My favorite "translation" mistakes

While on the topic of translation faux pas, here are some of my favorite mistakes....

1. The Dairy Association's huge success with the campaign 'Got Milk?' prompted them to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to their attention the Spanish translation read "Are you lactating?"

2. Coors put its slogan, 'Turn it Loose', into Spanish, where it was read as 'Suffer from Diarrhoea'.

3. Clairol introduced the 'Mist Stick', a curling iron, into Germany only to find out that 'Mist' is slang for manure. Not too many people had a use for the 'Manure Stick.

4. When American Airlines wanted to advertise its new leather first class seats in the Mexican market, they translated their 'Fly in Leather' campaign literally, which meant 'Fly Naked' (vuela en cuero) in Spanish.

5. KFC's famous 'finger lickin' good' strapline went terribly wrong in the Chinese market. It was literally translated as 'eat your fingers off'.

Whats in a name?

Translation faux pas in marketing are legendary...and as new products continue to enter this globalized world it’s not uncommon to hear of brands running into such quandaries

The latest to join the list is the Microsoft mp3 player Zune. Launched to compete against the IPOD, Zune found itself in a linguistic pickle when launching in Canada. Turns out Zune sounds like a French-Canadian term ‘zoune’ used as a euphemism for penis or vagina."

Interestingly, the naming firm responsible for Zune, which uses 80 linguistics in 39 countries to catch such double entendres, claims that they were well aware of this likely translation as was Microsoft and this was a deliberated decision which took into account the possible impact. In this case, the likely translation was a not very popular French Canadian slang, and so Microsoft didn’t expect it was cause much more than a few giggles and at the most of couple of articles/posts in the media/blog universe— A calculated move that seems to have paid off for Zune and Microsoft.

I don’t envy such a conundrum though – considering there are around 6700 languages in the world, never mind the dialects and slangs. So as a marketer, when looking into possible translation trouble, don’t go in thinking you will be able avoid it all. What is more important is that you identify potential issues, analyze the scope and possible impact…and then decide whether or not to proceed.

Keeping up with the trends

For those who may not read every marketing magazine and academic journal, an easy way to be in the know it to look out for the annual list of marketing buzzwords. Not only does it make for entertaining read, it’s also very indicative of what is more relevant

According to SEO space, for 2008, the top 10 marketing buzzwords are:

1. User Intent
2. Branding Integration
3. Return or ROI
4. Universal
5. Integrated Marketing
6. Mobile Marketing
7. Lead-Gen
8. Blended Search
9. Engagement
10. Reputation Management

Not surprisingly, most buzzwords are linked to online and interactive marketing... What did surprise me was having reputation management as a top 10 word.

Rules of Intergration

We all know that integration of a brand's message across all outreach platforms make the message stronger and stickier. But is integrating only about extending a message/creative to other platforms?

In most cases, integration, while a common word in a marketer’s vocabulary, gets implemented as an afterthought. Only once the TV commercial or print ad is developed does the marketer start thinking about extending it on to an online banner or outdoor advertising.

Effective integration, however, happens when ideas are integrated at the core. And the execution is not just about extending creative and forcing it to fit different formats but building creative that works gracefully between multiple platforms. The idea is for not everything to say the same but to understand how the consumer consumes media and messaging and then leverage these platforms to build a story…

Brand Miley Cyrus

When you are 15 and have more shrieking fans than Mick Jagger, you feel you may be able to get away with anything.

Not so much. Recently lil' miss angle Miley Cyrus lost some of her halo thanks to a photo shoot for the cover of Vanity Fair with Annie Leibowitz.

The disconnect - inconsistency in brand image. Miley Cyrus, star of the mega popular Disney show Hannah Montana has built her brand on the platform of "being a normal girl", much in contrast to the Lindsay Lohans and Jamie Lynns of the day. No wonder parents of young teenage girls have so willingly endorsed brand Cyrus – making both her and Disney millions.

But the recent racy images of Miley on the cover of Vanity Fair didn’t quite agree with her “innocent girl” image. Not surprising, this left Disney cringing, and more importantly, Moms all over were up in arms. They claimed to feeling let down, so much so that Miley had to apologize for doing the shoot.

Drama, Yes. But there is also a good lesson in there. Brands need to manage their image with kid gloves – keep it consistent and stay true to it.

