The Top 3 Takeaways From Our Discussion With Matthew Carpenter-Arévalo
Matthew Carpenter-Arévalo is a Canadian-Ecuadorian entrepreneur, author & digital marketing strategist. Matthew is the founder & CEO of Centrico Digital, a managed marketing services company serving clients across North & Latin America. He is a Rhodes Scholar and former manager at Google, Twitter, and the World Economic Forum. Matthew also writes about technology, culture, and politics in both English and Spanish. He has contributed articles to TechCrunch, TheNextWeb, and Gk. City.
Matthew was kind enough to share some valuable insights about doing business in Latin America with our Marketswell CMO Accelerator cohort last week. Thank you Matthew!
Here are our top 3 takeaways from this discussion:
1. Trust
A truly great brand is a promise kept. For example, a can of Coke in Cuba is the same as one in New Brunswick. While Coca-Cola is a massive brand with international recognition, the same can be said for any business. You have to earn the trust of your client. Unfortunately, the process of earning trust is not consistent around the world - there are high and low trust societies.
Canada and the USA are high trust societies, meaning that there is a general feeling of trust between the public and the government, businesses, and others around them. Latin America on the other hand, is a low trust society.
A prime example of this is how in Silicon Valley, it is very common for two strangers to sit down together, have coffee, and next thing you know they’re co-founders of a startup. Latin America is different, chances are a startup would be co-founded by relatives. Roughly 80% of businesses in Latin America are family owned and operated.
2. Storytelling
Everyone in marketing talks about storytelling, but rarely is it ever properly defined. According to Matthew, here’s what it is:
Brands that have high recognition are ones that have a backstory. Think of Apple. Most people in North America could see the Apple logo, and know that it was founded in a Californian garage by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and then later Steve Jobs got fired, and then he came back and made the iPhone. In order to grow, you will be constantly telling your story to provide context behind your brand and build trust. The main talent for storytelling in marketing is knowing the right questions to ask to find out what the customer needs or wants to hear.
3. Different Markets, Different Expectations
Trust and storytelling are key components of marketing throughout the world. However, in a low-trust society, the attitude that working with family and friends is a safer bet continues on past just business ownership. Customer behaviour works in a similar way, they’re often wary of newcomers. Having a solid backstory may not be enough to sway people to buy from you. What helps with breaking into a new market is contracting out into reseller partnerships. The localized resellers will understand the business culture and the customers of the new market, and give you access to an already existing customer base. As your brand gains more trust in the market over time, you and your reseller may explore options including an acquisition to formalize the function internally.
Thank you again Matthew for taking the time to share your experience!