How to ensure your products and services are still relevant to your customers in different country? Ask this one question

We are living through an unprecedented period. Full of unknowns. While many are trying to speculate or predict what the changes in different aspects are, businesses are trying to work out the direction their industries are heading towards and how they can prepare for it.

The truth is, none of us has lived through anything like this before. No one can be certain what exactly will happen next. Yes, certain things will change - the way we socialise, live, work or travel; what we consume and how we consume; or our attitudes and expectations towards how things should, would and could work.

But in what way will it change? What does it mean to your business? It all feels overwhelming and complicated. It is even more so when it comes to planning and changing strategies for global markets when it involves different culture, political settings, infrastructure setup and so on. We can already see the differences in how people in different countries respond to the pandemic and how they react to their government’s decisions. 

Businesses are wondering what they should do with their businesses in each market. What would the changes in customers’ behaviours and needs be for their industry? How much of the changes share globally and what are the ones that only apply in certain markets?

With so many whats and hows, where do you even start?

Take it from a different perspective

I would encourage businesses to use a different approach to managing your global markets and customers.

Instead of trying to predict what the behaviours change would be for different countries and then trying to figure out what you can do to keep up with those changes, I’d encourage you to focus on what won’t change or are unlikely to change.

As I was writing this article, I came across a similar advice Jeff Bezos has given several times over the last 20 years to entrepreneurs looking to stay ahead of a fast-changing world: 

"It's interesting, I do get asked quite frequently what's going to change in the next ten years. One thing I rarely get asked is probably even more important -- and I encourage you to think about this -- is the question: What's not going to change in the next ten years,"

- Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon

His reason was that predicting the future is hard whereas what’s unlikely to change are obvious, big and fundamental. Once identified what they are, you’ll be in a much more secure place to craft a strategy for your business.  You can be confident that the efforts you put into them today will still be paying you dividends then years from now.

This is especially true when it comes to culturalisation. Whether or not you are growing or planning to launch into a new region or market, you can still confidently develop your strategy without having to know what the future holds by looking into what definitely won’t change and understanding what are the fundamental things that are very unlikely to change for each market.

Ask: ‘What is not going to change?’

Regardless of what happened to the world or a country (a revolution, a pandemic, a natural disaster), there are elements that won’t change when you’re designing and building a product or service for customers in different countries.

First up, naming conventions, date or numeric formatting, address format, language, text input, currencies and units of measurement. These are the elements that are likely to remain the same which you can review what you have on your products and marketing content, and refine to ensure that you’re providing the right forms, content and design. 

Another aspect that won’t be changing is the geopolitical scene, religion or cultural beliefs and practice, of which you should make sure that you are not creating any offensive content and media.

These two aspects are more straightforward and factual. They are easier to comprehend and to be implemented, although they are often being overlooked by many companies.

Will behaviours and needs change?

Yes and no.

With new technology being introduced and developed, we see people’s needs and certain behaviours change throughout the years. It’s also fair to say that the behaviours and attitudes for some countries might change faster than others (Russia and China versus Egypt, for instance, based on my experience working across more than 40 countries for my clients).

However, one important point to remember: Even when that happens, the fundamental mentality and culture of a country are not likely to change. For example, the characteristics of society (e.g. highly collectivist, hierarchical or family-oriented) is very unlikely to change across centuries. Very often, these are also the underlying values and factors that influence how people in a country behaves, needs and expects.

The needs and behaviours might change and disappear over time, for example, with the development of new technology or service, or when a radical shake-up happens like the global pandemic. They are, therefore, harder to predict, although they are ones that people often focus on (hence we see countless articles that talk about trends constantly popping up especially at the end or beginning of each year).

Instead of trying to speculate what changes might happen, it is more useful to focus on the fundamental aspects that will unlikely to change. 

Some of the insights I have shared as snippets are examples of what the fundamental aspects could be:

The Philippines The ‘Getting the most out of what I’ve paid’ mentality is strong. A local term ‘Ayaw malugi’ means ‘don’t want to feel cheated’. The Tingi culture means you can buy cooking oil by the cup, cigarettes by the stick, shampoo by the sachet and garlic in packs of 4 cloves. Locals only buy what they need. It was seen as affordable solutions. But, with the result of what's available, wealthier consumers now simply buy multiple sachets, a habitual and familiar behaviour.

Brazil Family relationships play a key role in social and business interactions. It is not unusual to have 3 generations living in a house. Jeitinho Brasileiro (the “Brazilian way” of living) is an innovative problem-solving strategy where Brazilians use social influence combined with tricks to achieve goals (e.g. get access to free content) despite it means breaking formal rules.

South Korea The Ppalli-ppalli culture, 빨리빨리 (fast-fast, hurry up or quickly) embeds deeply into South Koreans’ daily and working life. The practice of this culture is why this nation was able to achieve tremendous economic progress in a very short period after the 3-year Korean War. The focus on speed not only led to its world-leading Internet speeds & high-tech gadgets but also influenced the high-efficiency of their public transport and other services. As a traditionally Confucian society, South Koreans think highly of a group, not an individual. Koreans expressions such as ‘our (Woo-ri, 우리)’ country, family, company, even ‘our wife’ comes very naturally. The sense of ‘If others are doing it, I too have to do it’ is strong

Kenya Harambee culture (to pull together) - living and working as groups, believing in mutual responsibility and effort is what Kenyans are very familiar with. It’s common for individuals to voluntarily contribute their resources (e.g. cash, labour) towards a communal good. That’s why Chamas (informal cooperative self-help, micro-savings groups) are popular in Kenya. It’s a way for communities to pool resources, investments, friendships & spirit to help each other grow economically and possibly achieve financial independence

What would be a more useful and concrete approach is to understand what these deeper levels of underlying cultural components and factors (including history, economic situation, environment) are. Essentially, understanding these aspects means you always have a strong (unchanged) base to refer back to when crafting your global strategy, without having to worry about what might be changing next and in what form it will change into. Using this approach also means that you will be able to spot opportunities for new innovation (e.g. to shape new behaviours) while staying ahead of this fast-changing world we live in.

When you have a clear understanding of these unshakeable, underlying customer cultural insights, you should also be clear on your business's essential priorities. That will help you avoid running around like a chicken with your head cut off, while still leaving room to experiment with new innovation ideas.