Lost in Translation? Effective brand governance in the age of marketing transformation

You know what they say about failing to prepare...

A recent report, commissioned by Frontify, the cloud-based platform for businesses’ brand assets, in collaboration with WARC, takes a deep dive into the three main frameworks for global brand governancelocalised, centralised, and glocalised explores global brand governance, and reveals the 10 biggest local branding missteps. From IKEA introducing the “Fartfull workbench”, to Ford’s unfortunate slogan “every car has a high-quality corpse”, it’s clear that a failure to think about ‘glocalisation’ can lead to some seriously embarrassing mistakes.

Glocalisation - a hybrid of “globalisation” and “localisation” - is a term used to describe a product or service that is distributed globally, but adjusted to accommodate local markets. The report itself, ‘Local, Global and Glocal: Effective brand governance in the age of marketing transformation’, explores global brand governance and includes interviews with industry heavyweights, such as the Global Strategy Officer at BBH, GlobalCEO of Ogilvy, and the Global Lead & Strategy Partner of OMD, and case studies from leading brands, including The LEGO Group, Heineken, Airbnb, Cartier, and Nestlé.

. McCann’s 2019 research study ‘The Truth about Global Brands 2: Powered by the Streets’ found an increase in preference for local brands – from 40% in 2015 to 59% in 2018 - showing the importance of localisation within brand governance. According to Frontify’s report, the method of ‘glocalising’ a campaign allows brands to speak directly and meaningfully to different cultures, while still adhering to their core values.

Frontify CMO, Rebecca Rosborough, comments “Delivering ‘on brand’ is hard. We believe that the right tools enable agencies and in-house teams to spend more time on what matters - building beloved brands. In our report, we take a closer look at the critical elements that can make or break a brand. We demonstrate that agency-brand operating models can overcome global to local brand management challenges, such as brand inconsistency and inefficiencies, through effective brand governance, thereby avoiding any localised branding mishaps.

“Frontify’s recent report has highlighted three main trends that are set to affect the global branding industry. The first is that, due to the current economic and environmental picture, there will be a greater focus on sustainability as we target net zero. As a result, global brands are likely to aim to reduce waste and duplication, so distinctiveness and quick recall will become key.

“Secondly, advertising content is rapidly and constantly changing, and is lacking in

When things go wrong...

permanence as a result. This will prove a challenge in marketing to Gen Z, who we are finding like to create and develop their own personalised brands. The democratisation of content, and the rise of micro-influencer marketing means brands will likely hold less control over their narratives in the future. “Finally, the advent of Web3, Blockchain and the Metaverse is a technological revolution that global brand managers must keep up with. There are many challenges in preparing brands for use in these new and uncharted environments. Technology has made global brand governance more dynamic, efficient and accessible, however gaps exist within new mediums.Investment in MarTech can help to fill these.”

Frontify’s report also reveals ten of the most embarrassing localisation mistakes from advertising history:

- When KFC first opened its doors in Beijing in the late 1980s, it made Chinese consumers a bit apprehensive when “finger-lickin’ good” was translated as “eat your fingers off.”

- Ford launched an ad campaign in Belgium that execs thought said, “Every car has a high-quality body”, however, when translated, the slogan read more literally as “Every car has a high-quality corpse”.

- Procter & Gamble started selling Pampers diapers in Japan in the mid-70s, with packaging featuring an image of a stork delivering a baby. Unfortunately, the tale of a stork delivering a baby to parents isn’t part of Japanese folklore, which instead tells tales of giant floating peaches bringing babies to parents.

- Mercedes-Benz entered the Chinese market under the brand name “Bensi”, which when translated means “rush to die.”

- The key message Parker Pen wanted to give to its audience in the Mexican market is that the pens “won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you”. However, the company mistranslated “embarrass” to “embarazar” in Spanish, which means to impregnate.

Pepsi’s slogan “Pepsi Brings You Back to Life”, which was used from 1963 to 1967, debuted in China as “Pepsi Brings You Back from the Grave”.

- The Scandinavian vacuum cleaner company’s ad campaign boasted, “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux” in the 1970s.

- A strong bad brand name translation into Chinese is that of Coca-Cola. When it first entered the China market in 1928, it wasn’t aware that “ko-kä-kö-la” loosely meant “bite a wax tadpole”.

- In 2005, IKEA introduced the unfortunately named “Fartfull workbench” - fartfull meaning “full speed” in Swedish - in the United Kingdom.

- In 2009, HSBC spent millions of dollars on its renowned “Assume Nothing” campaign. Regrettably, in many countries, the message was translated as “Do Nothing”.