How Giordano Successfully Launched Its Brand in Fast Growing Emerging Markets
05/09/21 • 30 min
There once was a time when brands would only dabble in emerging markets. Most brands avoided them. Too complicated. Too risky. Not enough potential revenue to justify the investment.
But that’s starting to change - and that change is being driven by two key factors.
Traditional developed markets are highly competitive (every brand wants to be in these markets) and they are mature markets - making growth more difficult. But that’s been the case for a while.
What’s changing the game is that now emerging nations are seeing impressive growth of their middle classes - in terms of percent of population and buying power.
And these are not all small nations.
Countries like Indonesia with a population of about 246 million, Nigeria with 201 million, India at 1.3 billion weigh in terms of numbers. Smaller markets in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Africa also have a growing consumer populations who can and will buy international brands.
Even though the numbers look enticing, entering these markets is not for beginners. New markets bring with them new challenges. If nothing less than understanding local cultures and business practices.
So how does a brand go about identifying which of these markets could be the right market for them? And then how do they get started where simply replicating what they did in traditional markets is not likely to be successful?
To learn more about entering emerging markets I reached out to Mark Loynd, an Executive Director at Giordano International, and the group’s General Counsel and Head of Overseas Markets.
If you’re looking at how to bring your brand into an emerging market, then Mark is the man to see. He’s been there, seen it and done it.
Mark has led Giordano’s successful expansion into nine countries in Africa, including its recent entry into Ghana, 8 countries in Central Asia, 7 Eastern European nations and many more in Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
TIME STAMPS
(4.46) Identifying the Right New Markets
(8.48) Managing Inventory across over 30 Markets
(13:47) The Benefits of a Strong Commitment to Quality
(15:26) Understanding the New Consumer
(16:19) Why Sticking to Their DNA has Paid Off
(20:03) Fastest Growing Markets
Before we get started, if you are looking to create collections for your brand that will be must-buys in new markets or traditional markets, then SPINEXPO is the place for you! It’s the primary exhibition for yarns and knitwear.
From technical innovation to cutting edge colour and design inspiration, SPINEXPO is a rich resource that provides well edited forums featuring high quality products, as well as exclusive trend information that cannot be found anywhere else. You can learn more at: www.spinexpo.com
And don’t forget to check out our new podcast website where you can find all of the previous episodes of A Seat at The Table podcast, the show notes, plus lots of other useful information. You can find it at www.seat.fm. That’s seat.fm - fm because it’s a podcast.
USEFUL LINKS
SPINEXPO: www.spinexpo.com
Giordano International: www.giordano.com
A Seat at The Table website: https://seat.fm
The Current Situation in Sourcing:
Growth marketing tips & tech insights from those who’ve done it.
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Visit A Seat at The Table's website at https://seat.fm
There once was a time when brands would only dabble in emerging markets. Most brands avoided them. Too complicated. Too risky. Not enough potential revenue to justify the investment.
But that’s starting to change - and that change is being driven by two key factors.
Traditional developed markets are highly competitive (every brand wants to be in these markets) and they are mature markets - making growth more difficult. But that’s been the case for a while.
What’s changing the game is that now emerging nations are seeing impressive growth of their middle classes - in terms of percent of population and buying power.
And these are not all small nations.
Countries like Indonesia with a population of about 246 million, Nigeria with 201 million, India at 1.3 billion weigh in terms of numbers. Smaller markets in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Africa also have a growing consumer populations who can and will buy international brands.
Even though the numbers look enticing, entering these markets is not for beginners. New markets bring with them new challenges. If nothing less than understanding local cultures and business practices.
So how does a brand go about identifying which of these markets could be the right market for them? And then how do they get started where simply replicating what they did in traditional markets is not likely to be successful?
To learn more about entering emerging markets I reached out to Mark Loynd, an Executive Director at Giordano International, and the group’s General Counsel and Head of Overseas Markets.
If you’re looking at how to bring your brand into an emerging market, then Mark is the man to see. He’s been there, seen it and done it.
Mark has led Giordano’s successful expansion into nine countries in Africa, including its recent entry into Ghana, 8 countries in Central Asia, 7 Eastern European nations and many more in Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
TIME STAMPS
(4.46) Identifying the Right New Markets
(8.48) Managing Inventory across over 30 Markets
(13:47) The Benefits of a Strong Commitment to Quality
(15:26) Understanding the New Consumer
(16:19) Why Sticking to Their DNA has Paid Off
(20:03) Fastest Growing Markets
Before we get started, if you are looking to create collections for your brand that will be must-buys in new markets or traditional markets, then SPINEXPO is the place for you! It’s the primary exhibition for yarns and knitwear.
