Going Glocal

The relatively recent introduction of the term ‘glocal’ into the business world, has lead to some great opportunities. Glocal generally means that you work with a global mindset and reach, but, accommodate the cultures, ideals and needs of local audiences.

Businesses can now easily spread their services and products into new environments without having to worry about hefty expenses. In short, ‘glocalisation’ involves keeping the essence of the wider brand, whilst tailoring needs and messaging to individual markets. Take the famous golden arches of McDonald’s. This is an internationally recognised symbol. However, you can expect different variations of the menu, depending on where you live. For instance, feast on a McAloo Tikki burger in India or McKroket in the Netherlands – here the famous chain take popular flavours to reach out to local customers. This is glocal.

How easy is it to become glocal?

With the introduction of some simple solutions, reaching out to that global audience doesn’t need to be just a pipe dream. Here, we explore the best (and easiest) ways to become glocal.

Team availability

Being able to reach out to customers no matter where they are, requires teams to be available 24/7. Or does it? How about allowing on-demand access, rather than actual human interaction? For smaller companies, putting together on-the-ground teams is not feasible. But, you can have a platform where customers interact with products, personalise items and customise printed collateral without a single person being involved. Now, you are one step closer to being glocal. Companies can now easily invest in a unified storefront, which is seamlessly integrated with Magento and Shopify. Moreover, to speed up processes, utilise a simple drag and drop system from an email or file transfer system. This automatically highlights errors in a PDF file. As such, there is no need for multiple links in the communication chain. And, processing for international orders becomes faster.

Geo-marketing

Promote new products, highlight branch openings or reach out to the local community. Whether you’re a global brand or an SME, interacting with local audiences is a necessity. Now, you can easily produce targeted and personalised geo-marketing campaigns. No matter where you are in the world, create on brand printed collateral to entice and invite local trade.

Brand protection

As a brand, staying visible and recognisable has probably been years in the making. So, ensure this is not wasted when branching out to local areas. Having multiple teams located around the world can be hard to manage. But, you can ensure everyone is creating collateral within restricted brand guidelines. How? With a simple templating tool. A Cloud-based portal, allows teams to produce marketing material, promotional products and locally relevant collateral. Still on brand, but within restricted elements, upholding brand guidelines.