Julia Bondarchuk

For three years I owned marketing strategy, budget and execution for six markets in Western and Southern Europe: Benelux, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the UK. One company, one portfolio, six very different places to sell it.

The question behind almost every decision was the same: what do we keep fixed everywhere, and what do we let each market shape for itself? Getting that balance right is, for me, the core of international marketing. Here is how I approached it.

What I kept fixed, and why

Three things stayed the same in every market:

• The core message and value proposition. What customers valued was very similar across all six markets, so there was no reason to tell six different stories. One clear message also meant local teams didn’t have to reinvent it each time.
• The brand look and feel. Customers working across borders should recognise us wherever they meet us.
• The KPIs. Measuring every market the same way let us compare results fairly, learn from each other and move budget towards what was working.

These fixed points protected the brand and made the whole region easier to steer. They also freed up energy for the things that really did need to be local.

What each market shaped for itself

The message stayed the same. How, where and when we brought it to customers changed a lot:

• Language and tone. Translation is only the start. The same sentence can sound warm in one language and too casual in another.
• Proof points and examples. Customers trust examples from their own market, so we used local ones wherever we could.
• Channels. The biggest difference between markets.
• Timing. Each market ran on its own calendar.

Same channel, different job

In Spain and Italy, events were a big part of our campaigns. In the other markets, we relied much more on Google Ads.

Events worked in both countries, but for different reasons. In Spain, the company wasn’t well known yet, and the industry has big trade fairs. Events were the fastest way to get our name in front of the right people. In Italy, the brand was already known, but relationships matter a lot before people buy. There, events were about meeting customers in person and building trust.

The same channel did two different jobs. Being clear about which job it has in each market changes how you plan it and how you judge whether it worked.

How we made the decisions

I coordinated three regional marketing managers, none of whom reported to me directly. I set the framework: what is fixed and what is flexible. They brought local insight, about their customers, their trade fairs and their competitors, that no one could have from a distance. We tested that insight against data from past campaigns in our CRM, and then decided together.

Local knowledge without data can turn into habit. Data without local knowledge misses context. Combining the two gave us decisions that both sides understood and could stand behind, which matters a lot when you work without line authority.

Budget by market maturity

Sales teams want leads, and that’s completely fair. But markets are at different stages. Where the brand is established, budget can go straight into generating demand. Where it’s still new, leads don’t appear out of nowhere. People need to know who you are first.

So I allocated budget by how mature each market was, and set expectations to match. For a market like Spain, we agreed different expectations than for markets where the brand was already strong. The KPIs stayed the same, but how quickly we expected them to move was different.

The important part was agreeing this with sales and leadership upfront. When everyone understands why a market looks slower at the start, it gets the time it needs to grow instead of having its budget cut too early.

In short

International marketing works best when the centre is clear about what it won’t change, and generous about everything else. Keep the message, the brand and the measures fixed. Let each market decide how and when to reach its customers. Make those choices together with the people who know the market, check them against your data, and give newer markets the budget and patience to build awareness before you ask them for leads.

If you run marketing across several countries, I’d be curious to hear where you draw the line between fixed and flexible.