Creating an APAC Marketing Strategy

2024-09-10 12:35 Industry

Tips and strategies for effective marketing plans targeted at the Asia-Pacific region

Expanding to Asia is a trend. Launching in Asia is a trend. It is a coveted market for many businesses, let alone tech companies poised to collect benefits from the post-Brexit digital trade agreements.

Following our recent involvement in the TechUK x Export Academy event focused on getting a business ready for Singapore and further expansion to APAC, we decided to dedicate this newsletter edition to the topic of scaling a business in the Asian market.

Launch Framework for APAC

First of all, there is no single formula that works for everyone. Your go-to-market strategy design will depend on many factors (duh). However, the launch framework outlined below, can be applied regardless of your industry, business size and budgets.

Step 1: Market research.

Really? Honestly, you don’t need a growth marketing agency to tell you this. But hey, let's just make sure that commonsensical things are not overlooked.

When we say ‘market research’ we actually mean it in the most down-to-earth way. Business owners out there, stop hiding behind your screens and Nielsen slides. A proper market research ahead of your launch means actually talking to people. Yeah, just like that. A site visit will do as well.

It seems obvious but so many companies feel that they are pressed for time to launch and show quick results that they don’t spend enough time on this step. Or, they spend time doing the wrong research.

Several myths persist. Let’s debunk them right now:

Myth #1: Marketing research is time-consuming.

Contrary to popular belief, marketing research can be done efficiently within 2-4 weeks, providing timely insights to drive your strategies.

Myth # 2: ‘Proper’ marketing research must be quantitative

While quantitative data is valuable, qualitative research offers in-depth, actionable insights. In-depth interviews with your potential customers have the power to extract insights otherwise inaccessible. You will learn your customers' most pressing needs, pain points and motivations, the channels they trust, the fears they have — and you must know all these things to adapt your product and marketing strategy.

Myth # 3: Marketing research is expensive

Whatever it costs you, you risk incurring more costs if you skip your research. The stakes are high. Opt for the wrong channel mix and your marketing budget will vanish before you wake up to the harsh reality of a failed launch.

Step 2. Make strategic hires

When you are just starting out in a new market consider keeping most of your decision-making in your central hub but do sense-check your strategy with an expert with the local knowledge. Tap into the enormous talent pool we have access to in the UK. Our country is home to talented people from all corners of the planet Earth. Surely, you can find a marketer with the native knowledge of Japanese, Korean, Thai or any other language and culture.

We would however advise against hiring local marketing and PR agencies at the point of your launch.

This is the conventional thinking on the client side (talking from experience):

We shall hire a local PR/marketing agency to solve all our problems.

But with this approach you are more likely to run into more problems.

One of our former clients, a fintech startup, saw PR as an important acquisition channel. With offices in LA, Germany and Eastern Europe, they made a decision to hire local PR agencies in several Asian markets to achieve high reach. Well, the local agencies did exactly what they were asked to do - distributed press releases in local languages to their media database, harvested coverage across some websites (which the client was not in a position to assess) and reported billions of views and impressions.

This did not help with acquisition, let alone conversion.

This is not to say that local partners are not necessary at all. For BTL activities you might need to hire a local event agency and you can always ask for their advice on the things you are doing. This brings us back to the point of market research - sometimes it is as simple as asking a question. You can also use this partner’s local knowledge to understand if there are any local customs or holidays you need to be aware of when launching a campaign or an outreach.

Do you even need to worry about media coverage in the new market?

Daria Partas, Strategic Communications Advisor, Co-founder of Solid Water Marketing Agency:

There is no definite answer and it will all depend on the stakeholders you are targeting. If you are a fintech, you are probably worried about building strong and effective relationships with the local regulator and industry partners. This is where media coverage in reputable business titles such as Mint in India or The Straits Times in Singapore can be an important element of your strategy at the point of market entry.

Your stakeholders may include

regulators
industry partners
consumers
investors

For media coverage try to leverage the resources of your partners with established regional presence. They probably already have some sort of relations going on with the local trade and business media.

You can equally leverage the PR team’s resources of your investors - especially if they are based in the region.

The case of Tonik, the first digital neobank in the Philippines

Tonik, a digital neobank in the Philippines, have made announcements about their equity funding together and in collaboration with their investors. The round was led by Mizuho Bank, which is one of the largest Japanese banking groups and a Top 10 bank by assets in the Asia Pacific region. Other significant new investors in the round included Prosus Ventures, the co-founder of DST Partners Rahul Mehta, as well as a Singapore investment fund Sixteenth Street Capital and Indonesian family office Nuri Group.

The round also featured strong repeat participation from previous VC investors Sequoia India, Point72, Insignia, iGlobe, Alpha JWC, Citius, Blauw Park, and Kraft.

What's interesting in this example is that for Tonik it was most important to have strong relations with investors which they, no doubt, achieved via in-person connections and pitches, but reputation wise they only had to focus on the investor, tech and financial trades within English-speaking titles read in the US, Japan, Singapore and the UK, the financial hubs. The coverage of their funding round was always endorsed by investors.

