Navigating New Markets

Here are four ways to include public affairs in geographic market expansion planning to ensure a smooth and successful entry.

1. Understand the Local Policy Landscape

Conducting a thorough policy and regulatory analysis of a new market long before launch, including existing regulations and current policy discussions that might lead to near-term changes in the regulatory environment, is essential for market entry. The review should be holistic to determine local rules impacting not just core products but other critical business functions such as product distribution, marketing, and operations. 

The review should also identify and map relevant policymakers, regulatory bodies, and influencers. 

Finally, an essential action item from a new market policy review is determining if any product modifications are necessary before entry to ensure compliance with local regulations and accommodate cultural nuances.

2. Build Local Relationships Early and Diplomatically

Building relationships through diplomacy—long before advocacy begins—is vital. Establishing trust and goodwill ensures that policymakers will respect the organization’s voice when it needs to make specific requests. The goal is to establish your company as a valuable community member, not just another foreign entrant.

Here are a few suggestions for building local relationships successfully:

• Be humble. Remember, you are a guest. 

• Ask questions and seek advice at least twice as often as you explain your product or tell a host stakeholder something declarative. 

• Rely on the country manager and local sales team to provide insights into market dynamics, cultural nuances, and regulatory challenges that may not be apparent from a headquarters perspective.

• Connect with relevant government agencies and regulators long before launch to ensure compliance and anticipate any changes that could disrupt business. By establishing open communication channels with policymakers, businesses can often preempt regulatory challenges and shape forthcoming policies to be more favorable.

• Offer expertise to inform local policy discussions through your experience in other markets. This is your unique value proposition and often the most authentic voice you can offer.

Keep your home market’s embassy informed. Their job is diplomacy and support for home country businesses active in the host country. They can help and NEVER want to be surprised.

3. Tailor Your Narrative, not your Story

Your story is the facts. Critical storylines include how your product functions, how users benefit through adoption, your organization's mission and values, and your service level expectations. 

Your narrative is how you communicate those facts, including which facts take priority. For example, a successful narrative prioritizes product features that address local users’ primary pain points. A narrative might lead with the positive benefits a company’s offerings bring to the local economy in one market but the social impact the company’s presence has in another.

Maintaining a story consistent with your home market (and globally) is crucial for ensuring authenticity. Communicating those facts through a locally sensitive narrative is essential to turning potential skeptics into advocates. 

4. Prepare for Crisis

New markets often mean new risks. Since a well-handled crisis can actually enhance your reputation in a new market, be prepared by:

• Conducting a thorough risk assessment specific to the new market;

• Setting up monitoring systems for relevant local conversations as an early warning system for potential hazards;

• Developing localized crisis response plans; and

• Identifying and training local spokespeople.

Entering a new market is about becoming part of a new social, economic, and political ecosystem—not just product fit and market demand. That is why public affairs is such a critical aspect of geographic expansion.