International expansion strategy: how to enter a new market

What is an international strategy and why does it fail in practice?

International expansion strategy is a plan for entering and growing in markets outside the home country. In theory, it means choosing markets, entry models, customer segments, and how to compete. In practice, however, many companies treat it as a simple copy of local activities, and that is the main mistake. As Jan-Benedict Steenkamp shows in his book "Global Brand Strategy" (2017), global brands create value not through standardization but through deliberately combining global consistency with local adaptation. Integration is key, not rigid uniformity.

An international strategy answers the question: how should the company appear from the perspective of a customer in Munich, Prague, or Stockholm? The answer includes decisions about pricing, distribution channels, customer service, and which elements of the offer are universal and which need to be changed. This is much more than translating a website. Without such an approach, expansion becomes a series of costly trials and errors. A company from a mid-sized city translates its Polish website into German with an automatic translator, copies the same Google Ads campaign word for word, and waits for inquiries. A month later, it has three clicks and zero leads, because the German customer searches for completely different keywords, trusts different certifications, and does not understand why the price list is in a foreign currency.

In our region, we see companies that do very well in their local market but get lost in the maze of local conditions abroad. That is why in the business scaling process we always start with a diagnosis: what in your offer carries universal value, and what needs to be redesigned for a specific market.

Global consistency or local adaptation? The key choice in expansion strategy

In his book, Steenkamp describes the Global Marketing Mix Strategy model, which forces a choice between the level of global integration and local adaptation. It is a spectrum of decisions for each element of the mix: product, price, distribution, promotion, not a simple either/or. For example, the product may be 90% the same, but packaging and communication must be 100% local. Price, in turn, may require a completely different strategy due to purchasing power and competition.

In practice, this means that an international expansion strategy must be written anew for each market, but based on a common framework. Otherwise, you lose economies of scale and brand consistency. On the other hand, too rigidly adhering to global standards leads to ignoring local needs. Consumers can be ruthless: as research by Hammerl and colleagues ("Attribution of symbolic brand meaning", 2016) shows, they avoid brands associated with dissociative groups, even if the product is functionally good. If your brand is perceived as "foreign" and "imposed," you will lose to a local player, even with a worse product. A brand enters the Czech market with the same image campaign that worked well in Poland, with a slogan that sounds stiff and corporate in translation. Local audiences comment under posts that "it sounds like a company that does not know us," and they prefer a smaller, local provider that speaks their language.

Therefore, in the model of a marketing agency we always recommend starting with a cultural and market audit. This is the foundation on which we build further steps. Without this audit, every subsequent decision, from channel selection to communication tone, will be based on guesswork.

The role of team and coordination in building a foreign strategy

Expansion is not only market analysis, but above all teamwork. And here a often underestimated aspect appears: coordination. Stavros Georgiades in his work "Organization Management: Dynamic Creative Team Coordination" (2022) describes a model of dynamic coordination of creative groups. It is a cyclical process of forming, modifying, and dissolving sub-teams to achieve coordination. In practice, this means that during expansion you cannot stick to a rigid organizational scheme. You must create temporary task forces that solve specific problems, such as entering a distribution channel in Germany, and then dissolve them and return to formal roles.

Georgiades emphasizes that formal structures are necessary as frameworks, but informal practices allow adaptation to changing needs. Leaders should consciously allow temporary departures from formal roles to increase effectiveness. This is an important tip for companies from the region, which often operate based on strict hierarchy. In foreign expansion, such rigidity can be deadly. Diversity of competencies in the team is a key factor triggering informal coordination practices: the more diverse the team, the easier it adapts to new conditions.

In our projects, we often use the model of an interim marketing manager, who acts as such a "coordination adapter." This person is not burdened by daily company politics but has the skills to build bridges between headquarters and the local market. This speeds up decision-making, and the team does not get stuck in formalities.

Performance-based compensation model for expansion: success fee in practice

One of the biggest challenges in foreign expansion is settling the work of the team and agencies. Standard hourly or monthly retainer models can be ineffective because they do not motivate achieving specific market goals. Therefore, the success fee for foreign expansion model is increasingly used: payment based on results. In this approach, part of the compensation depends on achieving predefined milestones, such as the number of leads acquired, signed distribution agreements, or increased brand awareness in the target segment.

Our agency, operating in the region, has been managing budgets under our care for over 16 years. During this time, we have developed a model that combines a fixed component with a performance-based part. This way, the client pays for real progress, not for the agency's "presence" at meetings. However, it is important that the success fee is based on hard metrics, not subjective assessments. In this context, it is worth returning to the cold emailing principles described by Reddot Growth ("8 Rules for Cold Emailing in 2023"). First, tailor your message to a specific audience before scaling your campaign. The same applies to success fee: first, we define the ICP (ideal customer profile) on the new market, and only then do we set numerical goals.

For example, if you enter the Czech market, we don't start with mass campaigns. First, we segment the database by job title, industry, growth rate, and purchase intent. Then we measure the interest rate (number of interested replies / number of emails sent), not just the overall reply rate. This allows us to iterate quickly and improve campaign results before spending budget on ineffective actions.

How to avoid cultural pitfalls and build a brand in a new market?

The last but crucial element of an expansion strategy is communication and brand building. When entering a new market, you must understand that your brand will be evaluated through the lens of local reference groups. According to Heider's balance theory (described in studies by Hammerl et al., 2016), consumers change their attitudes toward brands when their attitude toward the reference group changes. If your brand becomes associated with a group that local customers do not want to belong to, you lose, even if the product is great.

Therefore, in a communication strategy for a new market, it is not enough to translate your website. You need to build local context. This means collaborating with local influencers, adapting the tone of communication to local norms, and avoiding associations that are neutral in your country but may be perceived negatively abroad. It is also worth remembering the power of media and advertising formats. Research by De Pelsmacker ("Advertising in New Formats and Media", 2016) shows that in conditions of high advertising saturation, unconventional formats (e.g., TV billboards) maintain effectiveness, while traditional spots lose efficiency. This is a hint that in a new market, it is worth experimenting with formats that are not yet "worn out" by the competition.

In summary, a foreign expansion strategy is a process that requires combining three elements: an analytical approach to the market (COMET, Value Map), flexible team coordination (the Georgiades model), and conscious brand meaning building (reference group theory). Without this, even the best product will not guarantee success abroad.