Step 3: Adaptation

Your product, unique selling propositions (USPs), messaging, creatives, and visuals need to be tailored to fit the local market. For example, while English might be sufficient in Singapore, Hong Kong, and India, in countries like Vietnam and Thailand, you must factor in local languages and even dialects. For one of our clients launching across MENA and SEA we developed creatives in at least five different languages for the launch in one market alone. And the campaigns returned excellent results, with CPA and CPC lower than market benchmarks.

The Diversity of APAC

Countries in the region have drastic differences across the board, from languages to socio-economic structures to geographical and demographical characteristics.

Languages spoken in the region: 2000+
Contentious history and its implications on today’s culture and politics
Diverse religious affiliations: Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto, Sikhism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism.
Cultural differences: various living standards, media consumption habits, communication styles, work ethics and business practices etc.

This means that your market adaptation and launch strategy must be tailored to each individual country. No shortcuts, no cookie-cutter strategies. If hyperlocalization is out of scope at the moment, spend more time on market research and target audience analysis. Choose a market with the highest opportunity and spend your time & budget on building relevancy.

Visual adaptation

Anastasia Dobronravova, Senior Growth Marketing Manager at Solid Water:

Your creatives should be tailored to each market. This includes languages but also visual aesthetics. In the example below, we can see how J&T Express, an international delivery company, which operates across Asia, uses distinct creatives for different countries. This allows them to speak to local consumers in a visual language that they understand. Pushing through with your Western aesthetics may cause mistrust by being too "different" from what consumers are used to in these markets.

Media Channels

Influencers

Before we dive into the social media platforms used by consumers in Asia, let’s consider influencer marketing for a second. It might be daunting for businesses to engage with local influencers because hey, how do you know who is real and who is a scam? When we worked with our client DjookyX, one of our hypotheses was that influencers were hyper relevant for our strategy and must be included in the mix. This totally proved right. We did ask our local PR agency for advice on who to engage with. And although the rest of their work did not bring much anticipated results, they totally proved local expertise by advising on the right influencers to engage with. This paid off and we acquired several thousands users with the help of Mike Angelo, a Thai-Chinese actor and singer.

Social Media Platforms

Identifying the communication channels preferred by your target audience and the sources they trust is a crucial step that allows you to fine-tune your marketing efforts for maximum effectiveness.

Here are the most popular social networks in some APAC countries:

In the UK we are used to a relatively standard channel mix including Meta, Google, TikTok, YouTube and X. However, this is not the case in Asian markets. TikTok is banned here and there, some markets rave about Snapchat, and Facebook Stories are used to sell products and services elsewhere.

Let’s take a look at some interesting stats from Asian markets.*

Indonesia

The most-used platforms are YouTube, Whatsapp, Instagram, and Facebook.

YouTube is steadily gaining popularity in Indonesia. There are over 139 million YouTube users, and YouTube ads reached 65.3% of Indonesia’s total internet user base.

Japan

LINE has over 95 million monthly active users, which make up about 75% of the population. Categorised as a super app, LINE has many features besides messaging. LINE Ads is one of the most effective ways for businesses to get smartphone ad impressions.

Thailand

According to Facebook IQ, 86% of users used Facebook Stories to learn about new products or services, while 74% said they make more online purchases due to Facebook Stories. Something to factor in your omnichannel strategy.

South Korea

92% of the entire South Korean population are social media users. YouTube is the most popular platform, with 46 million users. Kakaotalk is next, with 92% of South Korea’s population using it. Kakaotalk is a messaging app similar to WhatsApp. Like LINE, Kakaotalk also allows brands and companies to publish updates to their page or send direct messages to their followers, such as coupons, product information, photos, videos, and event information.

Singapore**

This country is a nation of foodies. While in other markets, actors, comedians and other performers usually take the second spot for types of social media accounts followed, that’s not the case in Singapore. After people they know, Singaporeans’ favourite social media users to follow are restaurants, chefs and food personalities. Consider this if doing influencer marketing.

*Digital Marketing for Asia

**Digital 2024: Top Digital and Social Media Trends in Singapore, We are social.

Out-of-Home (OOH) and TV:

You will not like this but OOH could sometimes save your investment. It is really down to the local customs and consumer beliefs. It can simply be a matter of prestige more than anything but without this element your launch may be a non-starter. Maybe for a go-to-market test you don’t need to worry about ATL as digital channels may be enough to test messages and creatives, for the full-scale launch, especially in B2C space, do consider brand awareness campaigns. After all, you are an unknown name in the region and ATL campaigns can add credibility to your brand.

For B2B businesses, consider buying outdoor media space in strategic locations: on the way to a conference with your potential clients or on public transport along the commute journey.

Test, analyse, implement and grow.

The key to success is staying humble and never stop experimenting.

You have to test, to make mistakes and learn, always be focused on the data to make fact-based decisions — and you must do it really quickly. This is a growth mindset that your team should embrace.

At Solid Water, we embrace the growth mindset, focusing on continuous testing, learning, and data-driven decisions. We go beyond providing services, partnering with you to unlock your business's potential through insights, analytics, and development. If you need an advisor сontact us to work with a dedicated growth partner committed to measurable results.