The modern world’s consumers have become highly specific and diversified. They know what they want and what they don’t want. This includes the products and services that businesses offer and also extends to the content these brands create. In such a landscape, general content appeals to a decreasing number of consumers. Hence, launching a nationwide campaign with one content piece for all is like building a dam just to catch a few fish; you pay a high cost, generate a diluted impact, and get an underwhelming turnaround.
Why so? Because a general piece of content lacks relevance and localisation. What appeals to a person from North India may not be the same for a person from South India; what appeals to a person from a desert region may not be the same for a person from a wet, snowy, coastal, or mountainous region.
Different people from different regions follow different cultures, lead different lifestyles, face different problems, need different solutions, and experience meaning and fulfilment from different outcomes. So, brands also need to craft region-specific content ideas to connect with different potential customers from various locations.
Modern consumers want to engage with hyper-specific content which is relevant to them and delivering it is more like spearfishing, where brands focus efforts on one or more localised regions of a bigger pool.
How does one do this?
There is a simple and effective approach which supports brands in this venture; using regional media to make your brand a part of the regional narrative. Regional media refers to the media outlets which operate in a particular region and serve the people living in that region. This includes local newspapers, TV & radio channels, local forums, and social media groups. These media channels are aware of the diverse stories, behaviours, desires, and pain points, and use it to craft relatable content for their region. By partnering with these agencies, businesses can create relevant content that resonates with the audience and garners attention for the brand.
What could that look like? Something like the following, where you use multiple local media outlets to give people a powerful 360-degree experience of your brand.
Newspapers - Introducing the brand to the region. Showcasing the brand’s offerings and linking them to local stories.
Radio - Verbally engaging with listeners. Vocalising the brand’s vision, mission, values, and philosophy.
TV - Giving a face to the brand by introducing a leader as the spokesperson. Talking about products, services, benefits, success stories.
Social media - Infotainment content discussing regional topics with local people. Establishing the brand as a thought leader.
Local forums - Spreading knowledge and solutions in local forums. Solving people’s problems and establishing the brand as a well-meaning facilitator.
Utilising these mediums doesn’t mean flooding channels with your content, but becoming a part of the flow and presenting valuable content which educates, entertains, and empowers people. By doing so, brands can invest in understanding the local communities, participate in regional stories through products & solutions, and expand their market by meaningfully connecting with different groups of people. When a brand takes an interest in people, people get interested in the brand.
This approach allows businesses to reap greater results by focusing their marketing communication in one region. This strategy works for businesses of every size and scale. Small businesses can employ this strategy one region at a time, a company with resources can launch multiple such regional campaigns in different parts of the country, and an even bigger organisation can launch a national campaign along with multiple local campaigns.
Local campaigns require less effort, reduce wastage, increase efficiency, and are greatly impactful in giving results like connection, adoption, and trust.
One example of a brand using local insight to alter its products could be McDonald's. The fast food brand which started in one locality of the USA is now present in almost every country. Good ol’ McDs quickly realised that American cuisine doesn't work in other parts of the world. So, they re-engineered their products to align with the local narrative. In one country, they serve beef rice bowls while in another they serve paneer tikka. Adaptability and respect for local culture is an important pillars supporting McDonald’s success.
Another recent example can be Apple iPhone’s advertisement for the Indian market, wherein the ad shows a girl watching a national cricket tournament on her phone while riding through bumpy, crowded, and chaotic streets of an Indian town. The phone falls and gets banged a few times, but remains undamaged. This is Apple using local narrative to showcase their product and highlighting a previously unmentioned feature - durability, which is a characteristic Indians value considerably.
In conclusion, the one-size-fits-all approach to content and brand story is no longer effective. Branding is no longer about you, it is about the consumer’s story and how your brand plays a part in it. People are growing increasingly diverse and aware of their requirements. Now is the time to attract people by offering value through hyper-relevant content.
Psst! This blog was made with 💕 and created after some thought by a real person.