Going global with Kinase

Are there markets where your business can fulfil unmet demand? It may be that competitors execute poorly, have found their supply chains disrupted, or haven’t yet recognised the opportunity.

Knowing how and when to expand into new markets is the core requirement of all successful export strategies. But collecting the right information to inform those decisions can be difficult.

The current period of country by country Covid-19 restrictions adds extra uncertainty but also extra opportunity as it has disrupted previous alignments between businesses and markets.

Kinase’s Approach

At Kinase, we combine hands-on management of accounts across multiple territories with advice to our clients on global strategy. We focus on how digital can support the launch process and help drive ongoing performance. Kinase is one of a handful of independent agencies selected to join Google’s International Growth Programme.

This partnership enables us to provide our clients with additional resources and support. These include access to specialist tools such as Google Market Explorer which combines Google and World Bank data to assess the size of the market opportunity for a particular business in a given country. Alongside this are translation services, and access to a team of specialist advisors covering everything from logistics to customer service.

We start from the clients’ business objectives, then prioritise markets and develop marketing strategies to support each international launch. To do this we combine Google and other supplier partnerships with our performance knowledge of search, paid social and marketplace channels.

International Positioning

Our goal in international expansion is to position a business for success in each market. This is about mitigating risk as well as sustaining growth.

Different patterns of lockdown timings and restrictions are the clearest current divergence of markets across verticals. For example, in some countries restaurants are running business as usual, whereas in others they're still closed. If you sell catering equipment that means it's a good time to be present in a market where there's increased demand for what you're selling. With such large, nationwide swings in demand, existing stocks may run out quickly creating additional opportunities. In a new trading environment of lockdowns and changing norms, demand can suddenly tick upwards beyond forecasts or year on year expectations in a particular territory and the ability to respond to sudden trends is crucial. A new entrant can take advantage of these swings, and actually see higher profit levels than an established business struggling to cope with them, and a business exporting to multiple markets can also redeploy stock quickly to take advantage of the opportunities available.

Three Different Stages of Growth

We work with businesses at different stages in their international plans. We’ve highlighted three of our partners below.

Rapid Growth

Pure Electric supply e-scooters and electric bikes - a growing market across Europe. Testing new markets outside the UK, we work with Pure Electric to identify where best to make each new move as they continue to expand.

Capitalising on Opportunities

Nisbets supply catering equipment to both businesses and consumers. Kinase helps to plan and execute campaigns for the mature UK market, and for Nisbets to establish its brand in markets across Europe where opportunities are opening up as the hospitality industry rapidly adapts to new social distancing requirements and social norms.

Global Expansion

Lovehoney is a market-leading sex toy and lingerie retailer. It’s a booming market, with this trend accentuated during lockdown. Lovehoney is already established across key markets globally. With them, Kinase collaborates on a strategy of growth and expansion of the bottom line, regardless of market, managing paid search and marketplaces expansion globally.