Big Data Analytics: The Gateway to Success in New Markets

As commerce continues to become more global, companies around the world are exploring opportunities to enter new geographies and new markets.

But in order for business leaders and entrepreneurs to connect successfully with consumers in new regions, it’s critical to develop a good understanding about local consumers, including their preferences, behaviors, and other cultural distinctions.

Big data about regional customers combined with analytics can be the gateway to discovery.

By gathering more detailed behavioral information about potential customers, including the channels they use, their life stages and earning power, sales and marketing leaders can use analytics to craft targeted messaging and offers for these prospects.

Understanding and acting on cultural differences and consumer preferences in different geographies is vital to success. For instance, although the color red is viewed positively in Denmark, it’s associated with witchcraft and death in many African countries.

This also extends to behaviors and other distinctive characteristics. Research has shown that consumers in developing countries are more loyal to brands than customers in developed nations.

Marketers can use these and more detailed regional consumer insights to shape marketing and engagement strategies to connect effectively with local consumers. Customer data and big data analytics can also be used by business leaders to better understand and act on the purchasing power of different customer segments in target geographies.

For example, in Latin America, a growing workforce and an increase in the number of women who are actively employed will lead to a broadening of the middle class across the region, according to a recent study.

As household income increases and a growing percentage of consumers are able to afford higher-end products, lowest-cost products will become less appealing as consumers become more interested in products that offer value, convenience, and time-saving.

Given these shifts in consumer preferences, business leaders for a hotel chain that’s looking to expand in Argentina or Brazil could use consumer data and analytics to tailor its offerings and messaging to an upwardly-mobile class of consumers and act on other characteristics that may appeal to them.