by Digitalisation and social media have really changed the way we manage global brands. Today, people all over the world can see what a brand is doing almost instantly. So, companies need to make sure that their brand is presented in a consistent way across different markets. At the same time, they have to understand local cultures and differences. That’s why intercultural management skills have become so important.
Over the past few years, the way we see global companies as brands has changed a lot. This is especially true for global acting companies like automotive or aircraft manufacturers such as Pilatus. One of the main reasons is the growing importance of social media and digital platforms.
In the past, people mainly experienced brands through local markets, traditional media and regional communication. Today, we can see very quickly what a brand is doing around the world. Cateora & Ghauri (2020) also point out that digital communication is making international marketing more standardised. At the same time, social media makes it much harder for companies to communicate their brand only on a national level.
Potential and existing customers, employees, partners and other stakeholders can follow in real time how a brand operates around the world and what relevance it develops in different markets.
Another clear change is that brand and product communication is becoming shorter and more focused. Advertising messages are becoming shorter, clearer and more visual. This is mainly because people are constantly receiving information through digital channels, making it harder to keep their attention. The growing use of artificial intelligence, or AI, is accelerating this development even further.
Brands often have only a few seconds to generate interest and establish an emotional connection.
In the digital age, the attention of target audiences has therefore become an extremely scarce resource: Because there is so much information online, marketing messages are constantly competing for people’s attention. Digital platforms also use algorithms to decide what people see. Overall, this means that advertising content is becoming shorter, simpler and more focused (Dukes & Liu, 2023).
Global Brand vs Local Relevance
A good current example of consistent global brand management is Polestar, a Chinese car manufacturer and part of the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group.
Polestar keeps its messages very short and presents the brand in a clear, simple and consistent way around the world. The main message is often just the product name or a few additional words. Together with the visual identity and the main brand values, this creates a consistent image across different markets. As a result, a digital or even traditional physicial banner campaign in Stockholm, Zurich, Los Angeles, Bangkok or even China is immediately recognisable as Polestar (Polestar, 2018; Marketing Tribune 2026).
This example shows that a product does not always need to be adapted extensively to each local market. Sometimes, the same concept can work well globally.
Intercultural Management Competence
For globally active companies, this transformation represents a significant challenge, particularly for long-established teams such as those at the aircraft manufacturer Pilatus.
I would like to emphasise that global brand management is explicitly not about preventing necessary local adaptations – for example, adaptations to language or cultural characteristics. Such adaptations remain both meaningful and, in some cases, essential.
But in the past, locally operating marketing employees often had greater freedom of action – not necessarily as a result of deliberate strategic decisions.
Local marketing activities were hardly visible outside their respective markets.
In the past, longer advertising messages gave local marketing teams more freedom to be creative. Today, this is more difficult because communication is becoming shorter and more global.
Because of this, intercultural management skills have become very important for marketing leaders. For me as a leader, this means understanding and reflecting on different cultural values, norms and ways of working. It also means considering these differences when working with international teams.
This helps us recognise possible misunderstandings early and solve conflicts in a constructive way. A clear corporate and marketing strategy is important, but clear communication and decision-making processes are just as important. They help us manage and transform international marketing projects efficiently.
Shared goals, clear roles and regular communication give our international teams direction and help to reduce uncertainty.
At Pilatus, we therefore strive to create a genuine “we-make-it-happen” mindset – rather than a “you-do-it-now-please” mentality. All of these factors help us strengthen the quality of our global brand management and enhance our worldwide visibility, professionalism and effectiveness as a global actting brand.
References Cateora, P. & Ghauri, P. N. (2020). International Marketing (18. Aufl.). McGraw Hill London. Dukes, A. & Liu, Q. (2023). The Consumption of Advertising in the Digital Age: Attention and Ad Content. Management Science, 70(4). Marketing Tribune (2026). Polestar zet ‘kiezen’ centraal. https://www.marketingtribune.nl/bureaus/nieuws/2026/01/polestar-zet-kiezen-centraal/index Polestar (2018). Journal 1. https://www.polestar.com/global/news/journal-1
