International

Gaining Insight far from home

Gaining customer insights across ‘foreign’ markets is hard – true. There are certain factors such as language, values, cultural nuances and distance that need to be addressed, but often it’s as much about your own orientation – if they are ‘over there’ the ‘differences’ can seem massive. Maybe a simple orientation change will let you look at customers as customers, and focus on meeting their needs rather than seeing them as a set of ‘differences’ to deal with. We agree you can never underestimate differences in culture and location, but if you focus on this without balancing the commonalities to customers you may have closer to home, you’ll tie yourself in knots.