Every company knows the importance of brand research. It is
essential that your branding communicates your company’s values to consumers,
resonates with your audience and carries the right associations and attitudes
that people will link to your company.
Now imagine that you have found the perfect branding, a
slogan that works beautifully and a tone of voice that gives your brand the
right identity. More often than not, you will have hired a professional brand
consulting team. You are doing great in your home market and are thinking of
taking your brand abroad. Should you just go ahead?
The short answer is yes, but plan carefully. Of course you
want to be able to harness the huge potential of foreign markets, but just like
it takes a lot of work to develop a brand in a market, there should be a
significant amount of research carried out before attempting to enter a new
market.
The best way of achieving this is through multicultural
brand research and transcreation. First of all, it’s important to research
things such as the associations that certain words, colours and images may have
in the target market, as they may differ greatly from your culture. You want to
avoid blunders such as the famous Mitsubishi Pajero.
Secondly, transcreation, a combination of content creation
and translation, can help preserve the essence of your brand in the target
language, whilst respecting the cultural conventions and expectations, which
translates into brand understanding and engagement.
So, in order to make your brand go further, it is best to
work with a team who knows the target market well and can provide the necessary
brand research information, as well as excellent copy that resonates with your
audience and communicates your brand values. One brand that has achieved that
beautifully in China is Nike, whose transliterated name “Nai Ke” also carries
the meaning of being enduring and persevering, two concepts that perfectly
match their products. And they’re doing great in the country, which shows the
importance of good market research.