Entering a market without a second brand

The panic, on entering China or expanding in the United States, is that the brand will seem foreign. The usual cure is to hire a local agency and let them invent a more acceptable version. That is how a house ends up with two personalities and a budget that funds both.

A market needs accuracy: the line that can be said, the picture that can be shown, the partner who will not strand the buy, the rule you did not know was a rule. It does not need a new soul.

We treat those markets as part of the first strategy, not as a sequel. What must change is written down. What must not change is written down louder. Talent, media, and the films are then made against that page.

If a decision in the new market would embarrass the home campaign, it is the wrong decision. Sinking a launch is rarely a matter of taste. It is a matter of having let a second brand into the building.