What is a strategy ?
It is the art of coordinating the action of all the forces to achieve an objective. Think about the advantages that will give your offer a credible, different and attractive position in export markets and in the minds of your customers.
Analyze your strategic positioning
The positioning will be associated with your personality, your main idea, your vision and your often personal values.
What are the positioning issues ?
There is no point attacking an export market to offer exactly the same thing. The positioning of your offer will help you sell better in certain markets because it will differentiate you from your competitors. The added value perceived by your prospects is important. On the contrary, some exporters copy their competitors by simply offering a more attractive price.
Positioning will allow you to create a reference universe. It improves your image through innovative and differentiating values (aesthetic, functional, technical, philosophical, ergonomic, etc.). It is your marketing mix that directly impacts positioning by making the offer more credible, different and attractive in the minds of customers compared to those of your competitors.
Brand positioning examples
Nutella is the ideal snack for children.
Dacia is the cheapest car.
Lustucru rice never sticks.
Actimel protects your natural defences.
Evaluate your existing or potential competitors.
Differentiate yourself according to the expectations expressed by your customers and distributors at export. To do this, adapt the attributes of your product and its performance (better or worse). You must above all give credibility to your speech and the potential advantages of your products because to be convinced, customers like to know that other customers are fully satisfied.
Use the following persuasive levers; Be clear, simple, concise, attractive, credible, specific, profitable, sustainable.
Focus on the tribes; These are the customers who have the same identity, similar affiliations. E.g. XBox = Geek
Get the customer thinking about your solution when they need it. To achieve this, you must act on the imagination of your product. Your customer must make an association with it when the problem to which your product responds occurs to him. Your product can easily be associated with a particular issue. It is the situation of use that makes the product think.
Examples. When you think of low cost plane tickets, who do you think of?
A comfortable hotel?
A refreshing drink?
A serie to watch ?
Influence of market shares on international strategy
If you are the leader: Highlight your position and refrain from advertising to your direct competitors. Criticism by a leader of its competitors is poorly perceived by customers.
If you are one of the pursuers: Mention the leader, so that you associate yourself with him in the minds of customers. Directly attack the leader on his weak points.
Use according to your own analysis in the country you are targeting one of the following four strategies:
Differentiation strategy
Consider for entry into a market already occupied by competitors, or when a market matures with a large number of competitors.
Develop a competitive advantage.
Address specific categories of customers to distinguish yourself from your competitors.
Develop innovative concepts ensuring better profitability.
Diversification strategy
In this case, you will rather create an activity related to the first but which requires the acquisition of new know-how. This strategy is to be considered when the company is forced to find a solution to preserve its survival.
Innovation strategy
Launch new products or services in response to a specific market demand or in anticipation of its evolution. Innovation is a real export strategy to overtake your competitor or impose a particular image on your brand.
Opposite strategy
Do everything the opposite of your competitor. It is located in the city center, go to the countryside. It sells individually, sell as a lot or as a rental contract. He sells in store, sell on the internet…
“If you want things to be different, perhaps the answer is to become different yourself.”
Norman Vincent Peale
Happy CEO 