The New Emerging Market Multinationals: Four Strategies for Disrupting Markets and Building Brands

LG. HTC. Tata. Haier. Lenovo. Arcelik. Natura.

From smartphones and computers to blue jeans and beer, companies from China, India, Taiwan, Mexico, Turkey, and other emerging markets are now winning leading market shares with their own-branded, high-quality products—rather than with poorly produced products sold under others' brand names. These emerging-market multinational companies (EMNCs) are giving the incumbent market leaders of North America, Western Europe, and Japan a run for their money in the areas of innovation, branding, and marketing.

How have these small, under-resourced businesses come so far so quickly? And what can you learn from their strategies and tactics?

Renowned experts in global branding and marketing, the authors of The New Emerging-Market Multinationals conducted an in-depth study of 39 EMNCs to reveal the innovative compete-from-below strategies and tactics fueling these companies' meteoric rise. The authors identify four strategies driving this growth:

• COST LEADERS leverage existing low-cost structures and large-scale volumes to extend their reach into developed markets.
• KNOWLEDGE LEVERAGERS tap their existing resources and knowledge of home consumers and the market to build branded businesses in other emerging markets.
• NICHE CUSTOMIZERS combine their cost advantages in manufacturing with newly developed low-cost R&D capabilities to develop customized niche-segment branded offerings in other emerging markets.
• GLOBAL BRAND BUILDERS use their low-cost manufacturing and R&D capabilities to build branded businesses in developed markets— but limit their focus to specific products and segments through a process of focused innovation.

Whether you run an EMNC or a developed market company, deep knowledge of the strategies outlined here is an absolute necessity for competing effectively now and in the future. Don't get caught off guard by the "new kids on the block"—because today's EMNCs are determined to be tomorrow's market leaders.

About the Authors

AMITAVA CHATTOPADHYAY is the L’Oréal Chaired Professor of Marketing-Innovation and Creativity at INSEAD. He has served as a branding consultant for firms in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe.

RAJEEV BATRA is the S.S. Kresge Professor of Marketing at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. He has researched, taught, and consulted on global branding, emerging markets, and marketing topics for 30 years.

AYSEGUL OZSOMER is an associate professor of marketing at Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey. Her research focuses on standardization-adaptation issues and performance implications, market orientation, and global brand management.