Translation Articles

Marketing Translation Process

Contributed by Stark Reality © 2007 - www.starkreality.com.au and implemented by Meaningful Exchange

Going into a new market has many challenges, especially for Small and Medium Enterprises that do not have the vast resources available to large multinational corporations.

To successfully undertake business in a foreign country, a company is faced with the challenge of undertaking the appropriate market research and developing a market entry and development strategy. It is then necessary to set up:

• The correct Legal framework
• Technology and Information Systems
• Production
• Distribution
• Customer Service
• Marketing Communication

Companies are then required to localize all of the necessary documentation to ensure the above is implemented correctly.

Meaningful Exchange is able to assist your company at every step of the way and play a vital role in making sure that your business is not lost in the translation:

Meaningful Exchange removes the stress and risk of trying to do all of this yourself or having to use multiple suppliers by providing all of the following services under one roof, from market research to desktop publishing:

• Legal documentations: all business documents, contracts, patents, copyright specifications, tenders, licensing agreements, Annual reports, etc
• Operations and instructional manuals
• Technical Documents
  • Engineering and technical product specifications
  • Medical and pharmaceutical products specifications
  • Software and hardware user manuals
  • Scientific and technical documents
• Marketing materials, such as website, company collateral, publicity releases, advertisements, point of sale, packaging, etc

Peter Drucker, the "grandfather" of modern management said that business is about 2 things and 2 things only, innovation and marketing.

"In today's global economy - an increasingly homogenous market place, with low barriers to entry, the only real differentiating feature that an enterprise can use to attract customers is what those customers perceive about your product or service and their relationship with your brand." Gene Stark

Positive customer perceptions are achieved through Communication that is Clear, Consistent and Credible. Perception is Reality and the perception your customers and prospects have about your business is directly related to profitability.

Below is a Marketing Translation Process followed by Meaningful Exchange to ensure that your brand acts globally and speaks locally:

A business name and it's positioning statement (the creative interpretation of your Unique Selling Proposition - think Nike's Just Do It, or Safeway's The Fresh Food People) forms the basis of your marketing communication strategy - especially if you are not a multinational company with a marketing budget larger than some countries gross domestic product, and even in those cases the budget is never enough to achieve all of the objectives the company has planned.

Business Name

Great names are a powerful force. They differentiate you from competitors, make an emotional connection with your audience, and help to build a brand that ignites the passions of your customers. Unless your brand has been around for 50 years, is already synonymous with what you do and what makes your company special, or you have a lazy $30 million to tell your target audience that company XYZ is the leading - insert the business category and key service / product benefit of your choice, then paying attention to your name is crucial.

A name can:

• Achieve separation from your competitors
• Demonstrate to the world that you are different
• Reinforce a unique positioning platform
• Create positive and lasting engagement with your audience
• Be unforgettable
• Propel itself through the world on its own, becoming a no-cost, self-sustaining PR vehicle
• Provide a deep well of marketing and advertising images
• Be the genesis of a brand that rises above the goods and services you provide
• Completely dominate a category

Brand and company names can be Functional, Emotional, Experiential and Self Expressive. Which one is right for your company and which one will work best in the new market?

Marketing text books are littered with brand naming mistakes by the big corporate players who rushed the process and made the wrong assumptions. By working with your marketing department / advertising agency and Meaningful Exchange you can ensure that your business name achieves the following characteristics in the language of the country you are entering:

• It has the right appearance when written in the alphabet characters of the language it is being translated into
• It projects the right sound and will not be abbreviated or changed in any negative way down the track
• It is distinctive enough to be remembered and demonstrate that you are different
• It has the depth to provide a never ending supply of marketing and advertising ideas and images
• It positions the brand in the right consumer mind space
• It is able to be trademarked in the country where you plan to use this new brand name.

Alternatively, if you do not have a trusted and proven marketing supplier, Meaningful Exchange works closely with Stark Reality to increase the return on your marketing investment.

Brand Positioning

By working with your marketing department and/or advertising agency, Meaningful Exchange can ensure that your brand positioning achieves the following characteristics in the language of the country you are entering:

Brands (Positioning Statements) should be able to hold their position in the long run:

1. Differentiate the business (Communicate the USP)
2. Provide a Creative (Campaignable and Sustainable) platform
3. Benefits should be ideally expressed explicitly to the customer
4. Provide support to the brand name

Alternatively, if you do not have a trusted and proven marketing / advertising supplier, Meaningful Exchange can work with Stark Reality to increase the return on your marketing investment, when you decide to enter a new market.

Communication alone does not create brand feelings. Experience with the brand creates brand feelings. Brand proposition must be extended throughout the entire Marketing Mix:

• Product,
• Price,
• Place,
• Promotion

and Meaningful Exchange has the right people to make sure that your marketing communication efforts are truly integrated in a language other than English, starting with Strategy right through to Implementation such as Design and Copywriting.