This blog is about localisation and localisation for marketing, and particularly how that applies to promotional products and branded merchandise.
Localisation is not just translation; you should also consider:
• Colour and cultural colour references
• Brands which do not translate
• Products and whether appropriate for locale
• Celebrations, lean into local celebration days
For most marketers, localisation means having the brochure translated. But as my friends from Smartling (www.Smartling.com) will point out it's not just the language, but also the ‘sentiment, seasonal trends, cultural preferences within that language’. So, translation is quite a large topic in itself and one best dealt with by the experts. But it's not just language for localisation.
Think COLOUR. If you said the colour red to someone from Western Europe, they'd be thinking red associated with love, think a red heart, possibly danger think of the traffic light. But the colour red in the Far East is lucky. So, China, Vietnam, and that part of the world would see a bright red as being a very lucky colour. In Southern Africa, however, the colour red is associated with death and mourning. Yeah, that's a bit of a surprise. We always associate black with death and mourning in Western Europe. Actually, in the Far East, they associate the colour white with mourning.
So why do I mention this? You can get yourself into trouble, not particularly with those colours, but think of the colour orange. Now, in Holland, orange is a great colour. It's associated with the national pride, the monarch and is a wonderful colour. But be careful if you create an orange water bottle and send it to someone in Ireland. In Ireland, particularly the Republic the colour orange is associated with the Protestant Unionists and may or may not be well received.
BRANDS: Another subject to consider is brands. It's very common for people in promotional merchandise to want to associate their brand with a, another big brand, and that's great. I've no problems with that. But you need to understand that some brands don't translate. For example, we had quite a large order for Timbuk2 backpacks. This is a very popular brand, really on trend in America. However, in Western Europe, they've never heard of it. So why is that a problem? It's not a problem as such, but it did mean that the client was trying to spend £80-£100 on a backpack because of the brand. Which nobody had heard of. And it's not just Timbuktu. We've had cases with a thing called the Owala water bottle. Owala water bottles. Again, just a brand that's not known in mainland Europe. So if you're spending money on that brand, then do ensure that the locale that you're sending it to actually recognise it. Otherwise, it's not that you're doing any harm, but you're just wasting money.
Note of caution here – brands do grow, so even though at time of writing the brands mentioned may not be well known in a region, this can change very quickly!
PRODUCT CHOICE: We also have instances where the product choice was not great. Particularly we did a very large order for fleeces. And they were lovely fleeces. They were dual lined, really heavy weight. But we were asked to send some to Mumbai. Anybody who knows Mumbai will know that during the summer when it's forty-two degrees centigrade outside, the only time you're going to use a fleece is if you're in a restaurant where they've turned the air conditioning up too high. A lovely product, but a lot of money spent when a polo shirt would have probably gone down a lot better.
CELEBRATIONS: Finally, the other thing to think about is not just the negatives, but the positives that arise from localisation. I mentioned Orange and Holland, and that's because they have a thing called King's Day which they celebrate. And so instead of avoiding such things, you can lean into the fact that for the Dutch the King's Day is a big deal. Similarly in, in France, Bastille Day not important to anybody else, but to the French it is really a big deal. Religious holidays. Need to be careful with some religious holidays. I think the Americans have probably got it quite right in that they call them the holidays rather than using Christmas so as not to offend anybody. But please, across Western Europe Christmas is a great term to use. And it's not just within Western Europe. I receive Christmas greetings from my friends in India because they don't have a problem with recognising Christmas, but they do like it when you recognise Diwali. Understanding those cultural differences is really quite important.
Are PDI experts on this? No. We do ship all across the world, and I personally am, consider myself quite well-travelled, but I tell you where the expert is. The expert is the person who's living in the country who can give you feedback. And it might mean that not only is your product better received, but you won't be wasting money on products which, could cause you a problem. Thank you.
The video can be explored here on You Tube:
AUTHOR
DAVID PLATT – BA, BSC, MBA Dip M – David has run a promotional products business for over 25 years and has seen up close the successful and not so successful merchandise campaigns. Experience and academic research gives an insight into the way the industry can provide value.