There may not be a second chance for yourself and your company to make a first impression.
Selling your goods and services in foreign markets, especially in the online environment, will always involve certain business risks. People say not to judge a book by its cover, but the first impression of you and your business in new foreign markets is critically important. It also means that communication about your goods and services must be clear and tailored to your target audience, taking both language and cultural differences into account.
The business literature describes many different examples of failed product advertising slogans that led to failed business startups. Some examples:
- Did you know that one of the most popular breakfast dishes in India is Poha?
- Some time ago, Daimler entered the Chinese market with its new brand Bensi, which in Chinese means Rush to die;
- When Nokia called its latest mobile phone the Lumia, marketers made a big mistake by not checking how the word could be translated into other languages. When the ad was translated into Spanish, it turned out that the word lumia meant prostitute;
- When advertising in English, Pepsodentās toothpaste claimed it would whiten teeth, but the ad campaign caused a huge commotion in Southeast Asia. Local residents specifically use betel nuts to make their teeth black, because having black teeth is considered the standard of beauty.
So, before entering a new foreign market, it is crucial to study how your product name and brand message will be perceived, because language and cultural differences can cause quite unexpected and even unpredictable reactions in society, even in a small market like Latvia.
Before starting a business in a foreign market, we recommend making sure that the intended communication strategy complies with the following recommendations:
- the chosen message is not too complex; you have prepared high-quality translations, as well as localised and adapted your marketing materials;
- there are no idiomatic expressions and colloquial words in the texts; instead, an easily and quickly understandable vocabulary is used, which the reader can easily remember if necessary;
- you have thought about local customs and cultural norms to avoid confusing mistakes and unwanted interpretations of concepts;
- the most important message is conveyed in the first sentence because each subsequent sentence will be read by fewer and fewer people;
- the product slogan is no longer than 5Ā words;
- the writing is done in a coherent way.
One of the services offered by Skrivanek Baltic is intercultural communication consulting, to provide clients with professional support when expanding to new markets. We analyse each project from the perspective of the target client, and if the target client is not defined, we help to define it, so that language specialists can accurately identify linguistic and intercultural communication problem situations and find the most effective solutions.
Our specialists evaluate the brandās communication strategy, product and service names, sales materials and product descriptions, and provide feedback on how they might be perceived by the target market, indicating possible linguistic or cultural peculiarities. We study the tonality of your message, help you choose the right form of address and ensure compliance of the content with local traditions. This is how we help you avoid unexpected negative consumer reactionsĀ ā including online, because your brand and product names will appear in local search engines.
Our consultations in the field of adaptationĀ andĀ localisation include:
- linguistic analysis of company logos, slogans and product names;
- identification of potentially offensive or ambiguous words and phrases;
- paraphrasing and finding of synonyms;
- examination of the similarity and associations of your companyās logo with other logos of the target market;
- evaluation of the suitability of messages to the audience;
- compliance of images, colours and other visual elements with local cultural traditions.
Our team includes linguists and experts from all over the world, so we have access to the fundamental knowledge of any global market.