How to market a national brand locally

We may be global citizens but consumers are still very local, with 90% of people basing their purchasing decisions on local factors. However, big companies, in particular, are nervous of local marketing, because of the cost and the potentially adverse effects of a campaign that's not brand compliant.

Andy Wheatley, marketing director at customer management agency Snowball, looks at how technology and data developments mean that companies can now create campaigns centrally and then localise the message. He also examines results from January 2010's fast.MAP/DMA Marketing-GAP Tracking Study, which show that consumers welcome direct marketing, particularly from supermarkets and stores.

He goes on to recommend the keys steps marketers need to take to think global and act local, including turning marketing into a bottom-up process driven by consumer need and using the latest technology to create locally relevant but brand-compliant multi-channel communications simultaneously.