Marketing a U.K. Brand in America

Marketing a U.K. Brand in America

by Chuck Thegze

Thegze & Partners LLC

Good Advice Is A Valuable Thing

We are strategic marketing advisors.  We know who you should know in America. And we can help you develop a plan for America. You can be successful here and we can show you how.

Your Strategic Partner

We are really strategists.  The Managing Director of one of your ad agencies called us the “best fixers he had every met.”  Yes. Thanks. We are problem solvers of the first rank.

The best decisions are made with the most information to draw from. We work with you to develop strategies against target audiences.  Plan the steps. Get the information.

American Attitudes about the U.K.

Americans love The British Isles. There is something inherently cool about U.K. products if they are branded as such.  Call it the James Bond phenomenon, but often Americans will choose a U.K. product over an American product just because it seems hipper and more sophisticated.  It makes the user feel different.

Agent for You

There are a variety of America ad agencies, research companies and PR firms that can be contacted on your behalf.  We are relationship builders and advisors.  We would give you various options in different types of disciplines.

Slice the Pie

America is such a diverse place geographically and culturally that it makes the most sense here to segment the audience.  If you manufacture winter jackets, then Colorado or New Hampshire is your place, and college skiers might be your audience.  If you sell consumer technology, go where the Apple stores are: San Francisco, Palo Alto or the SoHo section of New York.  If you are selling flats (shoes) to young women, Melrose Avenue is the place.   We can help you do this.

Top of Mind

We truly believe that Americans hunger for advertising culture.  They like to be sold things in ways that are different.  You can’t bore an American into buying your product. But you can seduce him with an emotional reason.

For example, Americans, especially early on in the 1980s, fell in love with Apple because of the emotional bond the company formed with its customers.  Apple’s introduction of the Apple Store really was an emotional bonding tool.  In London, you like your favorite pub not for the Guinness or Glenlivet, but for the bartender and the people there.

Americans can be sold this way, and we will show you how to do it with your product.

A Digital World

Many years ago a colleague of ours who was a Latino from East Los Angeles, presented Honda Automobiles with the concept of a website.  It was a new idea then in the early 1990s.  After three years Honda finally decided that websites were a good idea and executed our friend’s plan.  He now runs the marketing for all of Honda.

So the world changes.

Our best friends are our digital friends here in California.  They are pioneers in software development.  All campaigns here are software driven.

Since we are based in San Francisco, our friends are digital marketers, from such places as Amazon, Apple, AKQA and R/GA.  We know who to connect you with.  We are your matchmakers finding a place that understands how to create superior software to sell your product.

Do you need a special iPad app? We know who can create that for you.  Do you need to optimize your search so Americans will find your U.K. website.  We know how to do that, too.  Do you need a geolocator iPhone app?  Done.

It’s a Puzzle

The fun of making your product and selling it is that it presents a puzzle to solve. Just how do you generate that desire for your product and your company culture so that your customers will want to live inside your world for years?

Our job is to work with you to solve that.  To assemble an American team that will help you be successful here.  And not just a little successful, but very successful.

Evaluating Your Brand

We take a look, first.   We’ll take a look at what you are doing in the U.K. and see how that might relate to Americans.

That would be the first step.

A Seminar on American Branding

We can come over there and conduct a seminar to give you a taste as to how Americans think.  You can think of us Americans as the opposite sex from you, except that we don’t speak English quite as well and we have a places called Brooklyn and Hermosa Beach. We surf. We play basketball. We hit home runs.  We talk funny. We take intellectual risks just for the fun of it. We still play the album 12 X 5 by the Rolling Stones and we adored the Wedding, the Olympics and the Queen skydiving.

An Ambassador for You

At Thegze & Partners, we will act as your strategic ambassador here to help you sell your product. We’ll work just for you.  And we promise to be our usual engaging, sarcastic selves. You’ll teach us about you.  And we’ll teach you about America.

Other Problems Not As Much Fun

Do you need an American customs advisor regarding importing to the U.S.?  We know smart people who do that.  Do you need American legal advice?  Some of the best Silicon Valley attorneys are very entrepreneurial and astute and can be a big help.