Campaigns across countries

BOOK EXTRACT

Consider France and Britain: two countries that are close neighbors and now connected with a tunnel under the English Channel. Yet, they are different in many ways: in race, language, education, religion, law, habits, and the structure of the society, which are all the products of centuries of different histories.

It is as if the two countries are inhabited by different tribes. Consider the United Kingdom, and how this now contains four distinct tribal homelands of its own "" England, Scotland, Wales, and Ulster "" which have become more separate during the last decade.

And now compare Britain with a totally different country like India. The differences multiply. These factors are generally thought to have a bearing on the viability of international advertising campaigns.

But are the differences insuperable? Or can they be overcome by making changes in individual advertisements?

It may surprise many readers that, except in one special case, international campaigns can be used to address tribes as different as the ones just described. In many instances adjustments are necessary.

Kenichi Ohmae, an experienced and sensitive commentator, makes the point that a brand must be transplanted in a foreign soil so that it will develop organically in its new environment.

As an example, this is how this process is carried out in the advertising for Lux soap:

Films are made, wherever possible, featuring local movie stars, and these are used alongside films featuring international stars. In India the campaign features local stars exclusively.

Alternative scenes can be inserted in the films used in specific countries. For example, in Far Eastern markets such as Indonesia and Malaysia, the traditional trappings of Hollywood are emphasized.

Washing sequences are sometimes differently handled in different countries. For example, in Arab countries, it is unacceptable to show too much of a woman's skin.

Verbal claims also vary. For example, in Japan commercials cannot claim that a movie star uses Lux, merely that she recommends it; and the Japanese language does not easily handle shades of meaning between two extremes "" it is possible to say "good" and "bad", but not "good enough."

Japanese advertising is more emotional than that in other countries. It totally eschews hard selling. This is one of the reasons why advertising from foreign countries, especially the United States, is so rarely used in Japan.

In many countries, trade union restrictions demand that local film technicians must be employed in making films that will be used internationally.

In all countries there are problems of translation from the English language, and we should remember that the vocabulary of English is much larger and richer than that of most other tongues.

Local branches of international agencies cope with these difficulties by employing local copywriters who are less concerned with generating big ideas than with understanding the subtlest nuances of two languages "" English and their own.

Ideas can generally be communicated effectively in local languages, but this is not always done by a literal translation of the words. The intention can usually be completely realized using more idiomatic phrasing in the local language.

A positive advantage of internationality is that the foreign origin of certain brands can have its own appeal. American Express, McDonald's, Burger King, Levi's, Nike, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, and Marlboro all carry an unmistakable American flavor "" a national symbolism that appeals equally positively to most Western countries (or equally negatively to countries less enthusiastic about the United States).

National origin is also exploited with a few brands from Australia (Foster's), Germany (BMW), France (Chanel), and Britain (Burberry and a number of brands of Scotch whisky)....

The special case in which international harmonization remains very difficult is the large and complex category (or categories) of branded foods.

Eating habits in different countries remain stubbornly idiosyncratic, and they are normally slow to change.

People drink instant coffee in Britain and Spain; ground coffee in Germany and Scandinavia. Cold breakfast cereals have met considerable resistance outside the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia, although Kellogg's has made great efforts to make them popular in many other countries.

(It is struggling in India at the moment.) The leading brand of beer is different in every country. Wine drinking varies to an enormous degree between countries.

In Australasia and Britain, people eat more butter than margarine; in the United States, they eat more margarine than butter. Americans eat cheese as an hors d'oeuvre; the French and British eat it at the end of a meal; Germans, Scandinavians and the Dutch eat it for breakfast.

Mild Cheddar cheese sold under the name Kraft P'tit Quebec only has a market in French-speaking Canada; it has been a failure in other parts of that country.

Only Australians eat Vegemite yeast extract for breakfast. Oxo cubes, a brand used in two-thirds of British homes, are sold nowhere else.

The British eat lamb; the Germans do not. In the United States the leading brand of canned soup is condensed (Campbell's); in Britain and the Netherlands it is full strength (Heinz and Unox respectively).

Examples could be multiplied.

The underlying principle for marketing companies to follow is to be very cautious about extending their food brands internationally, and even more cautious about using international campaigns to advertise them.

Large manufacturers are of course fully aware of this limitation, and this accounts for the large number of local brands, especially of food, that they market in different countries. About half of the Nestle brands sold in India are sold nowhere else.

How to turn advertising expenses into investments

By John Philip Jones
Pearson Education
Pages: 328
Price: Rs 395
Reproduced with permission