67 million. During the same period, the number of interactive posts on Facebook also exceeded 2.45 million. Through the official "Influencer Alliance Marketing Program", influencers only need to post topics or video and picture content related to SHEIN products on social platforms to get a few free items or a small commission. The brand's choice of influencers ranges from tens of millions to thousands of fans.

Malcolm Yam, general manager of SHEIN India, once revealed to the media that they have established a very solid partnership with big influencers while maintaining close cooperation with a large group of small influencers. SHEIN has collaborated with around 2,000 influencers since entering the Indian market in 2018, and the company is contacting potential partners almost every day. Here is a point of knowledge: there are two main models for overseas brands: independent sites and cross-border e-commerce. At this stage, the more mature brands basically have both, while beauty brands have as many as five overseas expansion models.

In Europe, the United States and other countries, local brands often use independent official websites as the main platform for online promotion and online sales. A standard brand independent website often includes self-operated B2C shopping malls, user communities and other sections. However, for small and medium-sized brands, it might be a good idea to start with cross-border e-commerce, that is, to test products and familiarize themselves with the marketing environment through existing overseas sales channels, such as selling on localized platforms such as Amazon.

In addition, directly opening offline stores is also a way, as is the case with trendy toys and milk tea. For example, Pop Mart, which has made efforts both online and offline. The premise of this strategy is that the trendy toy category needs a sense of scene to stimulate consumers. According to public information, Pop Mart has currently entered 23 overseas countries and regions including South Korea, Japan, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Singapore, and its products are exported to more than 50 countries and regions. In countries such as South Korea and Singapore, due to the good market foundation, Pop Mart has formed a team to carry out direct sales business. In more countries and regions, Pop Mart has opened business authorization and launched robot stores, pop-up stores, and physical stores.

Overseas fans gathered outside Pop Mart's first store in the UK. SHEIN is a typical representative of independent stations. The background of this business model is that the shopping habits of overseas consumers are different from those of domestic platforms such as Taobao and Douyin. Many overseas clothing brands have their own official websites, which not only exist as the main display channels, but also are very complete from purchase to ordering. Compared with being restricted by the third-party platform's framework rules such as algorithms, charges, promotions, etc., independent sites are obviously easier to collect real user data to guide brand decision-making.

3. Don’t send out the same manuscript multiple times

Many years ago, when it came to overseas marketing, many companies would publish unified PR materials to various media outlets, or book the big screen in Times Square. Nowadays, it seems that such a "one-trick pony" approach is actually a waste of resources. Fortunately, domestic brands have realized this and have begun to enrich brand expression through creativity, content and other forms.

Earlier this year, Ms. J, who is known as the "overseas Li Jiaqi" and has more than 10 million fans on YouTube, conducted a 25-minute product review of Hua Xizi, showcasing the experience of using a variety of Hua Xizi products including highlighters, lip masks, eye shadows, lipsticks, etc. According to the blogger herself, the content was not an official collaboration, and she was just attracted by the gorgeous Chinese-style product design by chance. However, the unintentional act of the top internet celebrity still became a major marketing event, bringing huge exposure to the brand.

Some media summarized that after the release of the video, the traffic of Huaxizi's overseas official website was directly pulled up to the level of the brand during the Black Friday promotion, among which the "Love Lock Lipstick" certified by Jeffree Star had the largest sales increase. Similar to the domestic situation, overseas media have developed different characteristics and usage habits and preferences, requiring brands to provide different customized content to communicate with potential users.

A relevant person in charge of Huaxizi once told the media: "Huaxizi formulates corresponding content strategies based on the characteristics of different overseas social platforms. For example, YouTube is more suitable for publishing long video materials such as brand TVCs, Twitter is mainly for information release, TikTok's content is more diverse and creative, with both makeup tutorials and expert short videos, etc., and Instagram is more brand-oriented and visual style. At present, Huaxizi is relatively active on both TikTok and Instagram. In general, it is adjusted according to the attributes of different social platforms and their users."

This multi-platform layout does not disperse the brand's resources, because overseas traffic can be connected, and platform fans can be further directed to product pages through official social accounts. This also means that the accuracy of the content of each channel will affect conversions, which undoubtedly puts higher demands on the quality of brand content.

According to an industry insider, from the perspective of overseas social media platforms, beauty brands have opened accounts on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, etc., and regard social media marketing as an important part of their overseas market layout. Among them, Tiktok's conversion rate is better than Twitter, reaching three percent. In addition to beauty and cosmetics, some basic common sense can also help brands make decisions for all product categories.

According to the summary in the article "Comparison of the Advantages and Disadvantages of the Four Major Overseas We-media Platforms" on Bangyue.com: YouTube has a close relationship with Google, so YouTube videos and keywords have a high weight in Google searches. Using YouTube for promotion is beneficial to SEO, and YouTube's conversion rate is relatively high. Among them, 70% of viewers will have a willingness to buy when they see promotional content on YouTube; Instagram, as the king of the graphic field, has a higher probability of placing orders through mobile phones than YouTube and Facebook. Compared with the first two, the marketing methods of the up-and-coming TikTok are more diverse and the audience is more receptive.

