As this month’s McKinsey Quarterly describes in “Building Brands in Emerging Markets“, emerging market consumers are more heavily influenced by early brand awareness,  personal recommendations from family and friends, and a positive in-store experience. Long-distance, virtual marketing won’t reach them effectively. This poses a real problem for smaller companies who hope to market internationally without investing in a lot of local representatives, marketing materials and incurring other high start up costs.

If you’re such a seller–whether of professional services or products–use this McKinsey data to target emerging-market consumers more effectively. Ask, “How can I reach my target consumer, and then encourage or incentivize them to market to their friends and family? What’s unique about their culture that I can leverage to make my service or product more appealing and compelling?”

Reuters reports that Chinese sellers are playing the patriotism card to attract Chinese buyers, taking advantage of current anti-Japanese fervor.  To make your offering more appealing, you could launch a local promotion tied to a national holiday or pastime–even if it isn’t something that appeals to you or would work in America.

For example, you might tie a promotion to the Mid-Autumn Festival, which usually falls in September or October. This holiday lends itself to promotions given that there are many traditional items involved, including lanterns and moon cakes (largely made of lotus bean paste).

Utilizing some of those traditional items need not cost a lot–and could generate Word of Mouth referrals which are so crucial to success in emerging-market consumers.

A new study published in Psychological Science finds that thinking through issues in a foreign language reduces bias, producing a more balanced result. In other words, how an issue is described (whether as a potential gain or loss) in the thinker’s native tongue clouds the thinker’s ability to analyze the data objectively.  This bias disappears when the thinker shifts to thinking in a foreign language.

So, the next time that you ponder a global business issue, try pondering it a foreign language of your choice.   You are bound to weigh the risks and rewards more  accurately.

Recently I’ve worked with global executive who is based in one part of the globe but reports to US headquarters. A lot of friction had developed between the executive and her superiors. Her corporation’s US-centric corporate leadership had struggled to understand the challenges she faced in her part of the globe.

We began to prioritize her forging stronger relationships with US management. For example, she made an effort to increase “face time” with these superiors, whether in person or via conference call, and to clarify (and meet) their expectations etc… She made a point of attending optional offsite meetings rather than always eschewing them in favor of pressing work in her region. Finally, she became more adept at managing cross cultural differences–communicating with colleagues at headquarters more directly, as her American colleagues did.

Implementing this plan wasn’t always easy. It required her to delegate more to her direct reports in her region, and to travel to the US more often. But she realized that to succeed in her geographically distant region, she needed people she could depend on at headquarters to tell her the truth and help her sidestep minefields long distance.

Her efforts to build and nurture strong relationships at headquarters–up, down and across the corporate hierarchy–paid off. She was promoted and received a raise when management began to understand her value and see her as a team member.

Global leadership success demands such strategic partnerships across cultures. “New leaders are those who are adept at building partnerships, both one-to-one and one-to-many, as a matter of habit” said Marshall Goldsmith and Maya Hu-Chan in Being an Effective Global Leader. 

Today’s effective global leaders know this truth:  Build strong relationships habitually–and main them across the miles, even when difficult.

So what does this mean for those of us working globally? If we end up negotiating in another language, will our messages be mistrusted?

Solutions include (1) working with a native speaker to coach you in your accent, (2) bringing a native speaker to the meetings as a fellow negotiator or interpreter, (3) and building personal relationships (and with the other parties before business begins.  Trust and credibility built in advance may outweigh such subconscious mistrust.

Yet another reason to build powerful business relationships across cultures.

Even financial advisory companies are beginning to use social media, although, like many professional service providers, they must be careful about client confidentiality and related issues. (Note the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s January 2010 Regulatory Notice on Guidance on Blogs and Social Networking Sites, and comments on it posted on SocialMediaToday).  Interest in social media spurred on consultancies like Advisorlocity, which  offers  a social media starter kit for financial service companies.  CEO Bruce Johnston told MutualFundWire.com that he aims to help financial services companies utilize social media networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

But how can these social media tools be used creatively to attract potential clients? Markitecture, a DC area marketing firm, suggests that an architecture firm could engage potential clients by chronicling (via Twitter and Facebook etc…) a high-profile project from start to finish.  Not only would this give readers a reason to return to the site again and again, deepening their mental commitment to the firm, it would also give potential clients insights into how the firm works on projects. In addition, Markitecture recommends that architects start a Facebook page focusing on a particular neighborhood or targeted area in the city, constantly updating the page with news, photos, and area history.