Know your story..and stick to it

As marketers, we are always looking for ways to capture our target audiences attention, and in this quest, its not uncommon for brands to choose message or imagery that are edgy and racy...just to attract attention. But this route is not for the weak hearted. If you dare - you need to hang there.

The biggest mistake a brand can make is launch the campaign, and then when the reactions start pouring in - either back track - or even worse feign ignorance.

The MILF (Many Islands Low Fares) campaign run by Spirit Airlines in December hit those very air pockets. The campaign definitely attracted attention. But as expected, what seemed clever to some, seemed crude and tasteless to others.

What did a panicked Spirit Airlines do - blamed the campaign on the ignorance of an employee who according to them didnt know the street usage of acyronym MILF (due to her British roots), never mind that the creative for the campaign was a cluster of islands in the shape of a reclining woman. And never mind that one British lady couldnt up built the campaign in isolation.

The result - a half baked campaign that was pulled and a controversy that left Spirit seeming quite silly.

So why are millions spent on measurement and research

Still on the topic of measurement - I was recently in a class listening to ( with my "marketing with common sense" hat on) research experts talk about how they track, evaluate and measure advertising with complex models and tools that cost millions of dollars.

Now, the sticker price for this media analysis and measurement has always intrigued me, especially since the results often match the initial hypothesis. Makes me wonder - did you really need to spend all that money to get this answer? This question has come up before but no one ever did a good job responding to it - until this time around. And the answer put things in perspective.

This senior research executive who manages a multi million dollar research budget said - "Yes, in most cases the research may show you what you may have known intuitively. But what you are getting when you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars if not more on research is - the ability to quantify that intuition. And when you are dealing with marketing budgets of hundreds of millions of dollar, saying its working isn’t enough. One needs to be able to quantify it.”

I see it as putting a layer of science on an art :)

Measure your marketing with a next to nothing budget...

Tracking studies, media mix models, concept testing - are all tools to ensure that your advertising and marketing plan is successful and effective.

But what if you are like me, a marketer with a small marketing budget….and a smaller (or should I say non-existing) measurement budget? Are you doomed to have to rely on guess work, intuition and will you always have to battle the sales team or senior management to prove that you contributed to sales? Not really. While you may not be able to quantify impact and efficacy at the level that some of those above mentioned tools can, you can certainly track your efficacy by doing some simple things.

1. Ask your prospects or customers how they heard about you. Most will be happy to tell you.

2. Track - while you may not always know how many people you truly reached with your outreach effort, make sure you map traffic against when you are in the media. If you are doing things right, you should see a spike in traffic – whether its traffic to a store, to a website or calls to a call center.

3. Collect information of your prospects wherever possible... and then map it to your account owner base. Did Mr. Jones from ABC Street, XYZ town who ordered an enrollment kit via the direct mail flyer open an account?

4. Reach out to existing customers via a basic web survey and ask them to tell you what they think about your brand, product or service. If you can convince them that you will take action on their feedback, they will be happy to share their true feeling

5. Don’t hesitate to do a quick focus group - find a group of people in your office who represent your target audience. And ask them what they think of the new creative you are looking to launch. Their feedback may surprise you. Sure, the results are not scientific - but they can be indicative.

6. Set up a special #800 number or vanity URL for your advertising. This will help you track web traffic or interest that can be related to the advertising.

7. Compare data against the historical data that you may have access to and try to analyze why there may be changes – could it be because of a coupon promotion or a radio ad. Be sure to consider some external factors like weather or the economy.

Not all of these may apply to you… But no matter how small you are – whether you a small for profit business, or a not-for- profit business— you will be able to import these ideas to substantiate your efforts or course correct.

What's in a name?

Kentucky Fried Chicken
KFC
Kentucky Grilled Chicken

Turns out that Kentucky Fried Chicken, which not so long ago changed its name to KFC in an attempt to disassociate itself from the word "fried", is going back to being called "Kentucky Fried Chicken".

Not only is it looking to embrace it southern fried food heritage, it's also bringing back its Col. Sanders logo. According to BusinessWeek, a Kentucky Fried Chicken spokesperson recently said: "Consumers tell us they love Kentucky Fried Chicken. And many of our customers never stopped calling us Kentucky Fried Chicken."

