Brand names for international sales – Background

Building international sales is not easy. First of all you need to find buyers in other countries that want to purchase your products or services. Then precise specifications and requirements need to be agreed, what exactly will be delivered and by when. Of course costs, payments terms and methods of payment are also crucial in the negotiation. Then there is shipping, customs clearance and tariffs to think about and plan.

The alternative is to market your products directly into the countries you have identified as suitable to build overseas sales. To make this happen you are going to need overseas companies and offices and to sell your products to chains, distributors and wholesalers or directly to the consumer. For that you are going to need a BRAND!

In this article we look at what makes for a good international brand including the brand name, packaging, marketing and positioning.

First, below are some brands that got it badly wrong for any English speaking markets! Enjoy!

Brand names for international sales – How not to do it!

The examples above help illustrate the point of the need to develop a brand name which will work perfectly well in all countries or alternatively change the brand name of the product for certain countries. These brand names work well in many countries but not in English speaking countries.

To give another example of the need to make sure your brand name is right for the market you are selling in to. A friend of mine from Republic of Ireland was the brand manager for the famous Irish drinks brand ‘Irish Mist’. The product sold well across several European countries and the decision was taken to sell into Germany. Unfortunately no one in the marketing team understood what the word ‘Mist’ meant in German, to make matters worse the drink is brown! End result, not many sales!!

Brand names for international sales – What to do

Well of course research is key. Very often it will be possible to use your existing international brand name but this does need to be researched for each and every market you intend to enter. Does the brand name or any of the individual words in the brand name mean anything offensive or derogatory in the local language? Does it have some unhelpful meaning which will make your brand less appealing or is it similar to an existing band name in the country meaning you could face some legal action?

Consider also your logo design, especially its colours and typeface. Colours have different meanings and connotations in different countries. So maybe consider changing your logo colour if the current colours do not work so well in your target country. Check the typeface you use against the local alphabet, does it clash with any letters that could cause a problem.

Brand names for international sales

Brand names for international sales – Packaging design

If your products are packaged really the same rules apply as for logo design. You should consider if the colours or shape of the packaging has any special significance in the country you are intending to sell into and if necessary change it to avoid problems and enhance your ability to build sales.

Research can obviously be done by the exporter at local level and in most cases this is likely to be sufficient, just seek the opinions of a range of local people by age, sex, religion, ethnicity, etc. There are also international market research agencies that specialise in this type of market research and budget allowing they are a good option.

One such agency is The Big Picture based in London and New York www.thebigpicture.agency

If you want to build your international sales add a listing to our website like major electronics supplier Walton Hi-Tech Industries Ltd, this company employs over 20,000 people and manufactures and exports a wide range of electronic goods.

blackcat360.com can also work with you in developing brand names and packaging for your products exports.

WALTON HI-TECH INDUSTRIES LTD

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Brand names for international sales