The 21st century is the era of many options and an open market. Innovation and novelty are driving the global economy as startups and small businesses strive to create products and services that could overtake the world. Over the past few decades alone, we have witnessed a number of such innovations that managed to occupy the hearts of customers forever. Yet, coming up with an average, regular product or a service is no longer enough to succeed in this extremely competitive environment. Rather, effective marketing and advertising strategies are what really help companies reach their financial goals.
If you think that you have come up with an innovative, never-seen-before idea, think twice. Most likely, someone else on the opposite side of the planet is currently working on developing a very similar idea. Sooner or later, what you have been thinking about for a long time will be launched by someone else. To avoid disappointment, we should be fast with developing our ideas and making them a tangible reality. However, most often, our products and services are upgraded or changed versions of already existing ones. There is no shame in modifying something that already exists. Rather, it is a great way to bring innovation in traditional sectors and make some decent profits.
In the case of the latter particularly, an effective marketing strategy could be a life-saver. Without promoting your product to the world in the best way possible, the chances of succeeding are very low. To put it in simpler terms, there are very low chances that your idea will gain momentum in an incredibly competitive and well-saturated market. There are simply too many products being advertised online thanks to the soaring access to the internet globally. To make your product really stand out among the others, you should bring innovation foremost in the marketing campaign.
Regional marketing vs national marketing
Marketing strategies should be carefully and thoughtfully adapted to particular environments. This does not only concern new products or companies but already well-established and known ones. When entering another market, one should always expect major, significant differences in customer behavior and the way people react to advertisements.
Regardless of the country’s size, there are almost always different views amongst members of various regions. Obviously, this phenomenon is more evident in countries like the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom where geographical divides often translate into varying social attitudes towards various topics. Therefore, particularly in such major countries, marketing strategies should be adopted at a regional level rather than a national one.
To make it more visible, let’s discuss the example of the United States. This undoubtedly is one of the most diverse and biggest countries in the world. It has always been known that there is a major south-north divide between the people of the United States. Those who live in the northern regions of the nation tend to be more accepting, progressive, and tolerant while having little to no religious beliefs. On the other hand, the southern population of the United States is deeply religious, extremely conservative, and patriotic. Therefore, if marketing with pride parades and other social matters is extremely effective and almost crucial for businesses in the north, whilst such strategies could lead to big losses in the south.
The other good example is Australia, a country with vast territories but a comparably small population. The biggest part of the population is compactly clustered on the south-western coast of the nation. However, the rest of the territory is also occupied by peoples in small cities and towns across the east and north. Australians are known to be on the same page regarding almost all matters. However, this opinion is mainly formed by the dominance of the south-western population cluster. Other parts of the nation remain quite different from Sydney.
As a result, a number of businesses choose to advertise differently in those areas. A great example is gambling, which is a widespread means of entertainment across Australia. However, there are many challenges experienced by physical venues in more conservative regions. In north-western towns of Derby, Broome Darwin, and others, casinos are practically inaccessible. Without any venues in such communities, people have to go on a cross-country journey to visit one in the south-east. Therefore, many new Australian online casinos like Bovada and Red Stag mostly advertise in those areas in an effort to attract people that do not have the possibility of visiting physical venues. This might sound very apparent now, but in reality, such targeted campaigns are a great example of regional marketing.
Besides the geographical distribution of people and their attitudes, there is also another major factor that is essential for any marketing strategy. Communication platforms are the primary means of reaching out to potential customers in new areas. Before planning any precise strategy, investigating the specific preferences of the local population is of utmost importance. The Oscars last year really showed how the number of people watching TV is rapidly falling. However, in some regions of a country, the vast majority of people still actively watch TV, while in another area of the same nation, social media could be the predominant means of communication.
Therefore, observing the local trends of communication can have a significant influence on the campaign. After some research, the street banners might end up being a more effective and efficient way to promote a product than using the internet in a particular area. After all, delivering the message to people is what marketing really strives to do. This is exactly why choosing a correct communication platform could potentially benefit the company significantly.
On the other hand, the national marketing strategy is usually targeting the bigger mass of the audience. The hope with this is that the greater pool will deliver higher results in the end and this could be true. However, the national marketing strategy can be effective only with extremely large amounts of money and other resources. Such campaigns, especially in big countries, require lots of investment which in the end might not pay off. They are still useful and to put it this way, ‘worth it’ for big corporations like ‘Apple’ that are not worried about losing customers.