So what's the learning here for marketers... before you change your name/branding that you spent millions building, ask your loyal consumers what they think. In this case, KFC realized that even after changing its name, and updating its menu, what was really selling was the "fried stuff" and not the "healthy stuff".

It boils down to consumer insight. Something Coke missed when they launched New Coke...and something KFC should have looked at before they spent millions on rebranding themselves without their middle name.

I did come across a rumor that said that KFC was looking to rebrand itself as Kentucky Grilled Chicken... but that rumor hasn’t been substantiated. Imagine that!

Disclaimer: In no way am I promoting unhealthy fried food at a time when the Center of Disease Control attributed the 400,000 deaths in March 2004 to obesity, poor diet and inactivity.

All I am saying is know your audience… and stay true to them. Something David Kiley says in his BusinessWeek blog may hit the message home "I can't help but draw a comparison between what KFC is doing and what the Republican Party has done so well to galvanize its base. It doesn't pretend to be green. It doesn't apologize for driving SUVs. It has made "liberal" a dirty word and painted the Dems with it until the mass media has basically adopted "liberal" as a four letter word." Amen!

“look at me” versus “here’s what you were looking for”

Building a website is easy, but building an effective website is hard.

I have spend hours listening to the experts, reading articles and blogs and arguing with colleagues and friends on what makes a website great... and while i have collected many little pearls of wisdom on this topic over the years, a blog post i came across recently did a great job of consolidating the insights.. and not being afraid to say it like it is ...

Its no surprise that the blog i am referring to is that of marketing guru Seth Godin. You can read his complete post here...but here are my favorite pointers -

1. Fire the committee. No great website in history has been conceived of by more than three people. Not one. This is a deal breaker. I cant agree more. I recently worked on a web project that suffered from the "too many cooks" syndrome. The result - a shoddy website

2. Insight is good, clever is bad. Many websites say, “look at me.” Your goal ought to be to say, “here’s what you were looking for.”

Direct Marketing and Common Sense: An Expert's Opinion

As I try to carve out and validate the role of “common sense” in the world of marketing, I thought it might be interesting to seek out experts in various marketing arenas to find out where common sense fit in their marketing philosophy…

My first victim in this endeavor is direct marketing expert Edward Hrybenko. As Vice President and Director of Marketing Communications and Investor Relations at OppenheimerFunds, Inc., Ed oversees direct marketing strategies and initiatives for over 75 mutual funds and various other investment products offered by the firm.

Here is what Ed has to say…

Dipti: In your opinion, does “common sense” matter world of marketing? Why?
Ed: Absolutely. Common sense keeps you from making significant mistakes and wasting marketing dollars. At times we are all caught up in what we need to sell/market or what we want to say, that we become blind the obvious. The key is stepping back from a project and putting yourself in the shoes of the recipient of your marketing message. That gives you the chance to re-think your message, your audience, your design, etc. Just ask yourself, “If I was a (insert target audience here), would I respond to this?” If not, ask yourself why.

Dipti: Where does common sense fit in the world of direct marketing?
Ed: Common sense is the counter-balance to data and science. I’ve seen people insist that a mailing must be successful because the data modeling says so. I’ve yet to see a model respond to marketing. You need “people” to respond to your message and fortunately we all have experience being people. While you need to know the science (how a person reads, how many times you need to convey a message for it to stick, etc) you also need to use your common sense and experience when marketing. The key is balancing the science and common sense. You can’t go too far the other way and let your personal biases guide all your decisions.

Dipti: What is your most favorite direct marketing blunder …one which could have been prevented with a little common sense?
Ed: I was working at a top direct marketing-oriented financial firm and they ran a full page product launch ad in the Wall Street Journal. The ad was great but the company forgot to turn on the phone number so consumers couldn’t respond. Had somebody put themselves in the shoes of the consumer they would have checked on the consumer’s experience when responding to the ad.

Dipti: What’s the best common sense tip that you have ever received?
Ed: Beware Murphy’s law. If something can go wrong, it will.

