Don’t let a marketing blunder derail your entry into a new market

Typically, the focus of launching a new product or service into another country is on meeting regulatory requirements in the target country – and rightly so. If you’re introducing a product into a new country, you and your team need to ensure the product packaging includes all the necessary disclaimers and instructions. But, what about promoting the product or service in the new market? 

Focused on the regulatory, packaging and legal aspects of entering a new country, some businesses don’t pay enough attention to the marketing side of a product or service launch in a new country. For a successful entrance into a new market, you need to include a marketing expert in the translation process. 

Why marketing input is important

At its most basic description, marketing creates and communicates the value of products and services to the target audience. In general, marketers are responsible for ensuring that people in a new market are aware of your product and service, and create and deliver the content that convinces them to buy from you instead of your competitors. Let’s assume you sell consumer pharmaceutical products, having a presence in local magazines, on websites and on television can push a potential customer to ask for your product at the doctor’s office. But to promote on any of these mediums, you need to ensure that the language used enables you to connect with your audience. When marketing to an audience, other than an American one, it’s of the utmost importance that you understand what grabs the attention of that audience. You need to get the language, message and delivery right the first time, and in most cases a direct translation from the source text won’t be enough. This is where the input of an expert marketer that’s familiar with the target audience is required.

Take into consideration language nuances

From a translation perspective, it’s much more straightforward to translate a technical document from English into another language than it is to translate marketing copy. Marketing content tends to have a very stylized format, and is written subjectively to spark the interest of its target market. To raise awareness and interest, marketing copy typically contains slogans and idiomatic expressions that can be a challenge to accurately translate. 

In addition, you don’t want to overlook the culture of your new market, as Pepsodent found out when they launched their “whitens your teeth” campaign in Southeast Asia. Local natives in this part of the world chew betel nuts to blacken their teeth, which they find attractive. This scenario proves a point: know your audience and change product names, slogans and copy so that they’ll be successful in the market you’re targeting.

Tone and voice, too, are important considerations in your marketing copy. In the United States, marketing copy can use a casual tone and still reach the intended target audience, but in many Asian countries, where people are more formal, this might be considered offensive. Take for example Dolce & Gabbana’s advertisement videos, which featured an Asian woman attempting to eat Italian food with chopsticks while a male voice gave eating instructions. Full of innuendos and incorrect pronunciations, the advertisements were met with wide-spread controversy, resulting in consequences for the brand.  

What if you’re not well-versed in the characteristics and culture of your target audience? The success of entering a new market is on the line and you don’t want to leave anything to chance. And this means finding an expert who is versed in your target market’s cultural values, etiquette, humor, slang and idioms.

Work with a qualified LSP

Before you translate your marketing material, you should meet with the LSP you selected to discuss the quality of the source content. This is the time to review your marketing materials and get answers to questions such as: 

• • What is important to your new target audience?
  • What marketing channels provide the best responses?
  • What type of language or tone works well with them?
  • Are there any cultural references and values that need to be taken into consideration?
  • How does the existing copy measure against what would succeed in that market?

The responses to these questions will help you rewrite the existing copy for your new audience. This copy should be reviewed and approved by the LSP before it is translated. Remember, the reason for including a review step at the start is to ensure that the material that was created suits the audience and doesn’t result in any miscommunication.

If your marketing expert speaks the target language, be sure to have her review it for consistency and check for errors in syntax or idioms. If your marketer doesn’t know the target language, be sure to provide her industry and cultural information related to the new translation. Remember, the more time you invest in getting your messaging right the first time, the more successful your product launch and marketing campaign will be when you enter the new market.

If you’d like to learn more about how BURG Translations helps you ensure high quality translations, contact us today.