Building your Go-to-Market Strategy

To prepare for exporting your brand into a new market, you need to create a go-to-market strategy. So, what does this include?

Once you have launched your brand in your home market, you may be considering exporting your brand to a different region of the world. We often get approached by clients looking to launch into the UK or Europe, equally we support clients based in the UK to export into international markets.

Each market that you launch into is going to require a new marketing strategy – after all the economy, geography, people, retail and distribution channels, warehousing and logistics, tax, legal, buying behaviour, and most importantly competitor brands will differ from market to market. What’s works in the UK or France may not work for you in Germany.

Start by reviewing your business plan, your marketing plan, and your sales plans – do you currently sell through department stores, pharmacies, hotels, gyms, or travel retail? What does the landscape in this new market look like?

You will need to adapt your marketing plan to the local market – if you are selling in the UK and now exporting into Dubai, there are several factors you will need to take into account. If you are expanding from the UK into the US, which is a much larger market and very competitive, what does mean for your marketing budget, and how are you going to manage warehousing and logistics?

Consider the following

1. Start by doing a market review, a SWOT, PEST, competitor analysis and gap analysis.
2. It is extremely important to have very clear brand standards – consistency is key to positioning your brand, and ensuring people recognise your brand regardless of which market they come across your brand in. Think about your vision, mission, brand messaging and your marketing assets.
3. Think about your customer personas in the new market – who are they, and how are you going to reach them. Do primary and secondary research, it is important to speak to people.
4. Who are your key competitors in this market? Where are they selling? How can you differentiate yourself from them?
5. Consider your pricing and margins – particularly if you are exporting from a country which has a strong currency, to a country which isn’t as economically strong – e.g., from the UK to South Africa. Your products may be priced in Pounds, you now need to convert this into Rands which is significantly different.
6. What does this mean with regards to product registration and regulatory and compliance? Are there any ingredients in your products that are not acceptable in this new market? Do you need to reformulate?
7. What is the best route to market in terms of retail?
8. How are you going to manage warehousing and distribution? Are you going to work with an agent or distributor or are you going to set up your own office in this new market? If you are setting up your own office, consider the costs involved.
9. What marketing budget have you allocated to your launch? Remember that you need to have a separate marketing budget for each market, and you need a healthy marketing budget to establish yourself in a new market.

This may sound a little bit daunting to start with, we can help you. Bespoke Advantage operates as a country manager on behalf of brands. We can support you in establishing your business in the UK market. We apply a structured process to every brand we create that walks you through what you need to do from ‘concept to launch’ and through our agency, consultancy services and workshops, we will show you how to do this too.

If you are looking for support with launching into the UK market, Get in touch today.