Product intelligence around the world: What is global product development?
Expand your business reach and take on new markets with global product development. Based on international markets and product intelligence, this development approach is essential for successful modern companies.
What is global product development? Continue reading to delve into the methods, benefits and challenges of this strategic development model.
Global product development overview
Global product development refers to the management of business operations on an international scale and the creation of ‘global products’. It involves shifting existing or new product development away from traditional, centralised processes and towards a more modern and cross-cultural approach.
The importance of global product strategies
A detailed global product strategy is essential for ensuring the success of your company’s international expansion. Combined with global market strategy, this process involves investigating the needs, perceptions and expectations of customers across different countries, alongside unique market demands and challenges.
This detailed research and analysis leads to actionable insights that inform your product design and development processes. This enables you to better understand and cater to diverse international audiences within the global marketplace.
Benefits of global product development
In light of increasing globalisation and interconnectedness, global product development offers several distinct advantages for modern companies, including:
- Access to new markets: Reaching out to new markets allows you to identify new opportunities, grow diverse audiences and increase sales.
- Increased brand awareness: Successful global expansion leads to more widespread brand awareness and recognition. This helps increase your industry authority and customer trust.
- Enhanced production: International product development gives you access to global resources and manufacturing sectors. These can help streamline your operations and reduce costs for enhanced production processes.
- A competitive advantage: Access to global markets gives you an edge over less globalised businesses within your industry.
- Better products: A decentralised development approach facilitates the sharing of global knowledge, perspectives and ideas. This increases innovation within concept development and product design, resulting in better products.
- Global business success: All of the above points contribute to enhanced business performance, resulting in long-term success and growth within the global marketplace.
Global product development process and challenges
Developing a new global product requires following a standard product development process, as well as considering several key factors which may pose potential challenges.
These should also be considered when expanding the reach of an existing product, as they help ensure the adaptability of the product’s architecture.
Here is an overview of some of the most common considerations for global product development.
Regions and languages
One of the most basic requirements of global products is their availability in different regions and languages. However, with devices, it is important not to assume a customer’s language preferences based on their location. Rather, users should be able to customise their region and language settings according to their unique needs.
Cultural norms and differences
Cultural norms differ between countries and, when not carefully considered, can often lead to consumers misunderstanding key product aspects. For example, certain icons and abbreviations may be common in one country but are unknown in another.
Localisation over translation
It is essential to practise localisation when translating products from one language to another. This process involves transplanting products linguistically while also paying attention to key cultural adaptations like different date formats and currencies.
Product Testing
Product testing is key for developing new products and improving existing ones. A product team should be careful to conduct both local and centralised testing. Testing a product within its proposed environment is useful for identifying contextual issues that may otherwise go unnoticed.
Location-based marketing
Global businesses should aim to adapt their international product and service marketing efforts for different countries. This can be achieved through local marketing campaigns, which promote a key message while also adapting efforts to better resonate with local markets and consumers.
Vypr: Robust product intelligence for global business expansion
Vypr is the world’s leading product intelligence platform that enables businesses to rapidly understand changing consumer behaviour through fast, cost-effective consumer insight.
It’s not enough to know the answer to “What is global product development?” True global success comes from also understanding the potential difficulties of this process and how to overcome them.
With us, your business can leverage reliable product intelligence to build better products for the global marketplace.
Become a global brand by tailoring your product development to international markets. Try Vypr free now.