But even small differences in mindset can have big cultural ripple effects—and make or break communications impact.
Take the Germans, for instance. They’re pretty straightforward and like to get right to the point. No beating around the bush. Clarity, candor, constructive criticism and questioning the status quo are virtues that benefit all concerned, ja? Sounds reasonable perhaps.
My country, right or wrong.
Or maybe not?
While responding with a categorical “no” is perfectly acceptable in Germany, in Japan and Korea it’s tantamount to social suicide. Avoiding cultural pitfalls in your communications is not a luxury—it’s a key competitive advantage.
Our offering “Cross-cultural consulting for brands” is used by clients looking to probe corporate slogans, campaign taglines, product names and nomenclatures or creative concepts for cultural compatibility and impact. The aim is to avoid potential dissonances while arriving at the right rational and emotional approach to target groups worldwide.
Cultural checks for advertising and brand names
Our cultural check has nothing to do with corporate culture. We probe corporate slogans, campaign taglines, product names, nomenclatures and creative concepts for how they will be understood in another language and culture, and for whether they will have the effect they are meant to have. For small and medium-sized companies, that often means testing strategies for international effectiveness before they go to market.
For brand names, the industry talks about a naming check or a linguistic brand name check. If you need to check a brand name in other languages, we put mother-tongue experts on it for each target market. They establish what the name means there, how it sounds when spoken, what it calls to mind and whether the idea has already been used up. If a name fails, we develop alternatives; naming is one of our services, too. Criteria, process and well-known cases are on our brand name and tagline check page.
For slogans and campaigns, looking at the words is not enough. Some ideas are fresh in one market but old hat or overused in another. A visual with a politically correct, diverse group of people may not reflect the reality of the country it is shown in. So for master campaigns we also look at visuals and color choices and review competitor marketing in the target country. If you wish, a microsurvey in the target market tests whether a slogan or concept works before launch.
What a cultural check does not replace is a trademark search. Whether a name is available and can be registered is a question for trademark specialists and the registers of the DPMA, EUIPO and WIPO. Our job is to find out how the name will land in the target market. And if the check calls for a new version, we write it, as transcreation or, as we call it, adaptation.