INCITE’s social media coordinator Felicity Bone shares six insights on localising your digital marketing program for your Asian export markets.

While many food and beverage brands know INCITE for brokering in-market distribution for Western food and beverage client brands across the Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea export markets, the company also manages localised social media marketing on behalf of client brands in the same countries.

Social media users across each of these Southeast and North Asian market have unique characteristics and consumers across Asian markets have some of the highest consumption of social media globally, says INCITE’s social media coordinator Felicity Bone (pictured).

Here she shares six insights on localising your digital marketing program for your Asian export markets:

1. In general, consumer perceptions of imported food and beverage products are very positive. This is reflected in the types of recipes and flavour profiles they find most appealing and the adoption of trends from abroad. The rise in popularity of cheese boards, charcuterie and sharing platters, for example, has resulted in very strong online engagement from consumers for our clients in these categories.

2. Most leisure activities in cities like Hong Kong and Singapore centre around eating and drinking, which means many of the popular media platforms and influencers try to capitalise on the virality of food content, resulting in more opportunities for brand exposure in these markets.

3. Consumers across Asian markets appreciate an engaging brand narrative that tells a story about the origin of the brand and the intention behind the product(s).

4. Family is incredibly important, especially when it comes to eating culture, therefore emotional messaging that references family life, or messaging that references the health and wellbeing of family/offspring, can be very powerful.

5. Consumer decision-making is strongly directed by friends and family, and it's not considered negative to be influenced by your peers across these markets. This inflates the importance and value of Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) across Asian markets.

6. Consumers are comfortable engaging and communicating with brands on social media platforms and often utilise social media as the first port of call for customer service enquiries. This provides a great opportunity for brands to be of service to their consumers.

For more information go to www.exportincite.com