How to convey your messages to consumers worldwide
How to convey their messages to consumers throughout new markets carries a lot of worries and global brands. One of the “headaches” – an international advertising and marketing campaign. Fact into account the need to take linguistic and cultural characteristics of the country or region of a campaign. Steve Puttock, managing Director in the London branch of the company Schawk, Inc., proposes to use the so-called “transcreation” or pragmatic adaptation.
Having extensive experience in the provision of services successful major international brands, Steve Puttock offers to your attention a few tips on how to successfully integrate your brand in local markets while maintaining a global image.
- Work with a specialist who operates in a global market, but it has contractors in the local markets of the countries where you want to work with. Working with one of the specialists you are guaranteed to get a product with the same brand image and knowledge of the local market will allow you to make the necessary adjustments in the course of the campaign.
- Hire copywriters and not translators. You don’t need a literal translation, you need a copywriter with language skills, who knows how to handle the message.
- To ensure that the campaign works, and to avoid unpleasant surprises, include in the local assessment process. Remember how translated the slogan of a beer brand Coors “Turn it loose” into Spanish. Literally translated, it sounded like “suffer from diarrhea”. In addition, when testing use back-translation, not proofreading – it helps to evaluate the meaning, not individual words.
- Pay attention to the details. For example, verify that all labels on the items that appear in a television ad, done in the desired language, and the package of the product corresponds to the declared in the country.
- Make sure that you correctly understand the rules of this country – the laws on the protection of information about rules, prizes and promotions, which at first glance seem transparent, in fact, can be “a minefield”.
- Consider whether to adapt the style of campaign to optimize it for each country: for example, Packed food, kind of clothes worn by people in the region, what is the percentage of nationalities, as you can reveal the body in promotional materials.
- With regard to campaigns on television, think about scoring. First, the dialect or accent is most suitable for this market? Also think about what the voice would sound better in the presentation of your product is male or female.
If consumers do not feel that you speak directly to them, they hardly hear what you say. Because really, it’s terrible when the difficulties of translation eat millions spent on communication with customers. Transcreation is a complex science and requires time and cost. However, the owners of brands that are perfecting this skill and create a flawless advertising campaign for local consumers, are well aware that it’s worth it.