Designing a Market Entry That Could Travel Across Cultures
TRS Winery
Helping a boutique wine brand find its place in Southeast Asia
TRS, a boutique wine producer from Croatia, had built a strong identity rooted in meaning, craft, and place.
As the company looked toward Southeast Asia for growth, the opportunity was clear—but so were the risks.
Entering the region required more than distribution. The brand needed to adapt to new cultural contexts, unfamiliar regulatory environments, and different consumer expectations—without losing the character that made it distinctive in the first place.
Speed mattered.
So did authenticity.
The challenge was not whether to enter the market—but how to arrive without losing itself along the way.
Our Role
HashtagOne partnered with TRS to design an integrated market entry system—bringing together strategy, brand, operations, and on-the-ground execution.
Our role was to help translate the brand across cultures while building the operational foundations required for sustainable growth in the region.
Rather than treating market entry as a sequence of tasks, we focused on designing a system that could support the brand over time.
Outcome
The brand entered Southeast Asia with confidence and coherence.
Market entry was achieved with strong local resonance
Operations stabilized quickly despite regional complexity
The brand remained authentic while becoming culturally relevant
A clear operating foundation was established for future expansion
Most importantly, the brand gained a way of entering new markets without starting from scratch each time.
What we did
Understanding the landscape before acting
We began by immersing ourselves in the realities of the market.
This included:
cultural norms and consumption behaviors,
competitive dynamics within the wine and premium beverage space, and
regulatory and operational constraints unique to the region.
This understanding shaped not just where the brand could play—but how it should show up.
Designing an entry strategy that balanced identity and adaptation
With insight in place, we worked with leadership to define a clear entry strategy and operating model.
The focus was on balance:
preserving the essence of the brand, while
adapting its expression to feel relevant and accessible in Southeast Asia.
Brand positioning and communication were carefully refined—not rewritten—to resonate locally without becoming generic.
Building the system to go to market
To support execution, we designed practical go-to-market and operational playbooks.
These covered how the brand would:
launch and communicate,
work with local partners, and
operate day to day within new regulatory and cultural environments.
The goal was clarity—so teams could move with confidence rather than hesitation.
Supporting early execution
As the brand entered the market, we stayed close to leadership through the early phases of execution.
This allowed us to:
adjust assumptions as real-world feedback emerged,
support decision-making under pressure, and
ensure alignment between strategy, brand, and operations as the business took shape.