74
LOCALISATION
Do your brand values translate into other cultures? Localisation experts check that they do. Localisation includes translation, but it’s much more than that. We’ve all read translations that have been done on the cheap, word for word, without taking into account any of the deeper cultural meanings or stories behind the stories. Localisation takes a basic translation, puts it into fluent mother tongue, and checks that the references are appropriate, or changes the ones which aren’t.
The idea When I working was with Lush, based on Poole, on England’s south coat, they brought out a Mothers Day gift called Mum, and the northerners amongst the creative team begged for a local version called Mam. Because it would sell better. In America they call theirs Mom. Our Canadian colleagues wrote that we could take our Lush solid shampoo with us “to the lake in summer”. The British adapted that “to the beach on holiday”. There’s an infamous localisation story which circulated around the advertising industry. It concerned a brand of baby food, which came packed in tins with pictures of smiling happy babies on the labels. The UK advertising industry had moved over to depicting the benefits of their products rather than the features.
100 GREAT BRANDING IDEAS • 155
100 Great Branding Ideas 14dec.indd 155
12/14/11 11:14 AM
