Gabriela Pulido founded a creative consulting agency, Scalto.com, that serves a niche market. Gabriela coaches companies ready to scale without incurring high costs with a strong focus on the Hispanic and Latin American markets. To date, Gabriela has worked with over 300 global Latin American & Hispanic brands. Using a unique framework she developed, the xAlto Program™, she helps businesses grow in new markets.
When working with foreign markets, it’s important to not only translate the marketing message into another language but to understand the nuances of the market. This requires an understanding of the culture and the people you are targeting. When you work with different cultures, you need to conduct research, so you don’t alienate them by saying something that doesn’t jive with their culture. A feat that is not as simple as it sounds.
The xAlto Program™ framework helps companies expanding into new markets and cultures know precisely how they need to pivot. This enables them to make intelligent marketing decisions instead of just throwing things out there and waiting to see what sticks. By keeping an open mind and not being stuck with laser vision, companies can explore new and different options and opportunities they would not have thought of had they not pivoted distribution into new markets.
In Gabriela’s experience, companies grow most when they have a clear vision. They need to understand the why. Knowing what motivates your growth makes it easy to find the right path, no matter how many new markets you try to conquer. The first part of the framework that Gabriela teaches her clients is that no brand can be everything to everyone. To truly scale a business, you need to narrow your offer, focus, and niche. The more targeted you are, the easier it is to scale.
The next step is to have a clear vision of the narrative is? What are the pillars of your brand story, and how are you sharing this story with potential clients? Sometimes, you need to change your brand image or logo to win at narrative or storytelling. You need to connect with the market you’re looking to expand in. The last step in the framework is to put all the pieces together. When you have everything in place tailored to your brand, that is when you see success and growth. A framework covering all the bases can take a bank with deep roots in one country and help them pivot by becoming a local community bank in another country. This is what Gabriela’s company did for a Venezuelan banking institution, Mercantile Bank. Once you understand where you want to go, you need to create a plan to get there. If you’re a business looking to expand into new markets, follow this One Big Tip!
In this episode:
[2:55] Gabriela shares her diverse background, having worked in different markets
- In today’s world, there is expansion happening from market to market
- To grow your business, you need to understand that different cultures and markets view things differently
[8:01] You need to know how to adapt to move forward
- Miami is a microcosm of what’s happening in the business
- If you want to succeed you need to be open-minded
[15:02] A surefire way to pivot successfully is to follow a strategy that works
- Know who your market is
- Know what their pain points are
- Know your why
[18:20] Marketing is the creativity that can take X and make people believe that it’s Y
- Marketing is comprised of many different moving parts
- To break into a new market successfully, you must speak the proverbial language of the people
Watch the Interview:
Learn more and reach out:
- LinkedIn: Gabriela Pulido
- Website: Scalto
