If you compare a product by a multinational company that is probably the same you can get here as you can on the opposite side of the world to a successful regional brand that markets localized products, which would you assume would be more successful?
Obviously, the multinational company has many advantages to its position, but in a time when people prefer buying meaningful products instead of generic ones, the local company would have the upper hand. That’s not to say that large companies don’t try to tailor their offerings to different regions but local brands do a much, much, better job at that.
When considering the four principles of marketing – product, price, promotion, and place – it’s the last one that regional brands excel at. Local business owners can relate to their customers better, therefore allowing them to be better marketers. Here are 5 reasons why local businesses are far more successful on a regional scale than multinational companies that are their competitors.
Market Knowledge
More often than not, the owners of regional brands are customers of the product themselves. A lot of small brands are born out of necessity or passion, which means that they produce products that are of high quality and cater to the needs of the local market. Immersed in the local culture themselves, the local brand has much more intimate knowledge about customer feedback and how exactly to interpret it.
Customer Relationship
Most local brands are owned by well-known and liked figures of the community; many of them have been around for generations, owned by a family, and passed down the line. As such, the owners of the brand have formed personal relationships outside of the business which then translates to more loyal customers for the business. And customers themselves have special memories attached to their products/services.
A multinational company cannot recreate the same kind of bond with its customers no matter how much it spends on marketing. Simply put, while global brands may strive to better their customer service, regional brands focus on bettering sincere customer relationships.
R&D is Less Risky
Innovation and launching new products are an essential part of growing a brand, or sometimes, even simply staying in business. Local brands have a more favorable risk to reward ratio when they do implement their R&D.
Smaller regional brands are able to gather better intel from their customers. And as we mentioned earlier, since they themselves are their own target market, they can anticipate the reaction to a new launch. At the same time, if the product doesn’t perform as well as they’d expected it to, smaller brands find it easier to stop production and minimize losses while continuing to deliver products that they know customers want.
Fewer Hoops to Jump Over
Multinational companies have protocols for EVERYTHING. There are so many processes and bureaucracies, that a single anomaly can bring a whole production to a stop. Smaller businesses find it easier to employ creative solutions and get the problem fixed much faster.
Delivery is also a major advantage as the product is usually shipped straight from the source, which just so happens to be not so far away. Since the brand is regional, customers feel satisfied that their products are sourced and curated from good businesses.
Market Commitment
Regional brands are committed to the local market while multinationals rarely, if ever, launch products to cater to a single market. Global companies launch a single product and try to make small changes to appeal to different markets, but they cannot come close to the level of personalization offered by local businesses.
Since these small companies are only catering to a small market, they are able to put all their focus on pleasing the customers. They are almost always authentic and more tailored to the locals, which is how they are able to successfully compete with the power and influence of a multinational.
