How To... Get Personal with Customers; A Step-by-Step Guide

Ginger Rogers’ preference for “potato” over Fred Astaire’s “potahto” in the 1937 classic, Shall We Dance (below), highlighted how regional differences and dialects can have a catastrophic impact on relationships. 

From a business perspective, we're most interested in the relationship a brand has with its customers, but the same idea of miscommunication applies. So why is it that so many marketing agencies still subscribe to the idea that only one version of a message is acceptable?

Staying ahead of the competition

For businesses to stay ahead, they need to continually change and adapt. To do this, they need to concentrate on providing what customers actually want and paying attention to the subtle nuances demanded from each market. 

Whether the medium is print, digital, video, packaging or point of sale, the businesses that will survive and thrive are the ones that push the right buttons and speak to their customers with a local, not global perspective.

Different tastes

Take Coca-Cola, which is known to vary its recipe to meet the different taste buds of consumers in different countries. In Canada, a can contains 10 teaspoons of sugar, whereas in Thailand it contains just eight (see below), so why do marketers think they can roll out the same message to different consumer demographics and nationalities? 

Research shows that targeted ads are much more effective at drawing customers in. Unfortunately, many marketers persist with one global marketing campaign as localisation costs both time and money.

International faux-pas

And when considering how to localise content, direct translations just won't cut it when working in overseas markets. So you need to be wary of different cultural nuances. In China, 'love' is such a strong word - something not even said among lovers - that McDonalds had to adjust its international slogan, “I’m lovin’ it!” to the rather watered-down version, “I like it”. 

And similarly, in the 1920s, Coca-Cola had to reinvent itself locally after it realised that its brand name - when converted phonetically to Chinese characters - meant ‘mare stuffed with wax’. While interesting conceptually, Coca Cola decided to adapt its name to ‘Kokou-Kolay’ which translates as the more relevant meaning, ‘a pleasure in the mouth’.

Failure to keep pace

CMOs and agencies alike are struggling to localise their brand's marketing content across relevant channels and desired geographies. In fact, a new study by the CMO Council implied that almost two-thirds of marketers feel their teams don’t have the capacity to take this on. 

Although localising is understood to be beneficial for brands, an average of just 5% of a CMO's budget is set aside for adaptating content to suit more local territories and engage cross-culturally.

Not enough hours in the day

The CMO Council report mentioned above also revealed that most respondents were not able to deploy localised content within their required timeframe. 

Only one in five of respondents said they were satisfied with their creative delivery process and the effectiveness of their marketing supply chain. Companies are already stretched, with the top five challenges of the marketing process identified as: shortened turnaround times; high quality and uniform brand guidelines; end-to-end workflow management; delivering work on time; and the measureability and impact of the campaign.

The need for personalisation

Ironically, as businesses suffer from a lack of time and funds to implement these localised processes, customers' expectations are ever increasing and demanding personalisation. Online and social trends result in consumers craving something a bit more tailored. And a brand's failure to adapt could cause it to rapidly lose pace in the fast-evolving of today.  Something needs to be done.

Safety in numbers

Going forward, if your business doesn’t have the inhouse expertise to prodice localised content, partner with an outsourced company that knows the local market. Get to know and trust them as the pressure to deliver results will always remain high and it's one way to stay ahead and relevant to international audiences.