2010-03-24
More than ten years ago, I initiated a project for Volvo (passenger coach) with the goal to be the most successful car salesman over the Internet. It would work the same everywhere in Europe regardless if the car buyers were located in Bruges, Porto or Thessaloniki - decide what the car should look like and then book a test drive appointment at your local dealer.
The Internet is a brilliant tool. Partly because consumers can get a good opinion about the product before they actually make contact.
This is a great advantage for a car manufacturer, if one takes into consideration that a Volvo V70 can be assembled in more than 200 000 different variants. Regardless of the cultural differences in each country, the service would look the same- like a BigMac.
It was a great experience to realize that each market had its own specific requirements and that cultural differences played a big role even if they all seemingly worked with the same product.
No country had the same standard design as one might assume. An extension package in Germany was sold as standard package in Spain. Although the service was built centrally, a lot of local knowledge was required in order to make it work in each country. At the foreign establishment of this service, we learned over and over again what did not work out on the various markets.
Today, I would probably have planned a similar project a bit different. Thanks to the Internet, it is now much easier to learn how the market works before establishing business. Knowing the outcome, more time should have been spent on finding out information about consumer behavior on each market before launching a service that includes a lot of local resources.
Anyone who has read the 2500 years old work "The Art of War" by Sun Zi has learned the importance of understanding the need to be prepared for a bigger challenge. The book, written to describe and analyze the nature of war, is still useful in both military and civilian situations despite the fact that it is 2500 years old.
The important message in this scripture is that a war could be won long before the first battle even started. Everything is about the preparation in terms of getting to know the weaknesses and strengths of the competitors. What I have learned about foreign start-ups is especially the importance of being aware of your weaknesses on time. Then you will make the right decisions and save important resources.
You will get a great understanding through good measurements and analysis of traffic to the website and evaluate the results you get. If you know what attracts a new client on a well-known market, you will know what to look for on the new market. If you do a market research from home about what works on the new market, you will save much money and learn more quickly how the brand is perceived in other cultures.
Free tools such as Google Analytics provides you with many answers to what consumers are looking for on a new geographic market, and how willing they are to provide you with their contact information.
Today, it is fairly easy to start processing a whole new market from Sweden at a relatively low cost. Through digital work, you will be able to find partners, customers or dealers. Several companies I've worked with have started their foreign establishment process in Sweden via the Internet long before they had to face costs in terms of facilities, personnel or sales literature.
The Internet can provide you with more knowledge and make you realize your weaknesses before they become a problem. Any foreign establishment should start with a good preparation at home, and then the foreign adventure will be both rewarding and profitable!