Product Adaptation Strategy

What is a Product Adaptation Strategy?

In order to enter into a new market, businesses must have an effective product adaptation strategy. This strategy is essentially the knowledge of what part of a product or service must be changed in order to appeal to local customers.

Adaptation differs from localization in that the former changes only surface-level factors. Translations and removing culturally insensitive scenes from movies are forms of product localization. Product adaptation, on the other hand, is McDonald’s willingness to remove beef and pork from their menu to enter the Indian market.

Why Is It Important to Have a Product Adaptation Strategy?

Any business moving into a new market must appeal to their potential customers within it. Failing to do so could mean massive losses, maybe even damage to the company’s reputation.

What Internal Data Should I Have for a Good Product Adaptation Strategy?

For an effective adaptation strategy, it is crucial to have a clear understanding of your core principles: what does your business offer that is unique to you? Local adaptations can be radical but they should not betray your core brand.

You should additionally have a realistic and adaptable budget. For example, while the costs of setting up stores in a major city may be clear from the outset, the costs of changing your product may be greater than expected.

What External Data Is Essential for a Good Strategy?

Essential external data includes cultural information, including service culture, religious concerns, and local laws and regulations on businesses. Additionally, local market prices and demographics should be included in your strategy’s database.

What External Data May Prove Useful for a Good Strategy?

Other useful data includes social media data, security threats, and climate data. Focus groups are another excellent resource for testing new or adapted products.

What Are the Main Challenges of this Use Case?

In addition to the high costs of failure, it is likely that existing companies can adapt to the threat of you entering the market faster than you can penetrate into said market.

Interesting Case Studies and Blogs to Look Into

Medium: Better Marketing: Why Starbucks Failed in Israel
BBC: How McDonald’s conquered India

Tangible Examples of Impact

Average wireless data prices have fallen 96% from INR 270 to INR 11 (2014-2020), resulting in a massive spike in data consumption. The average Indian internet user consumes 36x more data per month today compared to 2014. In fact, the 11GB per user per month of data used in India is more than that of Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East & North Africa combined.

The growth in internet subscribers and data consumption is expected to continue. By 2025, India will have more than 1 Bn internet users that will consume 60% more data per user per month than they do today.

Inc42: Spotify Grooves to India’s Tune