(CNN) -- You've conquered your country. Next stop: the world.
Yet companies bent on global domination would be wise to first conduct a little research, examining others' multinational successes and missteps.
While strategies may vary by industry, experts say smart businesses undertaking a global marketing campaign balance their base identity while amending their standard approaches -- to advertising, marketing, salesmanship and the product itself -- to best fit a given locale.
Such thinking may take advantage of a country-of-origin effect -- for example, positive associations such as shoes from Italy, cars from Germany or Japan, watches from Switzerland -- yet be sensitive to other cultures' tastes, habits and politics.
"Although the core of the brand identity tends to be consistent across countries, strategies could be quite different and adapt to the lifestyles, pace, ideologies and political opinions of different locales," said Tulin Erdem, professor and chair of the Marketing Group at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
Arrogance or ignorance can foil a company's bid for global success, especially those who fail to understand what worked in the past, or in its home country, might not work everywhere.
"The issue is knowing what your product stands for, while being flexible in terms of what the local culture can accept," said Peggy Mitchell-King, a senior consultant with Morgan Anderson. "You may have to step back and say, gee, we are not the center of the Earth."
McDonald's has been a frequent target of criticism overseas, viewed by some as a close-minded, greedy American company without proper respect for other cultures.
This viewpoint is in part industry-related, said Mitchell-King. More than a gadget or car, eating habits and dining with friends and families is an inherently personal and social act. And, particularly in places where agriculture issues are important, locals have sometimes been quick to associate U.S. policies with the restaurant chain.
"When it gets down to basic human needs like food and family, it questions the culture -- or it indicates [something is wrong with] your culture, by embracing this thing," she said.
The Illinois-based company has also been hurt by some questionable business decisions.
Mitchell-King points to a policy banning French employees with facial hair, even though mustaches and such are common there. And super-smiley McDonald's workers turned off some Russian customers who thought the grins insincere and offensive when franchises first opened there in the early 1990s, said Erdem.
Yet on the whole, McDonald's is a global success story, with more than 30,000 restaurants in 119 countries, making it the world's leading food service retailer. Beyond touting its wholesomeness, family atmosphere and "McDonald's magic" as positive traits internationally, the company routinely modifies its advertising and menus to a particular region, noted Erdem.
Its latest global marketing campaign -- "i'm lovin' it" -- targets the chain's long-established young, family demographic in articulating a "relevant, hip, energetic and powerful" vision, McDonald's Global Chief Marketing Officer Larry Light said in a press release.
For whatever reason, the company has seen positive results of late, reporting a 17.8 percent increase (10.4 percent in constant currencies) in systemwide sales for October 2003, as compared to the same month last year.
"In certain circumstances, you may not want to do anything about [the country-of-origin] effect," said Erdem. "If anything, you may want to promote the Americanness, ... selling the American dream. But in other contexts, like now, it's a different story."
Coca-Cola has arguably more reach than McDonald's, and just as firm American roots, yet has largely avoided claims of Americanism thanks to sound business strategy.
The Georgia-based company's common vision stresses refreshment and globality (as in its famous "I'd like to teach the world to sing" commercial), but its marketing approach also pays close attention to the local community.
For example, Coke often features local people and preferences (in terms of sports teams, humor, etc.) in advertisements, supports local causes and even has regional bottlers that create distinct versions of the soft drink, tailored to the area's tastes and diets.
"Coke is a great example of a successful global company," said Erdem. "It's a fine line -- that we are an American brand, but we are also a global brand -- and not every company can do it."
In some cases, the image and the experience drive the product, and vice versa.
The NBA, like other professional sports ventures, is a prime example of an image-driven brand. Its games can be seen in 750 million households in 212 countries, and 42 percent of NBA.com's traffic plus 20 percent of total merchandise sales come from abroad.
The league's globalization also plays out on the court: 73 players from 34 countries (besides the United States) filled out the 2003 opening-night rosters. (SOURCE for NBA stats are from a memo sent to me by the NBA)
"The NBA have changed dramatically in the last 20 years," said Terry Lyons, the association's vice president for international public relations. " I don't think it's been any one thing."
The NBA's typically young and active international fans mirror those who enjoy Hollywood movies, video games or other such pastimes and products, Mitchell-King said. They relish the league's Americanized feel, just as others, trying to safeguard local culture, skirt such brands.
And, at least in the NBA's case, the brand itself is rarely politicized, said Lyons.
"People tend to use basketball as a global currency almost, to talk about other things," he said. "I don't think that the NBA is perceived negatively because of U.S. politics."
Besides featuring local players-turned-NBA stars in different countries, the league markets itself essentially the same worldwide. "When we go and do a game in Japan, for instance, the people there want to see the same things [as U.S. fans] -- they don't want it tailored to their audience," said Lyons.
Mitchell-King agrees with this approach, saying, "Who is really into the NBA? It's people who buy into globalization. So the [league] doesn't have to do anything different."
Besides sports, another lifestyle-driven industry that tends to transcend nationality -- and, not coincidentally, appeals to more hip, globally-minded people -- is fashion. And while the United States is often seen a cultural exporter, clothes and style trends often work the other way around, with France and Italy frequently leading the way, noted Erdem.
Fashion "is a young person's thing, and it's much more globally consistent," said Mitchell-King. "If you're fashionable, you're fashionable around the world."
Other industries that revolve around functionality, price and purpose more than lifestyle can fare well sticking to a more global, rather than regional vision and approach.
The business prospects for high-tech companies like Intel or NTTDoCoMo, for instance, are only as good as their next product or initiative. "For high-tech brands, it's less likely tastes will be divergent" country-to-country, Erdem said.
But while advertising and product placement in such cases can usually be more consistent worldwide, that doesn't mean a company can afford to disregard marketing.
Analysts attribute Sony's sagging electronics sales -- a factor in its decision to slash 20,000 jobs and trim fixed costs by $3 billion by 2006 -- in part to staid marketing strategies.
"They have relied too long on their brand name to carry their premium pricing," Paul O'Donovan, principal analyst the with technology research firm Gartner, told CNN/Money.
Experts say complacency can kill a company's bid to excel internationally. Having success requires a sound grasp of not only the industry and other cultures, but the brands' themselves.
"A good marketer can say, I can see why this product needs to be looked at differently [in a given country]," said Mitchell-King. "When the taste no longer is something that appeals, the product won't sell."
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