4. Branding becomes a top priority

As the product strength of domestic products improves, building brand power is becoming a top priority. A brand name is not equal to a brand. A good brand has brand value, connotation and story. Such brands will also have a high premium and can bring high commercial returns to the brand based on establishing an emotional connection with consumers. The national brand strategy has been launched for several years and has been quite effective. When small and medium-sized brands are unable to copy its model, social media is actually a shortcut to narrow the gap and shape brand awareness in disguise.

It is recommended that brands improve both internally and externally, that is, strengthen their own community building and maintain product quality, because the latter is gradually becoming the aspect that overseas consumers care about most. For example, Hua Xizi has accurately grasped the line of "culture". From product design to communication content, it concisely and clearly conveys the origin and inspiration of Chinese culture, which is actually a very good way to shape the brand's competitiveness. Of course, this is determined by the brand's own genes, and it just happened to coincide with the rise of domestic products.

"National Trend" is not a panacea and is not necessarily suitable for all brands. It still depends on product positioning and brand strategy. Externally, brands need to collaborate with teams that have a deep understanding of overseas markets in order to achieve the expected marketing results. This is why overseas marketing has become an important part of new business growth for advertising companies and MCN agencies in the past two years. Although a professional team cannot guarantee frequent hit products, it will help the brand complete its original accumulation to a certain extent, and form a synergy of marketing effects from image, cognition to value output.

For MCN agencies, a professional content production team can ensure the fit between the brand and the content to the greatest extent, realize the diversification of brand marketing content through creative forms, and make the brand's "advertising" look good. In addition, the centralized control of celebrity resources undoubtedly saves communication costs for brands. Overseas influencers mostly communicate through emails. If one influencer connects with dozens or hundreds of brands, communication will inevitably be delayed. The participation of third-party organizations can help brands develop appropriate implementation plans.

However, the choice of an agency is not entirely safe. When the agency's structure is imperfect and the brand's needs are not communicated in place or in a timely manner, it will also affect the accurate output of the content. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the background of the MCN and require the other party to have mature operational experience and management capabilities. In terms of influencer selection, the effectiveness and value of original content are becoming more prominent, and cross-domain and cross-cultural cooperation has also become a direction for innovation in brand marketing content.

Under the wave of Chinese cultural output, cross-cultural video content often creates dramatic conflicts due to cultural differences, thus forming interesting interactive performances. Due to the diversity of the blogger's audience, it can have the commercial effects of cultural output, popular science and grass-planting. "Old Girl A Ke" is one of them.

As a Chinese living in the UK, @老少女阿珂 initially became an internet sensation because of her creative content series “Britain Under the Tongue” and was even interviewed by CCTV as a representative of the Chinese during the Spring Festival. The content of her videos is mainly aimed at helping British families understand Chinese culture and life, covering food, beauty, lifestyle and ghost animal areas.

When milk tea was all the rage in China, she used Yongpu coffee to make drinks in her video introducing Sichuan cuisine, successfully winning the hearts of the protagonist's parents-in-law. Through a family dining story, Chinese people saw the British people's funny reactions to spicy food and gained entertainment, while British audiences learned about a Chinese brand and its different ways of eating and consumption scenarios. The advantage of being familiar with the cultures of both China and Britain enables these bloggers to promptly capture creative content that is most likely to be transmitted and understood across cultures. As a result, they are becoming the golden key for Chinese brands to unlock consumer awareness in overseas markets, in addition to being the social accounts of top stars.

Another similar lifestyle blogger is AriaandBrandon, who started by sharing the sweet daily life of her foreign boyfriend, as well as skin care and dressing. They are loved by netizens for their good looks and ideal lifestyle. At a time when women are pursuing higher quality, @AriaandBrandon helps overseas netizens discover new products through thematic promotions and helps start-up brands gain some recognition.

In conclusion, globalization and branding are definite trends in the future of going overseas, but the road to going overseas for small and medium-sized brands is destined to be more difficult than that for large brands. When the budget is effective and resources are limited, social media seems to be the easiest place to achieve results. This can be seen from Hua Xizi to SHEIN, because good content has no fixed template and creative forms are not restricted by production costs. As long as the insight is accurate and the expression is creative, there is a chance to become a hit.

In summary, if small and medium-sized brands want to be successful in their overseas expansion, it will be a long-term task to maintain their presence on social media and understand the needs and trends of users and the market. After all, one way for a brand to not be forgotten is to never leave the poker table, and "social media" happens to be the poker table that can be shared by users around the world.

References: "Brands are accelerating their overseas expansion, C-Beauty is going global", Tencent.com "Understand brand overseas marketing in one article", Everyone is a Product Manager "Big and small Internet celebrities "two-pronged approach", SHEIN's marketing strategy has begun to circulate independently", Ennet *The pictures in this article are from the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact us to delete

Author: Adgate APP

Source: Adgate APP (ID: adquan_2012)