International brand adaptations: Zara, Burger King and Brasilwagen

When you move to a new country it's always interesting to see how international brands adapt to the local market. I had lunch with a fellow marketeer this week and he told me that Zara (which you won't find on the high street, only in São Paulo's more upmarket and select shopping malls) had to raise prices for the Brazilian market in order to increase desirability amongst middle to high class shoppers and drive sales. It made me smile because it's the exact opposite positioning it has in its home country Spain where it is an affordable, accessible, mass market, high street retailer.

Below are some more obvious examples which I have stumbled across whilst trekking through the southern neighbourhoods Moema, Itaim and Vila Olimpia:

Burgers on the terrace: BK being meteorologically aware

Yes, I did a doubletake too.

Helicoptor Overload

I don´t even have to look out of the window, I can hear them. The rhythmic sound of the blades chopping up the air outside fade in and out so regularly I am already becoming oblivious. Low flying helicopters are everywhere! When you´re at street level and buried beneath the skyscraper forrest they´re not so noticeable but get a bit of altitude and you it’s a chopper spotter’s dream!

I read this week that the posh end of Vila Olimpia around Rua Funchal which is one of the areas we are looking at renting out an office has more heliports than bus stops. Just a statistic of course but stop and think about that, a small segment of a business neighbourhood has 25 heliports alone!  Most of these buildings were built in the 90s already with heliports on top so it’s not exactly a new phenomena.

By the way some people call this area Vale do Silício paulistano (Paulistano Silicon Valley) because Google, Microsoft, Intel, Symantec etc all built their offices there.