With events heating up across the nation, summer is the ultimate time to socialize. However, when you’re a brand, it’s a little harder to dive into a new market. It’s not like you can just show up to a pool party and start handing out free stuff . . . well, you can but we’ve got a more strategic way for you to tackle the first “hello” with a new market.

Phase 1: Identify your Brand’s Humanity

In order to penetrate a new market, you first have to look at your brand as a “social being.” The term, “social being” was first coined by field of anthropology and was used to explain the concept of understanding oneself by way of others’ understanding of you. In other words, you are who you are based on the individuals around you. Interesting concept, but you are probably wondering what that has to do with your brand? Well, much like human beings, brands too act as “social beings” in the way they connect with their consumers. With that said, each brand is typically defined not by what they consider themselves, but how they fall into the world around them. Who are the current consumers, what do they like?

Phase 2: Identify your Prospective Market

Now that you’ve identified your current consumer and brand image, it’s time to review which markets you could further align your brand with. This is the step that can be the easiest, but can also be the most challenging in that there is no right or wrong answer. Keeping in mind your brand as a human being, the questions is: who do you want to be friends with next? In other words, which group of people do you see your brand fitting in with as you spread more awareness?

Phase 3: Research the Culture

Although this step is identified as one completely separate from the previous one, the truth is you might want to do both at same time to see if a group’s cultural identity fits in with your brand’s identity. If you’re looking to enter a new ethnic market, you might want to research their cultural activities. However, if you’re looking to reach a young market, you might want to research where they focus the majority of their off time. Once you find a fit between your brand’s identity and your prospective market’s identity, you are ready for phase 4.

Phase 4: Create Human Connection

Finding small similarities between two groups, in this case between your brand and your prospective market is where expansion begins. However, using those similarities to execute an action is where expansion happens. Whether that action is a street team or an event activation, the idea is that you get your brand in front of your market with interactive experiences. Like we explained in our [previous blog post], digital marketing will only get you so far with ROI, so it’s important that you create spaces where your brand and your market can socialize.

Connecting with a whole new market than what you’re used to can be a daunting task. However, with the right intentions, resources, and plan in place, your brand’s products can gain a new home in another market.