How to Sell a Global Brand in a Local Market

“Just as there is no such thing as a non-Asian consumer, there’s no such thing as an Asian consumer. Asia is not a cultural idea, it’s a geographic idea,” said Ken Kabira,’92. For instance, “the Japanese are very different from other nationalities in Asia, and even within Japan there are huge differences among consumers,” he said.

Kabira, an executive vice president with Lipman Hearne Inc. who has done marketing in Japan for both McDonald’s and Kellogg’s, was among panelists who focused on marketing and branding strategy October 21 at the Hyde Park Center. It was one of several events at the sixth annual Chicago Asia-Pacific Business Conference hosted by the student-led Chicago Asia-Pacific Group.

The key to successful marketing and branding in Asian cultures is to understand the consumer, added panelist Bram Bout, director of Motorola’s mobile devices unit. “Clearly the Asian region is huge and very culturally diverse,” he said. “What’s fundamentally important is trying to understand what the customer wants.”

Daniel Ng, chairman emeritus of McDonald’s Hong Kong, attributed part of his success in bringing the global fast-food chain to China to his willingness to follow his instincts. “You don’t have to be Chinese,” he said, “but you have to have an open mind and some sense of what the Chinese consumer likes.”

Panelists said they had encountered no instances where local marketing conflicted with the global branding. Bout said marketers should hold constant some attributes but also allow variability in emphasizing certain attributes that resonate better with the population in certain cultures. Kabira added, “My hypothesis is that for a brand to be very popular globally, it has to have a uniform core positioning idea that has an enduring human value that is tied to a specific culture.”

It was the opportunity to speak with high-level executives that drew second-year student Prisca Chu to the panel discussion. Asking a question of Ng marked a “rare chance” for the Hong Kong native to have a dialogue with him. “I want to be exposed to the real people who are working in the industry. It expands your horizon and stimulates your thinking,” she said.

The real-life experience was what the Chicago Asia Business Group was looking for in inviting the panelists to talk about how brands learn and move forward, said second-year student Eric Lam, one of the conference organizers. “If you think about the Asian markets, everybody is looking at these markets and seeing so much potential,” he said.

—Jenn Q. Goddu