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Marketing a Business in Israel

Preparing to start a business in Israel is more than just costs and procedures. It's more cultural acclimatisation than calculatory acumen. It's making sure your product or service fits the inclinations and idiosyncrasies of a nation; finding a way to culturalise your business in order to reap the same results your business has achieved domestically. This is accomplished through one simple step: effective marketing in Israel.

Marketing your business on indigenous soil is an art-form in itself; attempting to do it in Israel is nigh-on miraculous. Countries may be becoming more heterogeneous, but the foundations of a culture rarely budge for anything: their sensitivities, traditions, humour, discourses, protocols are essentially unchanging and stubbornly unaccommodating. Therefore, the identity of your product or service needs to seamlessly fashion itself upon a nation, not the other way around, shoehorned in, hoping for the best.

Advertising and Sales promotions in Israel

If you are starting your business in Israel, it is important to realise that you will need to be persistent and invest time and effort. Personal contact is seen as vital to building strong business relationships and simple marketing methods, such as mails, are unlikely to result in a business sale.

Aggressive promotion and advertising are effective in Israel, especially for consumer goods. The most common route is through commercial television and radio. Channel Two is the commercial station and carries private advertising. There are also international cable channels, which can be used to reach Israeli consumers if you are setting up a business in the country. The state owned radio station (Kol Israel) carries advertising and there are thirteen additional privately owned commercial stations.

Cultural Sensitivity

Cultural sensitivity and understanding of protocol is paramount to effective marketing. The intricacies of a nation its beliefs, even its superstitions can make or break your business. Know the market; immerse yourself in it. Never assume your marketing strategy will be transplantable to a foreign country. There is only a slim chance language will translate well. Anglophonic countries may be susceptible, but if your product or service plays on a quintessentially British characteristic or joke the chances are, it will not be well received.

As for other countries, don't bank on using the same strap-lines or gimmicks. Unless they are perfectly transitional, your product or service could suffer especially if it relies on humour.

Unless you are certain your product or service can sell itself on indigenous merits, it is probably wise to revise its selling-points for a foreign market. As always, however, only your own fastidious research can conclude this.
Although the Israeli marketing is westernized, it is a Jewish state so therefore has Jewish sensitivities. If you are expanding a business in Israel it is worth having a degree of understanding about Jewish culture, such as the practice of not eating pork products. Religion is a sensitive issue in Israel and it would be unwise to use provocative religious imagery in any marketing if you are setting up a business in the country.

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