Marketing and communication to the majority of the world.

“Any fool can make soap. It takes a smart person to sell it,” said Thomas J. Barratt, the world’s first brand manager. Barratt famously used John Everett Millais’ painting of a boy blowing bubbles to sell Piers soap. The British Empire’s extraction of palm and coconut oil from African lands made soap cheaper and more accessible to the unwashed masses.

In 1810, British soap production was 28,536 tons, but by 1880 a single factory in East London could produce 203,000 tons per week. Advertising was born out of rapid industrialization, European colonialism, and mass production.

The legacy of 20th century marketing practices still reverberates around the world. Culture is shaped by the words, images, and symbols that emanate from London, Paris, and New York. Marketing has permeated our collective psyche. It can create norms, change minds, and create demand. But it can also promote human rights, sustainable development and collective action. Like a pen, it can be wielded to spread love or hate. Marketing is value-neutral.

Until recently, most multinational corporations were headquartered in the United States and Western Europe. With the exception of Japan, the Western world dominated business. Economic dominance was supported by political influence and military power. Business and marketing became mostly pursued by educated men in big cities. The audience was less homogeneous, but still primarily wealthy or middle-class families with disposable income. In 1913, the British Empire accounted for a quarter of the world’s GDP, and by the 1960s the United States accounted for 40% of the world’s GDP. Consumer markets were concentrated in the West, so business priorities, marketing communications, and media spending were allocated accordingly. Emerging markets were left behind.

Today’s global economy is different, but the business outlook remains the same. Even in the 21st century, emerging markets remain largely ignored and underserved, with the exception of luxury brands attracting new capital in China and the Middle East. Global brands risk becoming unknown if they are unable to understand and communicate with the world’s majority.

For the first time in 400 years, the superiority of the West is being questioned. Unilateralism has given way to a more fragmented world with opposing worldviews. There is a mix of more countries, cultures, and opinions. Africa is the youngest and fastest growing population on earth. By 2050, one in four people on earth will be African. The average age in Africa is 19 years, compared to 38 years in America, 44 years in Europe, and 49 years in Japan.

The majority of Generation Z and subsequent generations (41% of the world’s population) live in developing countries. The countries with the largest Gen Z populations are Nigeria, Pakistan, India, and Indonesia. At the same time, the economies of the BRICS countries are predicted to contribute more than 50% of the world’s GDP by 2030. In general, economic power is shifting to the east and south.

Business leaders cannot afford to see the world from a Western perspective. Most developed economies are saturated and revenues are declining. In contrast, developing countries offer exciting but untested business opportunities. Fresh markets require new ideas, a break from old ways of doing things, and capacity building. Launching a poor global campaign can be seen as lazy at best and aggressive at worst. The list of ways to not communicate with the majority of the world is long and growing.

An example is a racist Dolce & Gabbana ad depicting a Chinese woman struggling to eat pizza using chopsticks. Coeur’s “Turn it Loose” campaign was interpreted in Spanish-speaking countries as an endorsement of diarrhea. And the English tagline for Swedish vacuum cleaner company Electrolux: “There’s nothing worse than Electrolux.” Beyond product adaptation, companies must remember that 94% of the world does not speak English as their first language. For marketers working in global headquarters, this may seem hard to believe. But in the words of John le Carré, “Viewing the world from your desk is a dangerous place.”

There are examples of global companies understanding and celebrating local cultures. McDonald’s offers regional versions of its menu. Filipinos can enjoy Mac spaghetti, Indians can enjoy Maharaja His Mac (his 50% of Indian menus are vegetarian), and Canadians can enjoy Poutine with his rich gravy. . Hindustan Unilever has found an innovative way to penetrate rural India by training women to sell Unilever products in low-income rural areas. Project Shakti has empowered over 160,000 women to become microentrepreneurs. As a result, Unilever products are now available in her 175,000 villages in India. Chinese technology giant Huawei has focused on high-quality hardware at lower prices than its competitors, meeting the needs of emerging market consumers for affordable smartphones. The company was forced out of Europe over security concerns and was on track to compete with Apple and Samsung until it was banned by the U.S. government.

Globalization promised the creation of a universal consumer, homogeneous in taste, experience, and identity. We make life easier for multinational companies and marketing departments. However, the opposite happened. Local preferences influence global preferences, and local problems can explode into global crises. Balancing global goals and local needs is a difficult task. To what extent should companies embrace local culture? After all, more markets require larger marketing budgets. The answer depends on your category, internal resources, and market priorities. Naturally, some categories require more cultural orientation than others. Food and beverages may require even more localization than electric vehicles. Good questions to help you plan are: “How culturally dependent are my products and offerings?”

Marketing must dance between global consistency and cultural relevance. Global headquarters must determine the overall vision and strategy with input from local teams and create a framework that can be adapted to local needs. In fact, global teams view local teams as regional and difficult to collaborate with. Local marketers believe that global teams don’t have a strong foundation in their country or culture. You can compare it to creating a battle plan. call of duty And to be on the front lines of war.

Of course, a global perspective is required to ensure market-wide cohesion. However, the global team should act as the conductor of an orchestra, not the lead singer of a band. The whole must be greater than the sum of its parts. The company’s vision can only be realized if all countries share their unique insights, ideas and challenges. An interesting way to think about this relationship is to use the rice and spice analogy. Rice (global) should be consistent in all countries. Spices (local) may vary depending on cultural preferences. Some cultures prefer sweet rice, while others prefer flavorful or spicy rice.

Pop music can be a powerful symbol of soft power and cultural influence. British music lost its monopoly on pop music. This year, 36 of his non-English records ranked in the Billboard top 10. According to Spotify data, more people are listening to music in their native language. K-POP has taken the world by storm. It has transcended music and become an undeniable cultural phenomenon. In 2019, BTS became the first group since the Beatles to have three No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 chart in less than a year. Music is often the gateway to cultural exchange.

A similar trend can be seen in reggaeton, where English-speaking countries can now hear Bad Bunny, Peso Pluma, and Karol G on repeat. Similarly, Afrobeats has grown by 550% on Spotify since 2017, with 50% of his streams coming from 18-24 year olds. It seems like the future of this music is local, with fans all over the world. Similarly, Western music also influenced the world. Global majority preferences influence Western countries.

You don’t even need to travel anymore to access and be exposed to different cultures, customs, and experiences. A young Westerner can explore Kyrgyzstan delicacies, Mongolian heavy metal music, and Japanese corporate life within his 60 seconds via TikTok. The desire for cultural expression is unprecedented. Similarly, promoting a singular worldview is unacceptable. Additionally, signs of cultural appropriation can cause long-term reputational damage.

Europe and America are no longer the centers of gravity. Companies need to build cultural fluency through education, exploration, and appreciation of other cultures in a non-extractive manner. You can’t reach new roads with old maps. Brands need fresh approaches, tools and partners to communicate with the world’s majority. This is not about the increasing influence of the rest of the world, but about a new world being built for the world’s majority. Perhaps the next article about the future of marketing will be written in Farsi, Vietnamese, or Nigerian Pidgin.

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