The modern age of globalisation – What does it mean for brands?

In today's world, nothing is considered “local” anymore. It is clear to say that every local action taken by brands now has a global reaction. No matter what scale a brand takes on, whether it is global or local, it must begin to delve into deeper meaningful relationships, developing thorough culture networks and knowledge along with maintaining a consistent and edgy media presence. 

It is important to understand that there is no such thing as a one-way conversation anymore. What I mean by this is that brands can no longer avoid the culture in which they are entering. There is much talk about a term called “globality”. We as marketers are moving towards a world that encompasses and embraces this term more than ever before. Globality can be seen as the bridge between global and local. It aims at spreading a brand, product or service in a “multi-market” capacity which actively enriches the receiving culture.

It is of the view that the old way of viewing the world through so called regions including APAC and EMEA is on a very fast declining spiral. With reference to Roshni Hegerman, Planning Director of McCann Sydney, Hegerman suggests that instead we should be tapping into our pattern recognition skills to effectively reveal shared cultural behaviours between countries across key universal human truths including love, success, connection and purpose.

One of the prime benefits to living in this so-called connected world is the capacity to learn about other cultures, however its greatest downfall is that half of the globe cites that they experience loss of local culture.

For Australians this can be felt greatly as we are currently battling an internal identity crisis; in other words, we are still trying to define who we are as a nation. For example, in relation to the technological and vehicle industry we say we would like to support local businesses, but we still choose global brands.

So what does it mean for brands? This idea of globality for brands means that greater relationships must be made with people and consumers. Relationships that involve knowing what unites us as human beings, knowing where people get their information from, along with understanding how a brand earns its way into peoples lives. We should use this deep cultural local and global knowledge to better the lives of consumers and to benefit our brands.

Lauren Musat
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School