The development of the European market is a promising direction for development for many companies, however, consumer behavior in different European countries differs significantly depending on the location. In this article, we will talk about what features there are in general in European marketing and what problems you may encounter when promoting your product abroad.
What is marketing and why is it needed
In simple words, marketing is the promotion of products. The main tasks of marketing are to understand what consumers want, how to satisfy their needs, and sell them a product to make a profit.
There are more than two thousand definitions of marketing, this is a generalized one. Let’s bring two more. American economist and marketer Philip Kotler writes in his book Fundamentals of Marketing: “Marketing is a type of human activity aimed at satisfying needs and requirements through exchange.”
The American Marketing Association defines it as follows: “Marketing is the process of planning and inventing, pricing, promoting and selling ideas, goods and services through exchange to satisfy the goals of individuals and organizations.”
Marketing is a basic function of business, a set of many processes. At the same time, it is a scientific discipline that is taught in universities and business schools. Inside it are many concepts, tools and methods.
Different specialists are involved in different marketing processes – from contextologists to copywriters. But marketers are responsible for everything. In small companies, there may be one marketer who manages contractors and does some of the work himself. In large companies, there may be a staff of marketers – they are led by a marketing director.
We can say that everyone who produces and sells any goods, services and products is engaged in marketing. Even if a company receives orders only through word of mouth and does not have a marketer on staff, it still uses marketing.
The global goal of marketing is to bring as much profit to the company as possible. It can be formulated in different ways. For example, the “father” of management, Peter Drucker, formulated it this way: “Make sales efforts unnecessary. It is so good to know and understand the client that the product or service will fit the latter exactly and sell itself.
Bilingual approach
In Europe, due to the diversity of languages, most companies usually use a bilingual approach in advertising: outdoor and TV advertising are in the national language, while online advertising is in both the national language and English. Small companies in the consumer sector are localized by the country.
However, in many countries all advertising campaigns are carried out only in the national language, which significantly limits the possible audience.
Example
An inspiring English-language commercial was filmed for UVI’s online campaign for the Beat Hawk app.
The video was broadcast in the United States and in almost all European countries. The result of the first wave showed that in countries where the state (or highly used) language was English, the video was successful. In countries with low levels of English, the situation was reversed. As a result, the video was translated into French, Italian and Spanish, which allowed to dramatically increase in the results of the advertising campaign.
In Europe, you almost never meet a person who will carry a TV set home from a store, since it is unprofitable for stores to keep a large stock.
It will be cheaper for them to bring the same TV to the customer’s home, and for free. In Germany, it is absolutely normal to order a car online and get a discount for it.
Also, the choice of a platform for promotion depends on the type of your business. For example, ads for a casino, 22Bet app, or bookmaker perform better on the Internet, while product ads still do well on TV and in newspapers.
Emphasis on benefits
In online retail, it is important to consider consumer behavior. For example, in some post-Soviet countries, buyers always check prices and compare them on various Internet resources. In Europe, more attention is paid to the properties of goods and their practicality.
For example, if you come to the salon to buy a car, then they will first of all focus on its economy: they will tell you how much money you will spend on its maintenance. It is the same with housing: when choosing an apartment or a house in Europe, sellers focus on saving your money – they will talk about the advantages of energy-efficient houses.
In Nielsen’s “Changing Consumer Prosperity” survey, 51% of respondents say products are functional and 42% are great designs. European consumers almost always trust the set price. This is due to the economic level of development of individual European countries.
TV advertising
In Europe, TV is localized geographically. There is no single popular channel that everyone watches. In addition, the television advertising market in most of Europe is under pressure.
Audiences are choosing new platforms and devices, making it difficult for broadcasters to reach massively at the same time. And major Internet platforms such as Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon Tv, Hulu compete for the audience and seriously compete with classic TV.
In the future, TV advertising will be similar to contextual advertising: digital TV will analyze information about consumers (gender, age, hobbies, how much and at what time you watch TV) and display advertising based on relevant data.
Advertising in European newspapers is more practical, as the press is also localized. Even in the national French newspaper, advertising will be different – depending on the region.
Online channels
Among the online channels in Europe, Facebook dominates as the most actively used social network among residents. Therefore, Facebook is the main channel for promotion in Europe.
In addition, Google Adwords plays a big role. Well, the future, of course, belongs to YouTube, due to the active growth in the consumption of video content in Europe.
Another key growth area is audio advertising: podcast and music streaming services. It is expected to become a billion-euro market by 2023.
In the near future, in Europe, as in the US, non-programmed advertising will become a thing of the past. And programmable, as statistics show, will be the driving force behind all future growth in digital advertising, and by 2023 the share of the former will decrease significantly.