Dipti: Can you give us 5 common sense tips that can make a direct marketing campaign successful?
Ed:
1. Find time to step back from your project and put yourself in the shoes of the message recipient.
2. Make sure you get the basics right. There are many details in every marketing campaign, but the biggest mistakes happen on the basics.
3. Don’t be blinded by data. If you really don’t think something will work, don’t try to convince yourself it will.
4. Don’t be complacent with creative. “Good enough” is rarely good enough. Push for creativity.
Collaborate. Leveraging differing points of view can ensure marketing success.

Pushing the Envelope

How often do you get important looking envelopes from important looking addresses marked URGENT FINANCIAL INFORMATION or TIME SENSITIVE MATERIAL… and they contains nothing urgent at all?

I understand that the burden of whether or not a mailer will be opened falls mostly on the envelope. And having worked on over 100 direct mail campaigns over the years, I have sat in on many brainstorming sessions to decide not just what goes in the envelope but what goes on it. But getting your mailer opened by creating a false sense of urgency or just misrepresenting the content takes it too far. Do marketers really think that lying will help the brand sell?

Here are some common sense tips that don’t involve lying but may increase the likelihood of your mailer being opened.

- Try unusual color, odd sizes or shapes
- Personalize
- Make it relevant: develop content based on audience segmentation to ensure relevancy.
- Just simply define the benefit/offer if there is a strong one
- User a teaser
- Don’t target the same audience excessively….and if you do need to mail regularly, keep it fresh

Brand Extensions.... what to keep in mind...

As I continue to ramble, I want to reiterate (one more time) that most of what I say in this blog may not seem like rocket science. And its not. But as we strive to over perform in our professional/personal roles, it’s the very basic and seemingly mundane concepts that we take for granted....

That said; let’s go back to the world of brand extensions. What are the 5 things to keep in mind when considering a brand extension?

Top 5 things to consider:

1. The brand should have equity and awareness in the market....if the brand isn’t recognizable, the extension is pointless

2. The extension should be a logical fit for the consumer. There should be synergy (and that’s why Trump Steak didn’t work)

3. The extension should make business sense.

4. Look out for over-extension - avoid slapping the brand name on everything possible.

5. For the extension, select a permeable category - not an over-saturated category with strong market leaders.

Play-Duh!

Sure, brand extensions are popular.. and some are actually successful. Think Oprah's O Magazine, Pet Smart's Smart Hotel, Nike Sports wear....

But what do you say when Hasbro comes up with a colonge to celebrate Play-Doh's 50th anniversary.

According to the folks at Hasbro the fragrance is meant for highly-creative people, who seek a whimsical scent reminiscent of their childhood...."Close your eyes and you're back in kindergarten all over again! It's amazing how the scent of Play-Doh can take you to another time and place. "

Sigh!

10 Steps to Direct Marketing Success

I came across a great post on direct marketing....

Check out "Direct Marketing: A Science of Stupidities" by Eric Weaver on this blog "ad-verse"

Warning: It is a little verbose. So if you find yourself losing interest, scroll all the way down to the section called Weaver's Snarky, Sanctimonious Ten Steps

Audience Dilemma

Here is what marketers have to decide very often, especially when their target audience consists of a diverse demographic - Should my initiative/ communication cater to the lowest common denominator or to the majority?

In this particular case, we are redesigning our product website and the question of the hour is - should we have a Flash on the homepage or not? One group feels that not everyone has Flash on their computers and so we should just stick with a static image....where as the Flash proponents feel that Flash will add to the visual appeal of the website and also provide messaging opportunities...

While my common sense usually pushes me in the direction of simplification and "idiot proofing" everything....I am with the Flash proponents on this one. Why? 85% of internet users have Flash. And most importantly, it adds value by not just making the page more visually appealing but helps delivering multiple messages ( for example, each frame can address a different benefit)

Here is an interesting article that speaks to the issue: http://www.businessknowhow.com/internet/flash.htm

common sense marketing...not without creativity

When I talk about common sense marketing, I by no means elude to dull and boring (or safe) marketing strategies. While one rarely hears creativity and common sense in the same breath, they go more hand in hand than you would ever imagine.

In my opinion…creativity allows you the freedom to think "out of the box”, and common sense helps keep that out of the box paradigm “real”.

Apple is the new # 1

Fortune magazine just unveiled its list of America's Most Admired Companies in the World...and the fact that Apple topped the list doesnt come as a surprise to most.

What is the Apple mantra -- innovation, simplicity and the fact that its product works!

