In this blog, we’re going to learn why and how localism is affecting digital retail marketing.
When the internet gained popularity, it opened the doors for many brands to easily target a global audience. An American brand could have reached a European audience or an Asian audience, even without having any presence in those countries.
To look at it from a different angle, a brand in New York now have to compete with not just other similar New York brands but also with businesses from other parts of the world.
Many local businesses were not able to survive the advent of globalization and increased competition from foreign brands.
This started giving rise to the “local buy movement” or localism.
Localism Leads to the Disruption of the Retail Industry
When local businesses started dying, consumers started questioning their actions. Ultimately, this led to the rise of localism. As a part of this, consumers started preferring local brands over others.
Moreover, they became more conscious of what to consume and how to engage with a brand.
Not to mention, this completely disrupted the face of the retail industry. From becoming more global, it changed its direction to be more local.
Consumers started engaging in ethical buying as they wanted to support their own community.
From normal consumers, they became conscious consumers. Their every decision became influenced by whether or not their purchase decision is helping their community survive and thrive.
According to a 2018 survey by IRI, 55% preferred buying local products to support local businesses.
Now, let’s talk about what exactly is localism.
What is Localism or “Local Buy” Marketing?
Localism is the movement of conscious buying by consumers to support their local businesses and community. It’s the consumer preference of businesses that are located near them over others.
Localism in marketing means building brand awareness, customer base, and loyalty among the community of which you’re a part of.
As a part of this, if you’re a Brooklyn-based business owner, you want to increase your customer base in Brooklyn rather than targeting people in Los Angeles, San Francisco or Louisville.
Moreover, COVID-19 has increased the demand for local products everywhere. According to a 2020 research by Kantar, 65% of consumers preferred buying local products.
What Brands Need to Know Before Jumping to the “Localism” Marketing Wagon
Just having a local presence is not enough to win the hearts and minds of consumers there. From global to local brands, everyone has to rethink their digital marketing strategy when it comes to targeting a local audience.
Localism in digital retail marketing for brands means becoming a part of the community. Presence is just a small aspect of it. You need to become an active member of that community as well.
You need to support them when they need it and they will support you when you need it.
The journey of winning local consumers’ hearts is not that tough but it involves a lot of decisions with the heart as well as mind.
You want to help your community in solving their non-biodegradable waste problem, fighting climate change on their behalf, and protecting the environment for the next generations to come.
Why Brands Need to Make Localism a Part of Their Digital Marketing
As the neighborhood and community play an important role in shaping the perceptions of your target audience, it becomes very crucial for brands to start taking the localism wave seriously and start making changes in their digital strategy to reflect the same.
Let’s Try to Understand Local Consumers to Understand Localism:
Community is Important
People take pride in their community and its local products. This gives a chance to local brands to outshine their bigger competitors.
Reflection of Who They Are
In addition, people love brands that understand and reflect their culture. When brands know what it’s like to be their consumers, consumers like them even more.
Ethical Buying
Consumers are no longer buying anything they want. Now, their decisions are guided by how their actions can help their community. If the choice is between $6 for a coffee at a local cafe or $4 for a coffee at a famous coffee chain there, many of us will go for the first option even if it’s a little expensive than the second one.
The reason being it provides us with the satisfaction of having taken the right and ethical decision.
How to Form a Digital Marketing Strategy in Tune with Localism
When you want to form a digital marketing strategy that focuses on localism, you need to remember these two important points:
- Who you’re going to target
- And how you’re going to target them
Here are a few effective ways for making localism a part of your digital strategy:
Become One of Them
If you want to target local, you’ve to start behaving like a local as well. You can start by making some local events, traditions,s or festivals a part of your digital strategy. Your content, social media, or digital ads can reflect these to win them over.
By doing that, you’ll make your local community feel proud and they wouldn’t mind becoming your loyal customers.
Local Storytelling
Take pride in the community you’re a part of. Share their stories and the stories of their culture with others in the form of local storytelling. These stories can form a part of your content marketing strategy, email marketing strategy, social media marketing strategy, or even digital advertising strategy.
Such storytelling will show your affinity to the local community and thus will improve your brand awareness.
Community Engagement
Another way of winning the hearts of local consumers is by becoming a part of their major events. If basketball is big in your community, sponsor it or find some other way to engage in that event.
If your locality has a huge Hindu audience, don’t hesitate from participating in their biggest festival, Diwali, and letting them know that community comes first. I have seen many orthodontists sponsor Diwali festival events to become a part of it.
Such contributions are small but they can bring a national-level change to your brand.
Community collaboration
Don’t let your people fight alone for a good cause. Open your doors when any disaster strikes or time for any celebration comes.
Join hand with them in their fight to build a better and stronger community.
Key Takeaway: Localism in Digital Retail Marketing
Localism will continue to gain more and more popularity in the years to come as consumers focus more and more on ethical buying.
That’s why it’s important for every retail brand to start paying attention to its community and its needs.
The retail industry is always changing and it’s crucial for every brand to evolve with it.
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