Indian businesses and brands have all the necessary skillsets and offerings to expand outside India and capture global markets. Needless to say, the international market offers strong growth opportunities and profitable results when done right. It is important for any F&B business to take a step back and consider a few key aspects before expanding in any international market.

Understanding the Local Culture: Gaining a deep understanding of the local market trends lays an important foundation for a successful launch. Getting a pulse of the market through immersion and thinking like a local consumer is integral before taking the first step. Building a relationship with the audience before starting your business helps to start off right and gather the credibility of your consumers. Most products would need some form of alteration and localization based on each market, and therefore interacting with your audience to understand the cultural differences are extremely valuable to get true insights that would be helpful to succeed.

Explore a Market that Offers Sufficient Growth Potential: Before entering any market, research if the rewards outweigh the risks.  It is critical to understand the gap your product needs to fill against local products. If the product does not add value or meet the demands of that local market, then another potential market needs to be explored. You must have a detailed understanding of market conditions and the competitors in order to introduce a product/service, and look at the overall market size and growth today. Projections are helpful, but should not be the only driving factor since usually, projections don’t tend to span out in a linear fashion like projected on a piece of paper.

Look at your Long-Term Strategy: When planning to expand, one must always plan in advance and explore future opportunities. Develop a long-term strategy that includes a budget, business plan, and a comprehensive marketing strategy. A deep dive approach to understanding the impact and consequences of your business is important before you expand. The expansion of a business overseas requires a focused team that is dedicated to seeing the process through to the end. A business must consider as many outcomes or consequences of the potential choices it can make as possible, and see how the international strategy ties into the overall strategy and its impact on its existing India operations. Have clear set KPIs so you know how you are progressing v/s your initial assumptions. While more entrepreneurs are optimistic by nature, remaining cautious as you take the first step in a new market is important. Develop your presence slowly by being diligent and observant about what works and what does not. Proper planning and measured decision-making go a long way toward facilitating successful international expansion.

While the above sound simple, sometimes not following these basics ends up costing much more in the future. The international market offers huge opportunities, but doing it right is more important than doing it at all.