Brandhome teams up with renowned American brand expression consultancy Blackcoffee. Blackcoffee works with brands in transition to clarify, amplify and simplify their value. With Blackcoffee’s expertise in building and nourishing brands in the United States and Brandhome’s knowledge and deep expertise in Europe and the Middle East, we are able to offer our customers an unparalleled service and help them to expand from one region to the other. This is yet another step by Brandhome to ensure success and profitable growth for our customers.

1. Intelligent International
Expansion

2. Who We Are
• Multinational brand development agency
focused on strategy, communication and
implementation
• Core team of 30 people with 100 regional
experts in network
• Headquartered in Antwerp, Belgium
• Brand expression consultancy
focused on helping brands
in transition
• 23 years of experience in
Brand Strategy and Brand Identity
• Headquartered in Boston, USA
Clients Include:Clients Include:

3. Our synergistic expertise and
unique experience brought us
together to offer an intelligent
approach to helping companies
expand internationally.Branding Experts
with experience
in US Market
Branding Experts
with experience in
EU and MENA Markets

4. Why Explore
International Expansion?
• Minimize risk of macroeconomic downturns in
domestic market(s)
• Companies exclusively focused on the US
market are at a disadvantage when multi-
national competitors enter the US market with
their vast knowledge and resources
• Slower growth compared to rivals
curbs investor appetite and lowers company’s
valuation

5. GDP Growth Rate
• Global economy grows faster
than US economy
• Businesses can benefit from
faster growing markets to
offset domestic slowdown
AnnualGrowth
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
World US EU MENA*
*MENA: Middle East and North Africa

6. Benefits of International Expansion
Expands talent
pool and
capacity for
innovation
Helps to move
capital from low
margin and limited
growth markets to
those with higher
margins and larger
growth potential
Provides direct
access to higher
value foreign
production inputs
Helps build
strategic assets,
such as
distribution
networks or new
technology
Companies stay
focused on their
core competences
by finding more
customers for
existing products
or services

7. Challenges of
International Expansion
Replicating your home market
business success in other countries
is dependent on many factors
regional
cultural
nuances
tax and
regulatory
issues
talent
managemen
t
cross-
border team
spirit
local
infrastructu
re
level of
corruption
CORE ISSUES

8. The Trial and Error Approach
Many companies rely on trial and error when planning an international
expansion. Unfortunately, this approach is far from perfect and
provides unpredictable and unreliable results.

9. A Story of Hubris and Repeated Mistakes
• 1998: Walmart opened first stores in Germany in full confidence
of a looming success
• They opened with low prices, zealous inventory control and a
large array of merchandise

10. The Results
• with their remote American-style shopping centers they failed to
address German shopping habits, which are formed around
neighborhood corner shops and daily purchasing of perishables
• 8 years and $1b later, Walmart leaves Germany with a bad taste in
its mouth and a vague understanding of what went wrong
”We made mistakes. If you want to be successful in a
foreign market, you have to know what your customers
want. That's the most important lesson.”
Walmart Germany's CEO, David Wild

11. A Second Failed Attempt
• 2007: Walmart went to Russia, where shopping habits are
similar to those in US. This time they failed because they could
not agree on terms with major suppliers
Takeaway: Trial and Error teaches what not to do, but it
does not give a full picture of what needs to be done

12. The Intelligent Approach
Brands can penetrate foreign markets by using a comprehensive
modeling approach. This helps to identify and address market risks,
adjust the product offering to t speci c markets and ensures total
integration of foreign assets with the parent organization.

13. A Story of Calculated World Domination
• Swedish apparel retailer: 3,500 stores, 69 countries, 6 continents
• Grows by 10-15% a year without franchising
• H&M’s strategy: runway fashion delivered at affordable prices
• Intelligently designed world domination campaign, which takes
into account the full array of local specifics as well as their fit with
the company’s own culture and values

14. The Results
• H&M adjusts its local offering based on the understanding of
what runway fashion means in a specific market and what are
truly affordable price points
• The company lives off feedback from its consumers and
continuously adapts to serve them better
Takeaway: Approaching international expansion
intelligently allows brands to serve consumers in various
markets without sacrificing their own identity and values

15. Intelligent International Expansion vs Trial and Error
• 73% of US companies use
a predominantly trial and
error approach to expand
internationally
• An equal percentage has
less than 5% of revenues
coming from abroad
Intelligent
International
Expansion
Trial and Error
Based on Scientific Medhod
Creates blueprint for future
expansion
Creates unique path and a
hard-to-copy knowledge-base
Reduces risk of failure
Efficient process
Can quickly learn from

16. Why It Works
This scientific method mitigates the risk of
uncertainty in managing international
expansion without the need of expensive and
potentially harmful trials in an atmosphere of
novelty.
• evaluation of factors that contributed to
brand’s local success and their replicability
in foreign markets
• real intelligence from international markets
• country-specific experts’ advise

17. Our Process
Brands must adapt to and
manage many variables in order
to scale and expand effectively
Product Market
Risk
Adapt
taste
size
formulation
design
Manage
cultural
economic
financial
regulatory
Opportunity
Scale
focus
economies of scale
technology
Expand
more customers
increased knowledge

18. Our Process
• detailed analysis of the factors that
contribute to success of the company
and the brand in the home market
• identify foreign markets where
conditions allow for the success factors
to turn into growth drivers
Success Factors Growth Drivers
Cultural
Economic
Financial
Regulatory
Identity
Operational

19. What You Gain
• Expansion roadmap - where, when & how
• Brand identity adaptation
• Local expert guidance for
in-market execution
• Analysis of factual data and
course correction
• Strategy adjustments for the
intended market entry