Expanding Internationally? Here’s How to Incorporate Local Culture Into Your Brand

Companies that want to engage in international business expansion face an uphill battle. They need to apply cultural intelligence in business to preserve their brand’s authenticity while respectfully embracing local culture. Doing so requires a thoughtful global brand strategy that incorporates cross-cultural marketing and meaningful, ongoing local collaboration. 

“Glocalization,” or localizing your brand in a way that retains your brand’s core global identity, isn’t easy. The key is to ground customers “in local culture, but do so in a way that feels true to the brand and the destination,” says Kevin Osterhaus, president of Global Lifestyle Brands, Hilton. If you don’t respect place and culture when expanding globally, you risk diluting your brand instead of strengthening it, he says. “For international brands, that means creating experiences that reflect a destination’s character while still delivering that sense of familiarity and trust,” he explains. It’s a delicate balance, but one that should be part of any international market-entry strategy. 

After visiting 90 countries on six continents, I’ve stayed everywhere from international chain hotels that looked like they had been copy and pasted from a template to hotels so localized that I found it hard to relax because everything seemed unfamiliar.  

Within moments of walking into the Hilton by Canopy Osaka Umeda in Japan, I knew I had found somewhere special that managed to strike the right balance. The hotel instantly felt like home because I could tell, unmistakably, that I was in a Hilton, a brand I know well enough to have earned elite status. Yet, I could also immediately feel that I had arrived in a Japanese city with its own character, distinct from the others I had visited, including Tokyo and Kyoto. 

Subtle yet meaningful echoes of local culture were evident throughout the property. The centerpiece of the lobby was an enormous futon mattress suspended from the ceiling, reminiscent of traditional Japanese bedding. Light fixtures throughout the hotel were of the quality and style I expect from Hilton, but I learned during my stay that their distinctive oval shape was designed to resemble the octopus eggs commonly eaten in the region. Even the elevator buttons were made out of a unique material in an unusual style, harkening back to the days when Osaka was a center of the metal industry.

I wondered why this balance was so complex to strike and how Hilton had managed to create a customer experience design that felt truly local and global simultaneously. 

Nearly any brand can “glocalize” effectively, according to a cross-cultural communication expert and representatives from Hilton who have helped the hospitality brand adapt to local cultures worldwide. However, to succeed, it’s essential to have a thoughtful strategy to avoid the missteps that can land a brand engaged in international business expansion in hot water.

Why is cultural localization important for international brands? 

When local culture is overlooked, brands risk losing their authenticity, Osterhaus explains. Consumers quickly sense when an experience feels generic or disconnected from its surroundings, he says. If cross-cultural marketing and design aren’t implemented thoughtfully, it can hurt a brand’s bottom line.

“Cultural localization is vital to the success of international brands because tapping into local expectations leads to more brand awareness,” explains Christopher D. Peace, PhD, assistant teaching professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, who specializes in intercultural communication. “Native users want to feel comfortable, valued and seen, which cannot occur without intentional attention to cultural nuance during localization,” he says. Ultimately, localizing your brand with the right global brand strategy can lead to greater revenue, says Peace. 

How can a brand stay consistent while adapting to local cultures? 

Brands expanding internationally need to be mindful of maintaining consistency, especially as they scale operations. “Consistency requires human-centered research into local cultures. The move should keep the brand’s core promise stable, while constantly seeking local approval in how that promise is uniquely expressed,” Peace explains. 

Peace emphasizes that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to maintaining consistency when localizing your brand. Instead, it “is a delicate balance established through cultural conversations on language, images, UX design and local community references,” he explains. 

To keep a brand consistent while adapting to local cultures, it’s essential to keep the brand’s core axis the same while allowing local expression, explains Srijan Vadhera, general manager of Canopy by Hilton Osaka Umeda. For example, designing hotels as the “living rooms of their communities” is a defining pillar of Graduate by Hilton, Osterhaus says. However, implementation varies by location. At The Randolph Hotel Oxford, a Graduate by Hilton property, the lobby serves as a gathering place rooted in Oxford University’s rich academic legacy and reflects the Gothic architecture prevalent on the storied university’s campus. At Graduate by Hilton in Auburn, Alabama, welcoming public spaces are layered with nods to the university and the town’s deep football tradition.

