Global branding: it isn’t as easy as it sounds

When you think about big international companies, it seems like they have global figured out.  For my job, I’ve had to travel the world and whether I’m in Peru or Russia or England, Coke looks like Coke, Subway like Subway and Channel like Channel.  Just get the logo right and colors right and your good, right?

If only it were that simple.  And in some ways it is.  One of the things that makes those brands so iconic is they have distinctive logos and color schemes.  And you know when you see a Coke product in a slightly off script that it’s a knock off just as you do the distinctive coupling of the Channel “c” if it’s real or not.  But branding is much deeper than that and while the logo may be a visual trigger, the communication as a whole has to be consistent to maintain your brand.

This is very challenging on a global scale because different cultures have different esthetics and you want to connect with your audience in a relevant way which, unfortunately, doesn’t always coincide with your brand.  Let me give you an example.  About two years ago we rolled out a global campaign.  Our brand goals were to start educating people on the company and create a positive association and we wanted to do it in a credible and authentic manner.  For us in the West, that meant real life, real situations and images that support everyday real experiences for our audience.  Soon after the campaign launched, our China office took the campaign and ran with it, but in an effort to localize it, they altered the imagery to include a faux blue sky with a generic grass field.  Pretty much the antithesis of authentic and real.  They sent it in to Brand Review and we were suddenly faced with the challenge of deciding is this actually on brand in their culture and are we okay with it as a global company.

The obvious answer (at least we thought) was no, it wasn’t okay, this didn’t convey the realism and authentic nature of the company that we wanted to establish.   But what they countered with was – in China, most of the major Fortune 500 countries were using this type of brand imagery, so if we wanted to convey global, trusted brand, then using this imagery helped our communication more than trying to look authentic and risking looking small and untrustworthy.  It forced us to have to face a tough question: what is more important, global visual consistency or global message consistency?

In the end we allowed them to use their imagery but it kick started a process and discussion that is crucial for all global brands: defining the essence of your brand.   Without that definition, and without that language, branding becomes a series of rules to follow verses messages to convey.  It puts the emphasis on the superficial (logo color and placement) and ignores the deeper relationship you want with your audience.  And on a global scale, it robs you of a platform that enables you to be consistent and still regionally and locally relevant.

These days, with internet sales and social media platforms, even local brands have become global and the challenge of staying true and being relevant is harder.  But with some focused effort and creative minds, it can be done and the rewards are great.  And if you're lucky like I've been, you'll get a chance to experience first hand how your brand looks in countries as diverse as Bulgaria and Mexico.