The Dangers of Caipirinhas

I hope you enjoyed my previous blog. In this blog, I will focus on cultural awareness as from my experience this is the key area for anyone doing marketing (or business for that matter) in a different country must understand and be very mindful of.

Always remember you are a guest in the country, do not bring your habits, customs, and thinking to the country. You need to adjust to their ways, their rules apply at all times. A lot of people and organisations make this mistake, they bring their ways to a foreign country and think that will work. Would we like a marketing manager from a different country barging into our organisation telling us what to do and how to do it? Most likely not.

Over the years, I have learned to accept and embrace these differences, the majority of them are refreshing. In many countries, you will hear questions or references to, for example, one’s appearance, race, nationality, marital status, and sexuality. Many of which are deemed inappropriate in for example Europe, again, this is something you must take on the chin, as it is the way they communicate. If it is hard to overlook these traits, it will be difficult to undertake any marketing on the ground, as this will come up in many countries.

Building a relationship with those you will do business with is crucial. When I started travelling to Brazil to undertake marketing in the second role where I was responsible for the Brazilian marketing. I knew it would take a while, I had already undertaken marketing in Brazil for a different organisation, hence I was prepared for it would take some time. It took me three visits and many caipirinhas to establish a partnership with a major corporation in Brazil. What is important to them is that you build a relationship with the person(s) you are about to do business with. Even though in my case, one evening it was at the cost of several caipirinhas and a terrible hangover the next day. But that evening created a partnership and a life-long friendship, 15 years later we are still talking about it. When I told my friend about this blog, she said; “write about the caipirinhas”. These relationships require regular check-in, a call, or email, they just want to be seen. I have applied this to my business relationships, irrelevant to the country. Checking in, asking about the family, their interests, or whatever is important to that person. This is so simple, yet so crucial and often overlooked.

When producing marketing materials where images will be included, it is imperative to tailor them to each market. Even though many countries in the Middle East embrace western culture and wish to see westerners in the images, still women must wear respectful clothing. The cultural details are imperative to keep in mind and include, when tailoring to any market, if this is not done, one is at risk of alienating the audience.

Yes, digital marketing is a cost-efficient channel to use when marketing, but it is imperative to understand it might not be the most successful channel in some countries. I have found that in a lot of African and Middle Eastern countries, as connected as they are, still value print ads and respond to them. You will not know the exact engagement and reach, therefore not the exact ROI. But in some instances, this has to be less of a priority, if the audience responds to a specific channel. Isn’t that the whole point with international marketing, to reach out using the marketing channels your target audience responds to?

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