How do you decide which local elements are “homage” and which might be seen as “appropriation”?

Localizing a global brand needs to be approached “with a strong sense of respect and care,” according to Vadhera. Before launching the Canopy by Hilton Osaka Umeda, Vadhera consulted with locals in the neighborhood surrounding the hotel and the Japanese team involved in the hotel’s opening. 

This was not a quick or simple process. Vadhera emphasizes the importance of taking the time to develop a deep understanding of the cultural background behind local symbols, foods and traditions. That way, brands can “ensure that local elements are incorporated as a form of appreciation and understanding—not surface-level imitation,” he says.

Moreover, rather than assigning this responsibility of localizing the brand to a single person, Vadhera asked his entire team to “continuously share and gather what they find inspiring and meaningful about Osaka.” Many of the decisions he made about how to localize the brand came through these everyday conversations, observations and connections, he says. “These insights naturally lead us to local partners who align with our values and vision,” says Vadhera. 

Peace also emphasizes the importance of conducting community surveys and soliciting local input at every stage. “Community surveys and opinions should be front and center in the process of localization, used as a cultural metric to define ‘homage’ and ‘appropriation,’” he says.

Additionally, localizing a global brand is an ongoing process, Peace explains. If you aren’t periodically reviewing your localization strategy, you risk becoming static or outdated, so it’s important to keep discussions with locals ongoing, he says.

Thanks to Vadhera’s close and ongoing collaboration with the local community and attention to detail, “guests have shared that the hotel feels like a natural part of the neighborhood, which has been very encouraging,” he says. 

What are the risks of ignoring local culture during expansion? 

Brands that fail to take local culture into account when expanding internationally do so at their own risk. “Ignoring local culture is a sure way to remain excluded from the potential brand awareness and broader revenue that localization can deliver,” Peace explains. “While it is laborious to study and gather the nuances of specific cultures, 84% of marketers worldwide see positive revenue growth as a result of localization, according to a Unbabel survey,” he says. 

Moreover, ignoring local culture can harm your brand. “Some common pitfalls include symbolic misunderstandings, tone mismatches and negative perceptions on surface-level engagement,” Peace explains. 

For example, an ill-fated Swatch ad campaign in China featured an Asian male model pulling the corners of his eyes up in a “slanted eye” pose. The local population thought the ad played into racist stereotypes, and many found it offensive, Peace says. As a result, Swatch sales in China plummeted. If Swatch had sought meaningful local input and opinions, as Peace suggests, the brand might have avoided this fiasco. 

To ensure you are doing your due diligence, Peace suggests “tracing what you changed, why you changed it and what evidence supported those changes.” This process not only makes it easier for leadership to evaluate trade-offs quickly, but also “helps secure trust and presents transparency from external stakeholders and the target cultural market.”

How should a brand respond if it makes a mistake? 

Even the most well-intentioned localization efforts may backfire. For that reason, it’s important to “be prepared to plan responses,” Peace says. “If feedback is negative, respond with clarity and accountability, not defensiveness, and explain what the brand will do differently next time,” he urges. 

In reaction to its “slanted eye” ad, Swatch issued an apology. However, the apology was lackluster and made matters worse because most people found it insincere, Peace explains. “Ignoring this history of discrimination specific to cultural heritage breeds less user trust and results in financial drawbacks,” he explains.

In contrast, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) rolled out a global campaign centered around the phrase “assume nothing.” “When the organization localized around the globe, their slogan was mistranslated as ‘do nothing’ in many languages,” Peace explains. Instead of leaving parts of the world with the impression that HSBC was a lazy and untrustworthy institution, the company spent around $10 million to rebrand and replace the slogan with “The World’s Private Bank,” Peace explains. The switch “explicitly fixed the damage caused by the poor localization,” he says. 

Peace stresses that thinking critically and using cultural intelligence in business from the outset can save millions. However, if there is a step, investing in “regaining client trust is worth it in the end,” he says. 

Featured image by murattellioglu / Shutterstock.com.