5 mistakes made when marketing to new territories

Figure 1 - Statement of apology from the Barbie movie account in Japan

This experience isn’t unique. According to a recent Gartner survey, 27% of CEOs wish they had created a dedicated marketing resource when developing regionalised marketing activity.

With that in mind, here are 5 ways to avoid instant regret when marketing to consumers in different territories.

1. Clearly speaking the same language

89% of companies plan to translate their brand assets into additional languages in the next year, with a focus on either website content or campaigns.

Figure 2 - Focus of content localisation efforts (Source: Gartner)

Getting this right is important. Research has shown companies risk losing 40% or more of their total addressable market if they fail to localise their content effectively. Over half of consumers also think having information in their own language is more important than price.

The process for localising content has lagged behind other marketing capabilities in terms of digitisation and automation. 41% of companies have a ‘highly manual localisation process’.

Copying and pasting content, or sending and receiving emails, increases the risk of errors or unforeseen mistakes. It’s not surprising that 67% of companies also said they “weren’t confident at all” in the quality of their translations.

Ensuring your content is available in a specific language can be a regulatory requirement in some countries. If your website targets customers in Saudi Arabia or South Korea, for example, it must be accessible in the local language.

Local differences can also occur. While Malay is officially the national language of Singapore, English is the de facto main language, so content needs to be in English to comply with local rules.

2. Translating designs, not just words

Translation processes focus on text changes so content can be understood in different languages. However, designers also use fonts, colours, shapes, or icons as a visual language to communicate with users.

Localising content can involve translating your visual design, not just text.

This can range from small changes to the UI to more significant changes in UX or the underlying capabilities of a content management system.

For example, mobile apps in China use a ‘discover’ button instead of a hamburger menu. This is represented by a compass, steering wheel, or magnifying glass, and indicates to users where low-priority items can be found. Interface designs make liberal use of red dots to alert users to changes, news, or updates.

Figure 3 - Mobile app UI trends in China

Translating to/from English also increases / decreases character lengths. This can affect the design of pages, content, or navigation systems. Languages like German, Spanish, and French tend to be more verbose, so extra space is needed to avoid wrapping or truncating. Line height is also important when designing for Chinese, Japanese, or Arabic markets, to avoid characters appearing too small.

It’s not just character types or lengths that change. Translating to one of 12 languages like Arabic or Urdu can also mean changing the design, so that text reads right to left (RTL), not left to right (LTR). ‘Mirroring’ the design requires a CMS that supports bi-directional text and this can affect where products, images, and CTAs are placed on the page.

Elements of designs that depict movement, such as arrows or animations need to be ‘mirrored’ so they read RTL. There are some interesting exceptions to this rule. For example, media playback buttons or progress indicators aren’t mirrored, as they reflect the direction that media is played, not the direction of time.

Figure 4 - Source: https://engineering.atspotify.com/2019/04/right-to-left-the-mirror-world/

Clocks or circular refresh icons should read LTR (clocks still turn clockwise in RTL languages), as well as numbers used for times, charts, or contact details. Icons that depict handheld objects, e.g., a magnifying glass that represents search, should also remain unchanged, as the majority of users in RTL-countries are also right-handed.

Figure 5 - Some icons aren’t mirrored in RTL languages. Source: Material Design

Finally, colours can mean different things in different countries.

Luck or good fortune is symbolised by green in the UK and US, but China, Denmark, or Argentina all use red. Care should be taken when using colours to indicate status, as green/red may communicate an upward/downward trend in one country but mean the opposite in another!

3. Adapting to cultural differences 

According to Harvard Business Review, failing to adapt to local cultures is one of the biggest mistakes in global marketing. To maximise the opportunities market expansion provides, brands need to create experiences that feel authentic, effortless, and relevant to local markets from day one.

Getting this right requires a 360 degree view of local audiences, culture, and the competitive environment. By analysing cultural similarities or differences, marketers can understand which aspects can be shared or diversified when adapting global campaigns, content, or communications.

Hofstede’s cultural dimensions or ‘6 D model’ is a tool that’s commonly used for this. It’s a widely-recognised framework for understanding cultural differences and dynamics.

For example, China has one the highest ‘Power Distance’ rankings. This reflects a society that believes “inequalities amongst people are acceptable” and scores higher for masculinity, which means people are “competitive and success orientated”. As a result, Chinese people will prioritise work over family and leisure time compared to Americans, who have a more balanced work/life perspective.

These differences in values are reflected in the different creative below (both executions show the same kitchen but it is designed to look bigger in the US version of the catalogue than the one for China).

Figure 7 - Hofstede cultural dimensions vs Ikea advertising used in USA/China