Growing in emerging markets - three tips

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Studying the successful strategies of those who have gone before is a helpful way to gain insight into how to do well in these markets, says Geoff Bick, Professor of Marketing at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business (UCT GSB).

Here are three key lessons that marketers should take to heart when planning a marketing strategy in emerging markets

1. Make use of innovative distribution channels
2. Overcome the country of origin effect, where new consumers' attitudes, perceptions and purchasing decisions are often influenced by a products' country of origin - not always positively.
3. Connect your business goals with social progress

The value of connecting business success with social development cannot be underestimated. In fact, Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter has maintained the two can give rise to the next major transformation of business thinking.

"Businesses must reconnect company success with social progress," he wrote in the Harvard Business Review. "Shared value is not social responsibility, philanthropy, or even sustainability, but a new way to achieve economic success. It is not on the margin of what companies do but at the centre."

By adapting modern marketing strategies with the needs of emerging market consumers, today's leaders, and their future counterparts, prepare themselves for success in the global market.

"It's not purely marketing in emerging markets that matters, but also understanding the people, the culture and the challenges you will encounter. In this way, business leaders will grow into marketing professionals prepared for the global market," concludes Bick.

There is a 4-day Strategic Marketing in Emerging Economies (SMEM) course at UCT GSB that teaches the latest marketing thinking, offers insight into the practical side of marketing and gives modern day marketers the lowdown on what it takes to succeed in the world's fastest growing markets.