Thinking Global, Acting Local

Nothing new there.

The term has been around for decades now. Whether it be the different blend of Coke in Mexico to the US; the way Nescafe instant coffee tastes different in France than the UK, the fact that The Big Mac is replaced with the Chicken Maharaja Mac in India

In fact, in 2012, MacDonalds announced(1) that with the fact that 40% of Indians being vegetarians, they would also be setting up vegetarian outlets there as well

Of course, this Thinking Global and Acting Local ( sometimes shortened to being Glocal), also applies to advertising



A Ford Focus is launched like this in the UK





But like this in Italy






A Starbucks looks different in York to one in Tokyo

   

So why on earth do some global Brands think Social should be any different?

If you are one of those brands, then here are 9 reasons why you should focus your Facebook activity locally



(1) MacDonalds to beef up in India with meatless menu

Introducing Groupon Now !

All part of the Glocal thing - Global going Local that is. Although it would be great if Groupon could tailor my daily email deals offers!




Although according to this article from Mobile Commerce Daily Groupon's main challenge is customer retention. The location thing is all over the press at the moment but that does need to be used in conjunction with what else they might know about me as individual. The deals need to be relevant in more ways than just proximity. Surely my preference for Pizza over Thai is important, and the fact that I used the 'Free Muffin with my Coffee' offer when last in this shopping centre

And in fact, it would seem that with this trial as reported in Advertising Age , Groupon could be on the verge of linking transactions to a richer vein of customer data by using the store loyalty card. Seems like a smart move. And as the article suggests, get a view on the longer term return of discounting.

What do you think?