Marketing Mayhem: 5 Tips to Marketing Your Brand in Mexico

So you have had relative success with your brand elsewhere and you’re looking to take Mexico by storm! It’s completely understandable given that our neighbor to the South is a quickly developing nation with a surplus of prospects for any business-minded individual willing to take a few risks. But don’t drop in unprepared! Before you go in all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed eager to push your brand and become a success, take into account these five tips:

Know Your Audience. By this I mean: really, really, REALLY know your audience! Sometimes it’s easy to assume that brands which work in the USA or Canada will work well in a place like Mexico. This isn’t always the case. Mexico has a culture all its own and there may not be huge demand for certain items. Tweaking your brand to accommodate to this is one of the best things you can do when aiming for success.

Hop on the Research Train. Marketing a brand abroad involves so much more than just making sure your brand is something people want. You need to learn as much as you can about the culture before you even begin considering where you want to put your ten foot high advertising post-board. Culture probably plays one of the biggest roles in marketing your brand. You need to consider how conservative your target audience is, take into account even the tiniest of concepts like religious preferences and people’s attitude towards animals. You’ll have a hard time pushing high-priced, organic and animal friendly clothing (for example) if the local culture doesn’t have the view that animals have feelings too.

Connect…Then Connect Some More. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. In Mexico, having a successful business, or successfully marketing your brand is enormously dependent upon who you know. Start small. Before you even make that first business trip, make at least one connection with someone (preferably Mexican) who is living in your target area. Build your relationship with them then ask them to introduce you to contacts and so on and so forth. Build up a firm base of connections and marketing your brand should become an easier process.

A+ is for Advice. I know it’s tough to take criticism, even when the person giving it is doing it with the best intentions. We’d all like to believe our product is perfect and we can make it all on our own. Your local connections can provide you with invaluable advice for nearly everything: from cultural expectations to how to make your brand more appealing. Remember, you are the foreigner here and they are, in a way, the local experts. Many of their ideas can help you market your brand more efficiently and with a greater degree of success.

No Pain No Gain. So your brand didn’t take off right away; your first attempt failed, no one was interested in buying it, everything went wrong, you couldn’t get the right connections, and so on. Don’t throw in the towel though; making it in Mexico doesn’t happen overnight – especially if you’re bringing a completely unique and new brand concept to the table. Look at the small failures as opportunities to re-think your strategy.

Taking your brand abroad is both an exciting and daunting turning point in your career. These five tips should help pave the way as you try to navigate the beginning stages of your soon to be flourishing career in Mexico. To be a true marketing guru, you may also like to get a head start on language learning by sending us an inquiry about the variety of Spanish classes offered (or even take a placement exam in order to see if your Spanish skills are up to par).

Market your brand and market it with all you’ve got! Remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day and your brand may not become an instant hit, but keep plugging away and you and success will surely cross paths in the near future.