The brand identity should:

• Meet the purpose and objectives of the organization.
• Meet the needs of the target market for the brand.
• Define key brand characteristics to be communicated.
• Highlight the benefits of the products or services associated with the brand.

Some organizations start this process by completing a creative brief with details such as the organization’s vision, its target audience, the objectives of the brand identity and its key thought or idea. Some marketers use mood boards in addition to creative briefs. A mood board is a collection of images, materials and text that depict the brand concept. These tools help them define the brand identity and adjust it for new markets, if needed. Find examples of these online.

Want to learn more about how to appeal to the values and preferences of the target market by developing a strong international brand? Check out the FITTskills International Sales & Marketing online course.

Stand out from the crowd with a memorable brand name

The brand name provides potential international customers with information about the service or product and can help them form an immediate impression about the organization. Carefully selected brand names distinguish an organization’s service or product from a competitor’s. Also, it can send out a strong message about the organization’s marketing position or corporate personality.

Ideally, a brand name should be:

• Short and simple
• Easy to spell, pronounce and remember
• Pronounceable in only one way
• Indicative of the benefits of the product or service
• Easy to adapt to packaging and labelling requirements or to any form of advertising
• Non-offensive or negative
• Unlikely to become dated
• Legally available for use

International organizations take a variety of approaches to finding the right brand name. One approach is to simply invent a new word. Take Kodak for instance. Invented by founder George Eastman, the name Kodak (a word without a meaning) was deemed to be easy to pronounce and was non-offensive in the organization’s target markets.

Another strategy is to use a name that can be easily translated into different languages, such as Mr. Clean. Around the world, the iconic Mr. Clean character is known as Maestro Limpio (Mexico), Monsieur Propre (France) and many others.

The stakeholders involved in selecting the international brand name would benefit from the insights and guidance of individuals who are fluent in the international market’s language and culture. Found below is a list of the typical ways to select a brand name.

Similarly, these processes could be used to select an appropriate international logo, slogan, colours, numbers and imagery.

1. Research brand names in use

Determine the brand names currently in use in the target foreign market then evaluate their effectiveness.

2. Identify three to five product or service characteristics

Determine how the product or service should be represented to the target market. Then pinpoint the traits of the product or service that will distinguish it from competitors which will help convince consumers to purchase it over the competition.

3. Identify three to five organizational characteristics

Determine how the organizations represented to the target market. Identify the personality traits of the organization (e.g. efficient, unique and supportive) that would resonate with the target audience.

4. Create buzz words

Create a list of all the words and phrases associated with the characteristic or personality traits from steps two and three. Also, make sure the words and phrases on the list correspond with the offering if you want to incorporate that into the name.

5. Envision the brand name

Consider how the list of words and phrases generated would look if featured on a billboard sign or on the product’s packaging. Include possible graphic images and print typefaces for enhancing the appearance of these phrases. It might help to consider how these names would sound when spoken. Throughout this process, it will become easier to reduce the list of words and phrases down to only the most effective and captivating.

6. Test possible brand names

Once reduced to 10-15 names, test potential customers’ reactions through focus groups or surveys.

7. Check for availability of use

Last but not least, check whether the remaining brand names are available for use via trademark search. For a fee, advertising or marketing firms, or certain attorneys, can conduct this type of research. Another option is to submit a formal request for a trademark or service mark and wait to see whether it is approved.

The post Develop the perfect brand name for your business with these 7 simple steps appeared first on Trade Ready.

In today’s connected digital economy, many companies are born global from day one. The tremendous reach provided by the internet and related digital technologies represents a significant source of opportunities for businesses wishing to tap into new markets and grow globally.

With approximately 3.5 billion internet users worldwide in 2016, and with the global flow of goods and services expected to amount to upwards of $85 trillion by 2025, according to McKinsey, the potential for growth in the digital economy is enormous.

But this increasingly global digital reality, with its unprecedented access to customers across channels, platforms, and geographies, also brings with it a series of challenges for companies and marketers.

Changing consumer habits, behaviors, and expectations are shifting the way companies communicate their brand strategy, market to consumers, and engage with audiences around the world.

Forced to adapt to this new reality, marketers and companies alike are coming to recognize the importance of adopting a global mindset. And when launching global campaigns and building brand awareness worldwide, this means having to balance two imperatives: maintaining brand consistency globally and at the same time engaging with customers locally.

To do this, forward-thinking brands are moving beyond traditional localization and turning instead to transcreation.

One size fits all—or does it?

When developing a global campaign, the common approach is to design a single model that’s harmonized, universally appealing, and capable of scaling to reach a wider audience, both domestically and internationally. This helps to ensure that a consistent brand image, voice, and message are communicated to customers anywhere in the world.

But while this model has its advantages—consistency, coherency, less risks, and reduced costs, to name  a few—the reality is that the world isn’t homogeneous.

Delivering a one-size-fits-all solution that doesn’t speak directly to the local tastes and cultural differences of consumers can backfire.

In this case, a global mindset is a must. While consistency and universality are important, it’s equally important to address the cultural realities of the target locales. That’s where localization comes in. Localization is the process of adapting a product to the specific linguistic requirements, cultural sensitivities, preferences, values, and expectations of a target country or market. But while it can have a measurable impact on a company’s international business goals, sometimes localization doesn’t go far enough toward engaging the customer.

Moving beyond localization

We’ve all experienced it: a slogan that doesn’t sound quite right, a tagline that falls flat, an ad that just misses the mark. A brand’s identity is made up of various elements—rational and emotional, visual and textual, tangible and intangible—that come together to tell the unique story of your business. The more concrete the elements, the easier they are to communicate; the creative elements, however, can get lost in localization.

Although similar to localization, transcreation takes a creative approach to adaptation. Used primarily in marketing and advertising, it focuses on the concept of the campaign and on the intent of the message in order to provide cultural context and to recreate the nuances of its voice and tone.

So where localization focuses on communicating culturally appropriate messages, transcreation goes a step further:  it looks to creatively adapt the message to faithfully convey it in another language, for another culture, with the goal of maximizing cultural relevance and resonance.

Localization provides value, transcreation creates an experience

Beyond simply speaking to customers in their language, transcreation helps to ensure that you’re reaching them—you’re conveying the intended message and that it resonates with them. If your customers can relate to your message, it’s more likely to elicit an emotional response from them. This, in turn, shifts the needle from using localization to provide customer value to using transcreation to improve customer experience. And this helps to influence customer behavior.

Global marketing presents a challenging balancing act between brand consistency and customer engagement. Transcreation manages this by moving beyond traditional localization practices and adding the creative dimensions necessary to ensure your message resonates with your audience. While the message may differ for different communities, its voice and tone will be consistent, remaining faithful to the brand’s identity.

So, to sum up, if you’re thinking of reaching out to a global audience, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1 – Understand your customers – This goes without saying, but to effectively communicate your brand across the globe, you must understand the cultural values of your customers and respect their cultural needs. This means communicating with them in their own language, and in a way that’s culturally appropriate and relevant.

2 – Adapt your message to the market – As a global marketer, you want to scale their campaigns, but scaling globally at the expense of your local audience is a losing proposition. Maximize cultural relevance by adapting your campaign and core messaging so it resonates with local groups.

3 – Connect and engage – We all know how important it is to speak to customers in their language, but if your customers can’t relate to your message, then it’s a loss. To really connect and engage with them, you need to get personal. And to effectively take your brand from global to local, you need to transcreate.

The post Beyond localization: Why transcreation is essential for engaging the global audience appeared first on Trade Ready.