For professionals who work internationally, social media’s long reach can be powerful. Building on Markitecture’s example above, architects working in Dubai, Dublin and Denver could showcase their global projects through social media, thus reaching potential audiences globally.  Similarly, accountants, financial advisors and other professionals could create numerous blogs or pages on their home websites, each targeting clients in a particular region of the world—and also  communicating their overall global expertise.

And so, it was fitting that I spotted an article in the March 9th issue of the International Herald Tribune about how cross cultural understanding is the KEY to international business success.  Tanya Mohn gave several good examples–my favorite being about how a British proposal to an American firm fell flat because it began by listing all the pitfalls and risks. While the Brits thought they were doing a good job of disclosing the downside, their approach turned off the American clients.  Resubmitting the proposal with a positive spin clinched the deal.

In the Frankfurt business lounge I heard Russians negotiating with Aussies, and Italians speaking to Germans, to name a few.   Somehow we expect cultural business differences to arise between those folks–after all, they don’t speak the same native language–but not between Americans and British. However, yesterday’s article proved to the contrary. For a business payoff across cultures, you must know the other side’s cultural outlook–even if you both speak the same native tongue.

As this shows, professional service firms don’t have to be big players on the global scene–or be located in an international business hub–in order to develop business globally.

Just like JMGR, which now has designed hospitals in booming Chinese cities like Shanghai and Tianjin,  professional service firms can look for ways to take advantage of the increased growth in emerging markets. And cash-rich companies in emerging markets, like India and China, are also expanding abroad (creating even more opportunity for professionals). For instance, Indian corporation Tata upped its global prominence with the 2008 purchase of British-owned Land Rover and Jaguar–which is, according to Market Watch, part of an “aggressive expansion”.

In contrast, desperate Western companies are looking to move into emerging countries due to the slim prospects for growth at home.  For example, British insurance company Prudential has announced plans to purchase the Asian assets of American International Group for $35.5 billion;  Asian earnings would account for more than half of Prudential’s overall profits.  The Economic Times reports that American company Kraft purchased the British company Cadbury in part because of Cadbury’s Indian holdings.  After all, 38% of Cadbury’s recent growth came from emerging markets (as opposed to Kraft’s mere 20%).

Regardless of whether the expansion is into emerging or other foreign markets, the point is that companies are expanding globally.  And the globalization of companies creates more work for service providers such as accountants, engineers, lawyers, and architects.  So, how can you successfully capitalize on this international growth? Learning from JMGR, the answer may be simple.  As the story of Wang and the Memphis architects shows,  a simple business relationship  “can translate to a long-term, mutually beneficial business relationship”.

Zynga founder, Mark Pincus, created FarmVille to be an uncomplicated game that people can relate to regardless of their culture. In an interview this week with CNN Pincus states that a “farm is something that is internationally understood and known. It’s cross-cultural, cross-gender, cross-age. A great social game should be like a great cocktail party. If you want it to appeal to absolutely everyone you invite, it has to be broad in its content so that everyone gets it.”  The farm concept is so simple, yet genius at the same time.

FarmVille’s success should be no surprise to Steve Ennen and Eric Bradlow of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and keynote speakers at the 2010 Online Marketing Summit.  Their theory is that if a person participates in a particular activity, then their peers are certain to follow.  That doesn’t seem to be a ground-breaking discovery, but it does validate what many proponents of social network marketing are saying. The key for businesses is to adapt quickly to the ever-changing world of social media and its users in order to harvest the benefits. In other words, even if a particular social media tool doesn’t last forever, take advantage of it while it’s popular.

So, what can you learn from FarmVille’s success? Start by taking a cue from Zynga.  Find a concept that most of your ideal clients can relate to, and then adapt and integrate it into the marketing of your services. Just as people in all cultures can relate to farms, do your prospective clients share a particular need or interest? Think about creating an interactive, online tool to engage your clients and address those common concerns and interests–something like an interactive blog, resource center which welcomes contributions from clients and colleagues, or even (in the spirit of FarmVille) a game  (why not?).

Or, participate alongside your clients in an existing social media tool. For example, let’s say that you’re an immigration lawyer, financial planner or international tax accountant who wants more Venezuelan clients based in the U.S.  There are dozens and dozens of LinkedIn groups for professional Venezuelans–even one so specific that it’s geared for Venezuelans professionals living in Houston, Texas.  Participating in social media groups WITH your ideal clients is a great way to start a dialog. After all, if you want to expand your business, you’ve got to spend time (virtually or in person) with your potential clients.