Hats off to Steve Jobs and his team ...

Second Life Sceptic

I opened a Second Life account a year and a half back... And how many times have I been back since - not even once. I can bet that out of the 7 million residents that Second Life claims to have, most are like me… curious but not convinced.

As a consumer and as a marketer, i am not convinced by all the hullabaloo over Second Life. And I attribute the crazy rush for brands to become a part of this landscape, more to herd mentality that smart marketing.

Sure, Second Life found itself on the cover of Business Week and it can claim to have over 7 million residents...but before getting carried away with the media hype, marketers must do their due diligence...

Here is what Wired has to say -http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-08/ff_sheep

Marketing Objective

I came across a quote in an old issue of Brandweek recently which really resonated with my maketing philosophy of keeping it simple..and real

In an article about creative marketing at Kimberly-Clark, CMO Tony Palmer defined his company's marketing objective as:

"It is to sell more "stuff" to more people, for more money, more often"

Sure, its not poetic....and it lacks jargon like brand, experience and promise...but thats what (in my humble opinion) makes it so effective.

Design vs. Functional Design

Spent sometime today looking at the nominees and the winners of the Webby Awards 2007. The Webbys honor the best work in the online business...website design, copy, useability etc...

What is re-assuring to see is that visual design and functional visual design are different categories. And while this may not seems like that big a deal, it forms the crux of intelligent website design.

Check out the winners in each of the categories to see the difference..

Winner for Visual Design : http://www.jonathanyuen.com/

Winner for Functional Visual Design: http://www.flickr.com/

Feedback? Would love to hear some...

Research and Common Sense

If you are a marketer with a big budget, there is a very good chance that market research is part of your plan...whether its part of concept testing, copy testing, surveys or focus groups. Yet, in spite of all this research, one still comes across marketing disasters that leave you questioning the role of research.

One such marketing disaster was the launch of the New Coke in 1985. Why did the New Coke fail even after extensive product testing, focus groups and a test market program in Kansas? And more importantly, what does it tell us about blindly following research?

This is where some common sense may save the day. Don’t just follow data... Question it. Ask why or why not. Don’t go so deep into the data that your intuition goes into sleep mode.

Incase of the New Coke, the company did not ask why. They seemed to have downplayed insight that had emerged from focus group that indicated the possible public impact. In his book "For God, Country and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company that Makes It”, Mark Prendergast talks about how a small minority, of about 10-12%, felt angry and alienated at the very thought, saying that they might stop drinking Coke altogether. Their presence in focus groups tended to skew results in a more negative direction as they exerted indirect peer pressure on other participants. Instead of tapping into this insight, and asking “why”, Coke chose to give more significance to surveys that were less negative. And the rest as they say is history.

Common Sense Tip of the Week

When it comes to website design… we all want a cutting edge, cool and sexy website for our products. Our wish lists include fancy animation, music, video and other popular web 2.0 tools. However, what we forget to consider is – who is the audience? Is my wish list really relevant to my target audience or does it just make me look good in the board room?

For e.g. when building a hospital website, focus on organization of information, on font size, on content, on search optimization. Spend the marketing dollars to build tools that can help the patients and their families…rather than fancy flash intros.

If you find your self saying to yourself, I know that… I urge you to think again. The best of us fall into the trap of focusing on what we want for our firms/products website rather than focusing on what our audience wants from the website

An introduction to "CS"

Growing up, when i would ask my dad a question that had me perplexed or confused ...very often his response was "CS"

What he meant by this cryptic acyronym was "Common Sense". This was his way of teaching his little girl to think through the situation at hand--to gather information, to process, to digest--and to come up with her own answer...rather than be handed the answer on a platter and take it on face value

So what does this have to do with marketing? Almost everything.

As the marketing landscape rapidly changes in this digital world and the media consumption habits of consumers evolve every minute, marketers overloaded with information and options are overwhelmed about how to reach their marketing goals. It is here that "CS" can saves us from making marketing blunders. How often have we come across a marketing initiative that tanked and thought "What were they thinking". This is where CS steps in.

While my attributing marketing sanity to two letters might seem too simplistic, there is some truth to it... And that is the hypothesis that this blog is out to test.

Can CS help us marketers keep it real in this rapidly evolving digital world?