• by Harvey Chipkin , Columnist, November 16, 2015

Marketing globally is an ambitious and potentially rewarding goal, but it’s easier said than done. How do you market to people in all those countries where laws are different in every location and the nuances of targeting audiences would be challenging to a local marketer, not to mention one reaching out from the U.S.

Infocore, a data management company, offers answers and those answers may provide guidelines for marketing internationally. The company owns no data itself but has access to databases all over the world and, according to CEO Kitty Kolding, can help source target audiences for direct marketing in more than 90 countries. Infocore claims to have the largest private repository of data in the world in its International Data Repository, which tracks details on all the direct marketing data outside the U.S. that can be sourced for clients and partners. All told, the repository has access to 13 billion individual records in more than 3,300 separate datasets owned by more than 2,600 data partners. 

“A large number of companies have a predominance of business in the U.S., but want to grow outside of this country,” says Kolding, “and there are large stakes in gaining more market share outside the U.S. We can take existing customer data and enrich it. For instance, we recently did a project with [a major consumer product company] in China where we just had names and addresses, then enriched that with other demographics so marketing could be much more targeted.”

Data collection internationally is a whole other animal than it is in the U.S., according to Kolding, who says that “The U.S. is the most prolific data market by a factor of about 200, which means there is 200 times more data per capita here than anywhere else in the world. When you get outside the U.S., there is much less data available, and the provenance has a much wider range of reliability. The problem in the U.S. is too much data. Outside the U.S., the situation is almost the opposite.” 

What Infocore does is narrow databases into categories, whether it be foodies or new moms. “A company will come to us,” says Kolding, “and ask which sources they should be using. Since we are not data collectors, we will ask them a lot of questions and bring them four or five sources and offer a judgment on how good the data is.” 

Marketing internationally can be tricky, says Kolding, because of data privacy laws, which are different in every country. Also, she says, laws are always changing “and are sometimes onerous.”

Travel is a rich category when it comes to data, says Kolding, because travelers are willing to provide a lot of data that is easily collected and verified. Still, marketing internationally in travel — possibly the most international of businesses — is a challenge because of all the same reasons as in other industries.

Point is that it’s a laudable goal to get your message across internationally. But a lot of time and money can be wasted trying to get that message out to the right potential customers. Outside the U.S., obtaining data is complex, and brands have to be vigilant about what they do and don’t do.  Some countries consider major financial fines; other countries consider jail time.  And regardless of the international laws, companies should always be concerned more about their brand reputation.

Whether it’s Infocore’s tools that are employed or another resource, it’s important to think long and hard before making that marketing leap across borders.