Global Demand Generation - Not For The Faint Of Heart
Why do we bother with global demand generation? Life is so much easier if all of the regions manage their own campaigns. After all, who knows their region better than they do? It removes all of the politics and makes global marketing just one big happy family. Right?
WRONG
Global companies have global customers. So a customer in Bangalore should have the same brand experience as a customer in Tokyo, Paris or Toronto. And in today's increasingly fragmented media environment, demand generation can play an even greater role in your brand perception than your traditional brand building mediums such as PR or advertising. Ignore this at your own risk.
And then of course there is the matter of finances. Developing 50 different campaigns in 50 different countries each and every quarter certainly doesn't have a positive impact on EBITDA does it? You're losing all of the economies of scale benefits offered by a more centralized demand generation structure.
So why don't more companies do it?
It's hard work. Imagine tacky office politics played out over a global stage. "That's fine that you developed this campaign. But if you want to run it, fund it yourself." Competitive and anti-cooperative situations tend to be the norm. So how can you overcome this:
1. Equal Process & Politics: You need to gain an understanding of the internal politics and let that drive the process. For a multi-billion dollar technology client of ours, Europe was always the wheel seeking to spin in its own direction. So how did we solve that? We developed the campaign first with Europe in mind, ensuring their buy-in and adoption before rolling out elsewhere.
2. Understand, Then Be Understood: Technology companies go through detailed internal and external discovery efforts when working on developing their brand, why not take the same tack when developing a global demand generation campaign. Conduct internal interviews with key stakeholders to gain an insight into regional preferences and variations for audience, messaging and tactics. This will ensure your efforts have a solid foundation and are built to suit the needs of your global markets.
3. Participation, Not Buy-in: This can’t be a compromise upon compromise effort ending up in a watered down campaign that everyone has signed off on, but no prospect would ever respond to. That will be doomed for failure. Ultimately you need a tight group to make decisions and validation research with actual prospects should determine the direction not personal opinions or global committees.
4. Relationships=Results: Another key reason for taking the time to conduct a full internal discovery effort is all of those interviews provide a great opportunity to build key relationships that will play dividends when driving the campaign through each region. You're an ally working with them to make their job easier, not some corporate minion at the headquarters throwing the latest, greatest North American campaign into their market.
5. Art Of The Possible: Ultimately global demand generation work needs to exist where effectiveness meets efficiency. There are tight budgets and timelines and quarterly lead quotas that have to be met. You need to be flexible in your approach, developing for the long haul, but the engine can’t come to a complete halt along the way.
I won't sugarcoat it for you. Global Demand Generation is not for the faint of heart. It is hard work, but if developed the right way, there are huge marketing and financial benefits to your company, in addition to the benefit it will have on your career.
