Corporate 'glocalization' through cross-cultural branding

Dr. Boidurjo Rick Mukhopadhyay

International Award-Winning Development and Management Economist, can be reached at boidurjo@gmail.com

Prof Bibhas K Mukhopadhyay

Professor of Management, and author of the book 'India's Economy: Under a Tinsel still Tough'. He can be reached at m.bibhas@gmail.com

A brand can be a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a mix of them, that are intended to identify goods or services of one or a group of sellers. Branding helps in differentiation and enables consumers to recall memories, thereby facilitating the initial buying process or perhaps trigger frequent buying which leads to customer loyalty. Branding was historically believed to be achieved via effective advertising, both above and below the line. However, in the markets of East Asia and South Asia where word-of-mouth remains a key channel of marketing communication changes the way branding is established in their mainland.

Word-of-mouth and virtual marketing are also extremely powerful tools in convincing us to have transactions with specific businesses frequently over a period of time. Advertising on social media and other channels have also been effective in establishing the brand name and value of several companies.

For example, you may recognise Nike from its symbol or slogan (Just Do it) faster than you would identify Adidas from theirs; Mercedes, BMW and Suzuki are more identifiable from their logo in their sectors as much as Coca Cola or McDonalds in theirs. Companies have continued to leverage on these brand assets for decades now. At the same time, they have gone global and along with those internationalization steps came the importance to understand global branding and the importance of localization or even glocalization. Think of HSBC's slogan for example, 'The world's local bank'!

Marketing localization involves taking your source content and adapting it to meet the cultural environment of the target location. Transcreation, on the other hand, is taking the message and recreating it. From language to imagery, the original message and the transcreated version can look very different.

Let us look at how cross-cultural branding may act in favour or against companies who use it. Lux, a popular name in beauty-healthcare and toiletries, translates to 'strong man' in China. This certainly and fundamentally contradicts the image of a young lady on its package. Lux entered the Chinese market in the 1980s and a popular Hollywood actress did their TV commercials then. While bathing herself in a large bathtub (certainly an exotic scene to the Chinese viewers at the time), she said seductively "I only use Strong Man. How about you?"

Lux became a household name within a few weeks! Since the Chinese use characters based on ideograms and the majority of people are unfamiliar with the Roman alphabet, international brands have to be careful in choosing an appropriate Chinese name. In Taiwan, Lux means 'beauty' nonetheless matching the packaging and how the image of Lux is projected in adverts. Marketing localization focuses on expressing a culturally appropriate message whereas transcreation creatively transforms the message in order to maximize cultural resonance.

As a language and culture loaded with symbolism and imagery, a direct translation can often lead to comical or negative results. A brand name that has some meaning to the consumer will be more easily recalled. In addition to linguistic issues, other factors that affect the translation/naming process are identified as follows, A) Reflecting product benefits or industry characteristics, B) Quality and brand positioning, C) Links to logo or packaging, D) Country of origin effect, and also E) Traditional values, beliefs and customs.

The social standards of customers differ from culture to culture; one woman's meat is another woman's poison. The ethical values of an organization determine its corporate image, and ultimately its brand identity. The company's culture, heroes, stories and beliefs play a significant role in shaping how its brand and related components are built. A quick example to understand this would be see how innovation and knowledge remains the theme for logos owned/used by Google (continually changing) and Apple (look up for the first hand-sketched apple computers logo drawn by Late Steve Jobs).

Google's global initiatives give it a secure, trusted and all-encompassing image all over the world. Albeit, there are privacy concerns and a lot of hearings that they have to go and attend recently. In addition to privacy issues, Google has also been a bad boy when it comes to paying taxes in time and also exploiting tax loopholes. These factors also do cause a significant stir in the brand image of a company.

Another example of glocal initiative is how local level managerial delegation works for Microsoft. Similarly, in order to celebrate its long-term market share and participation, Coca Cola in Turkey briefly renamed itself Koka-Kola. Other examples from the fast food market, McDonalds serve dishes and meals that are specific to country contexts and diet, so a meal in the middle-east would be very different in India and China. Similarly, KFC in China serves rice almost with most orders.

The cultural and cognitive connection is also crucial in international marketing initiatives as companies race to the bottom to actively take over the market in their own sectors. Marketing should establish immediate, cultural bonds with target audiences. Equally important though is to look out for red flags of over-indulgence in some markets as there is a danger of patronising a culture when a brand try to localise too much.

In 2015, The Economist presented the results of several surveys that warned about the waning faith in brands. In North America, consumers said they trusted only about one-fifth of brands. In Europe, the proportion barely reached one-third. In a world in which brands ruled for more than a century (e.g. Coca-Colonization, and Tesco-ization, or McDonaldization as presented in research on Globalization), what could explain this trend? The ease of accessing information should theoretically make consumer-choice processes easier. Of course, even in the virtual world, full information is not possible.

For brands striving to maintain 'global-ness' in their adverts and action, some suggestions would include, A) Communicate goals, messaging and brand values more effectively to your stakeholders. Explain, develop and encourage your vision with your employees as much as with customers. B) Make use of advanced Translation Management Systems (TMS) that can be used for storing industry-specific and company-specific terminologies such as a tagline or product feature. This is mainly to get your tone of your advertisements right! C) Increase communication with your transcreation team, throughout a project timeline. Be there to answer questions, discuss disparities, and offer support, and finally D) Spend time building trust in your team, ask them generic as well as specific questions- will a German translation work as well in Canada or Switzerland as it does in Germany? Will your imagery convey the same meaning in China as it does in the US (Lux, as one example above)? A well-established content in one market may not be appropriate for the new market and you have to trust that your transcreation team knows what could be a better move. It is vital that you choose your localization or transcreation team who is aware of culture and customs.