Markets and regions
What changes from one market to the next: media habits, languages, culture and rules, from the US and Europe to the Gulf, Egypt and Asia-Pacific.
Global and local: what to standardise, what to adapt, and how to decide
The standardisation debate from Levitt's 1983 essay to the research since, a procedure for deciding element by element what stays global, when to translate and when to transcreate, and how to use culture frameworks such as Hofstede's without over-reading them.
In short
- There is no general answer to standardise or adapt: the research says it depends on the market and the moment, so decide element by element, with evidence from each market.
- Translate what must be exact (terms, instructions, legal text); transcreate what must persuade (headlines, slogans, scripts); write locally what only works locally.
- Culture scores describe countries, not customers. Use Hofstede-style frameworks to form questions, then answer them with research in the market.
Marketing in the Gulf and MENA: audiences, languages, rules and the calendar
What changes when a plan reaches the Gulf, the Levant and North Africa: who lives there, how to read platform numbers, Arabic register and English, messaging, the media and influencer rules as of October 2026, and planning around Ramadan.
In short
- MENA is many markets. In Saudi Arabia alone the 2022 census counted 32.2 million residents, more than 13 million of them non-Saudi, so language and audience choices start from who actually lives there.
- As of October 2026, check the regulator before every influencer brief: the UAE's National Media Authority has taken over the Media Council's role, and individuals promoting brands need the Advertiser Permit in the UAE and a Mawthooq licence in Saudi Arabia.
- Plan Ramadan as its own season, market by market: Ipsos's 2025 handbooks found most shoppers in Egypt and Kuwait preferred to buy in store, but advertising swayed far more of them in Egypt.
Marketing in Africa: many markets, mobile first, radio still on
How to plan across a continent of very different markets: the mobile usage gap, mobile money as a channel, SMS and chat apps, why radio still leads as a news source, language choices, and the advertising and consent rules in Nigeria and South Africa as of 2026.
In short
- Plan for people within coverage who are not online: GSMA counts 63% of Africans in that usage gap, against 9% outside coverage, so SMS, radio and offline touchpoints still carry much of the plan.
- Radio is still the most common news source across the 38 countries Afrobarometer surveyed in 2024/2025, reaching 59% at least a few times a week, though its lead is shrinking.
- Check the rules per country: Nigeria's ARCON vets advertisements before exposure and bars foreign models and voice-overs in ads aimed at Nigerians; South Africa's POPIA requires consent for electronic direct marketing to non-customers.
Marketing in Asia-Pacific: separate platforms, super-apps and social commerce
Why Asia-Pacific is several platform landscapes rather than one: China's own ecosystem, messaging-led markets in Japan, Korea and Thailand, social commerce in Southeast Asia, and India's scale, languages and data rules as of October 2026, with a procedure for planning each.
In short
- Plan China as its own platform landscape: CNNIC counted 1.125 billion internet users at the end of 2025, and Tencent reported 1,439 million monthly users for Weixin and WeChat in June 2026.
- Where one messaging app counts tens of millions of users, as LINE in Japan and Thailand or KakaoTalk in Korea, plan inside it: official accounts, consented messages and in-app commerce.
- India's data rules are being phased in: the DPDP Rules were notified in November 2025 and most obligations apply eighteen months later, so build consent records now.
Other tracks
- IMC foundationsWhat integrated marketing communications is, the models behind it, the customer journey, the message, objectives, budgets, planning, measurement and how teams organise for it.
- Marketing principlesThe ideas every integrated plan rests on, from the people who framed them: Kotler, Drucker, Levitt, Aaker, Keller, Ries and Trout, Porter and Sharp, in plain words and with their sources.
- Disciplines 101One primer per discipline, from advertising to internal communications: how it works, its history, what it costs, the rules, its limits and when to choose it, with every claim sourced.
- Planning and operationsFrom a business objective to an integrated plan that runs: audiences, positioning, the message house and the channel mix, then the brief, the agencies, the calendar, the budget and the governance that keep it on course.
- Measurement and effectivenessHow to tell what worked: brand and activation, attribution, marketing mix modelling and incrementality, and how to read the numbers honestly.
- Martech and dataThe tools behind integrated marketing, how they fit together, and the customer data that connects them, collected with consent.
- Regulation and ethicsAdvertising codes, disclosure, consent and data protection across markets, and the ethics of persuasion. Not legal advice.
- ToolkitCanvases, templates, checklists, worksheets and calculators to use today: each one built on a named framework, explained with its sources, and ready to fill in, print or download.