From technical innovation to cutting edge colour and design inspiration, SPINEXPO is a rich resource that provides well edited forums featuring high quality products, as well as exclusive trend information that cannot be found anywhere else. You can learn more at: www.spinexpo.com
And don’t forget to check out our new podcast website where you can find all of the previous episodes of A Seat at The Table podcast, the show notes, plus lots of other useful information. You can find it at www.seat.fm. That’s seat.fm - fm because it’s a podcast.
USEFUL LINKS
SPINEXPO: www.spinexpo.com
Giordano International: www.giordano.com
A Seat at The Table website: https://seat.fm
The Current Situation in Sourcing:
Growth marketing tips & tech insights from those who’ve done it.
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Visit A Seat at The Table's website at https://seat.fm
Previous Episode
How To Create an Ecosystem That Drives High Value Brands
Today a strong brand can be a company’s most valuable asset.
Companies who’ve done branding right have racked up massive brand valuations like Apple at $263 billion, Amazon at $254 billion, Microsoft at $140 billion ... and it’s not just tech brands. Coca-cola weighs in at $64 billion, Louis Vuitton at $47 billion, Nike at $39 billion and Walmart at $29 billion.
And that’s only the top of the list.
Building a brand is long term investment, but it’s one that can pay off handsomely.
As we’ve seen during the spate of retail bankruptcies during the past 4 years, even if the business fails, there is usually a buyer who is willing to acquire the companies intellectual property - in other words - it’s brand.
But what does it take to create a brand that has the power - and value - of say Apple or Nike?
In this episode I reached out to Alina Wheeler, author of the Designing Brand Identity. The book, now it is fifth edition, has become the definitive resource for understanding all of the touch points that create the ecosystem necessary for building a high value power brand.
Timestamps
(3:45) What is a brand?
(6:20) The importance of brand discipline
(6:55) Getting on the Brand Train
(12:04) Find your 'big idea'
(17:20) Focus on you key message
(17:55) 4 key questions to define your brand
(18:58) Building trust
(22:55) Getting content management under control
(26:05) Creating your brand signature
(27:38) Overcoming the biggest challenge
By the way, if you are looking to develop the kind of knitwear collections that consumer fall in love with the SPINEXPO is the fair for you.
From trend information to technical innovation, SPINEXPO is the primary exhibition for yarns and knitwear. The fair provides well-edited forums featuring high quality products that are bursting with creativity.
To learn more, go to SPINEXPO.com. You can also find a link in the show notes for this episode.
And don’t forget to check out our new podcast website where you can find all of the previous episodes of A Seat at The Table podcast, the show notes, plus lots of other useful information.
You can find it at www.seat.fm.
USEFUL LINKS
Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler: On AmazonConnect with Alina Wheeler: http://designingbrandidentity.info/Alina's Twitter: https://twitter.com/alinawheelerAlina's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alinawheeler/?hl=enSPINEXPO: www.spinexpo.comA Seat at The Table website: https://seat.fm
Growth marketing tips & tech insights from those who’ve done it.
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Visit A Seat at The Table's website at https://seat.fm
Next Episode
Why Embracing Failure is the Path to Better Leadership
Never in recent times has leadership been put to the test the way it has during the past year.
Suddenly managers found themselves not only facing unprecedented business conditions, but they also needed to work with teams that were now working from home.
Navigating these challenging circumstances was the perfect opportunity for executives to develop new leadership skills. To learn fast, take risks and test boundaries - without the fear of failure.
Who better to speak with now as we head into the next phase of the ‘pandemic era’ than Colin Hunter, CEO of Potential Squared, which specializes in using virtual reality technology to help leaders reveal and learn from their true behaviors and habits .
Colin is set to release the much anticipated, “Be More Wrong: How Failure Makes You An Outstanding Leader” , which uncovers the systems, habits, and practices executives need in order to develop critical leadership skills and learn fast.
It brings together multiple concepts including The Hero’s Journey, Design Thinking Methodology, storytelling, personal resilience, psychological safety, strategic presence and the blended skills of coaching and mentoring into a leadership framework.
Before we get started, if you are looking to develop knitwear collections that will be bestsellers - both online and offline - then Spinexpo is the place to go. It is the primary exhibition for yarn and knitwear.
The fair offers a carefully curated selection of high quality yarns and knitwear that’s bursting with creativity. Not to mention outstanding trend information that can not be found anywhere else. You can learn more at www.spinexpo.com. There’s also a link in the show notes.
Useful Links:
Learn more about SPINEXPO: www.spinexpo.com
Connect with Colin Hunter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinhunter
Connect with Potential Squared: https://www.potential2.com/en-gb/
A Seat at The Table website: www.seat.fm
Growth marketing tips & tech insights from those who’ve done it.
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Visit A Seat at The Table's website at https://seat.fm
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