Multilingual Business Marketing

MULTILINGUAL MARKETING FOR MANUFACTURERS AND WHOLESALERS

Putting your business on the map

In designing multilingual marketing systems, we work closely with businesses to fully understand what their key objectives are. Having a clear vision of exactly what you want to achieve, and which overseas markets you want to break into, makes it much easier for us to design a platform for long term success.

If you are a manufacturer, or have a wholesal distribution business, then you would initially need to make a policy choice between selling directly to your new overseas customers, employing local salespeople or using intermediaries.

This decision is usually based on distribution and cost factors:

The number of potential customers in the country in question.
How concentrated or dispersed those customers are.
How much each will buy in a given period.
The costs associated with the practical side of the distribution logistics.

If there is a large enough potential sales volume, there may be a strong case for selling direct and even employing a sales force. The decision on how to distribute your goods will depend on your individual circumstances and should be taken with the long term view in mind.

Industrial manufacturers, working in more specialised B2B markets, tend to use direct selling and often deal directly with the end user; although in some cases wholesalers are used. Consumer goods manufacturers tend to use a network of marketing intermediaries because of the dispersion and large numbers of potential customers. Most often, these wholesalers will purchase in bulk, add on a mark-up and sell on to the retailers. This system creates a ‘value chain’, where the acceptable retail price is always used as the baseline for the chain’s overall value. Margins are therefore squeezed back down the line to the detriment of the manufacturer.

However, with the increased power of the internet, manufacturers are more able to sell direct to the end user, and therefore perform their own wholesaling function. Whether selling online, through retail outlets or using wholesalers and then retailers, the important point is that the manufacturer relies on the quality of the initial marketing campaign for all ultimate success, as it is these channels that have the responsibility for taking the product to the next level.

Market choice decisions also have a large effect on the way a multilingual system is planned. For example, the selection of Japan as a target market will require a different approach to one concentrated on the European Union, as regulatory and cultural differences have to be taken into account. Similarly, decisions about individual marketing mix elements (e.g. pricing) must reflect a company’s ambitions in that particular market.

Once established, a company’s channel system may be difficult to change, at least in the short term, but because channel arrangements are likely to vary slightly in different countries, we will adapt the marketing programme in order to leverage the best returns for our clients.