• by James Scroggs , October 9, 2008

Let's assume your boss has just challenged you with taking the company brand across the Atlantic for the purpose of setting up shop in a new market, selling your services to a whole new audience in a brand new geography. Assuming they're not crazy, what are your first steps?

We've all seen companies throw millions into big bang above-and-below-the-line advertising to reach an initial audience only to wither away for lack of a solid connection with customers and a sustained messaging campaign. It need not be that way.

Here's a concept that may be foreign to you and may get you off the CFO's holiday card list. Can you give what you do or provide away? Once potential customers or influencers use a product or service the feedback is invaluable and the word of mouth that is created will move the product that much faster. That's the method in the madness.

Any campaign worth its salt has to have both the push and the pull components. One push has come from these viral seeds, but what about creating a demonstrative demand for what you do--again without spending vast sums?

Well, of course you can offer free trials for consumers straight off your Web site, but how do you generate real interest fast and drive traffic to both the website and to the prospects? If you've never entertained the idea of employing a social media specialist, now may be the time to give it some thought. Whatever your business, there are bloggers who track what you do and tell other "early adopters" if you are on to something.

As a key component to a more traditional public outreach, connecting with blogs and other non-traditional media around the world will help your brand establish a "cult" following. Utilizing a social media specialist that speaks their language--something you can't fake--and communicates with this community constantly is key. That, combined with sustained media and analysts relations, public speaking, sponsorships, gaining awards and some highly targeted experiential marketing--all providing consistent, challenging and irreverent brand messages--will enable marketing success.

Of course, any discussion on taking a brand from one geographic market to another can't end without taking a long look at your current brand and evaluating whether it translates into a new marketplace. But throwing money at massive advertising campaigns--offline or online--is unlikely to truly deliver, particularly in the current choppy economic waters. Rather than spending a fortune shouting at people, better to lubricate conversations with and between consumers, to spark curiosity, and trial--the core of any consumer journey. And there's no better way of doing this than giving away your product.