Merrill Brink News Reviews and Opinion on Nov 27, 2014: Translation Considerations When Designing Marketing Campaigns
New York, US (PRWEB) December 01, 2014 -- Effective marketing relies on creative messaging that resonates with your target audience and compels them to purchase your products or services. Often, the messaging includes a play on words or a “catch phrase” to emphasize a point that customers will associate with the company. Because of this interdependence between marketing and language, simply translating marketing collateral into the target audience’s language is usually not sufficient to garner the impact you’re seeking. Your marketing efforts will be more effective if you create versions of the campaign that directly relate to your customers’ target language and location.
Analyze the Proposed Messaging to Determine Its Impact in the Target Country.
First, analyze your proposed messaging to assess your target customer’s reaction if it were simply translated from the original language to their target language. Will the marketing piece be effective if translated with minor modifications or will your brochure or sales sheet fail to capture the customer’s attention and money?
Also be sure to assess whether any of your content, when translated, may result in an embarrassing social gaffe or offend your customers. Chances are you’ll find that in some cases, simply rewording the messaging during translation will not yield the desired effect. In these instances, you must customize the messaging for your customers’ locations.
Localize Cultural References and Timing
When localizing content, plan to go beyond the text. It’s also important to determine if images, cultural references and the timing of the collateral should be modified based on the customer’s location. For example, when Pampers used the messaging and a logo of a stork carrying a baby on its marketing materials for Japanese buyers, the campaign was ineffective – the “stork” folklore did not resonate with Japanese mothers because it’s not part of Japanese culture.1
Timing is also critical. For instance, marketers based in the northern hemisphere who are planning a “summer-themed” campaign for Australian buyers should be aware of Australian seasons. In this case, summer-themed marketing offers should be launched in December, not May, to coincide with Australia’s summer months.
An Effective Call to Action is Critical
Because marketing is about convincing the target audience to act—whether to visit your website, make a phone call or purchase a product—it’s essential to understand the preferred and most effective calls to action during localization. Shannon Denison’s article, Localization Does Not Stand Alone in Marketing, stresses the importance of asking, “What do I know about shopping behavior as it relates to location? Where do the most decisive moments live within location?”2
According to Denison, it is essential to know the most effective time to provide an offer or call to action—before the shopping, while shopping, or at another time. It is also important to carefully construct the type of call to action based on the culture and motivations of the target customer. For example, if most shoppers in the target demographic do not have a mobile phone, a promotion offering a cell phone text coupon will not be effective for that audience. It’s also important to customize all coupons and savings offers with meaningful savings amounts for that locale.
Your company can save considerable localization and production costs by localizing messages in as many of your target languages as possible when planning the campaign. Regardless of savings, however, when your collateral receives the highest return on investment because it is localized for each target language, the investment you make in localizing campaigns is well worth the cost.
Read full article: http://www.merrillbrink.com/translation-considerations-for-marketing-campaigns-11242014.htm
References:
1 Brooks, Chad. “Lost in Translation: 9 International Marketing Fails,” Fox Business website. October 8, 2013. http://smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/marketing-sales/2013/10/08/lost-in-translation-international-marketing-fails/
2 Denison, Shannon. “Localization Does Not Stand Alone in Marketing,” ClickZ website. January 16, 2014. http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2323234/localization-does-not-stand-alone-in-marketing
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Merrill Brink International (http://www.merrillbrink.com) is a leading provider of complete translation and language solutions for global companies and law firms, with special expertise in serving the legal, financial, life sciences, software, heavy machinery and corporate markets. A proven leader with more than 30 years of experience, Merrill Brink offers a wide range of language solutions including translation, localization, desktop publishing and globalization services.
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Vanessa Lontoc, Merrill Brink, http://www.merrillbrink.com, +1 (917) 720-5598, [email protected]
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