Cross-Cultural Marketing Success Stories

It's fairly easy (and very entertaining) to find examples of marketing translation errors, such as the emphatic but unsettling "Good luck!" billboard that greets passengers of a Central Asian airline. But what about brands that got it right and were able to smoothly tap into new language markets with smart, localized marketing campaigns that really spoke to their target audience?



This past summer we saw several examples of global brands that used cultural and linguistic differences to their advantage, taking a unique cross-cultural approach to marketing and advertising. Here are our top three:



Coke's "Mommy Bloggers" (South Korea)



Brand evangelism is today's magic marketing word, as companies recognize the increasing power of social media and online word-of-mouth in spreading positive messages about their brand and products. With 43% of South Korea's population maintaining an online profile or blog, and 90% of twenty-somethings logging into social networking sites daily, Coke saw South Korea as an ideal place to experiment with a social media strategy that leveraged digital influencers.



In 2008, the company began reaching out to a group of young moms in Seoul that had online "clout" with their peers, hosting parties and building partnerships. Today, that group of mommy bloggers not only helps share information and evangelize the Coca-Cola brand, but they also advise Coke marketers on how to better communicate with them and Korean families.



Keys to Success: A slow, measured approach to bringing brand evangelists on board, combined with smart use of the Internet to reach the youth demographic in foreign markets.



Levi's Nuevo Pionero (U.S. Hispanic)



In a campaign that shows a truly "adventurous" approach to catching the eye of the young bi-cultural Latino market, Levi's took five young U.S. Hispanics on a journey this summer from Alaska to Argentina on the Pan-American Highway. This literal and metaphorical journey from North to South shows the five travelers fully clad in

Levi's new Work Wear line, stopping in ten different cities and pitching in on work projects involving the arts. Their experiences are documented in a ten-week reality show, "Norte a Sur: Una Ruta, 5 Experiencias" (North to South: One Route, 5 Experiences), that began airing in late September on Discovery en Español.



Levi's market research showed that young Hispanics are even more

likely than their general market counterparts to have smartphones, blogs, and be active users of social media. To build hype for the show, they armed the five pioneros with iPhones, which they used throughout their journeys to post updates to the show's website and their own Facebook pages.



Keys to Success: Real-time updates on the journey for web-savvy, hyper-connected U.S. Hispanic youth. A campaign that matched up naturally with the brand's main message, but was customized specifically for a Latino audience, with mixed Spanish and English dialogues.



Volvo's American Drive-In (U.K.)



We hear often about American companies translating their campaigns for foreign language audiences, trying to downplay the Americanisms and use local cultural references to make the brand relevant to the target consumer. But what happens when a brand capitalizes on American culture to sell their product? In July, journalist and cultural entrepreneur Damian Barr, with the help of Volvo, launched the Starlite Urban Drive-In on an outdoor patch of land in East London. Forty dollars bought a seat in one of 25 shiny new parked Volvos, a drink and some popcorn, while the car's sound systems played the soundtrack to the films showing on the big screen: classics such as "Grease" and "Dirty Dancing". To complete the American 1950s aesthetic, waitresses on roller skates took orders for burgers, meatloaf, sweet potato pie and ice cream sundaes.



Seeing the success of Volvo's American drive-in, Ford then sponsored a series of outdoor film screenings at 11 different U.K. homes this summer as part of its launch campaign for the new Galaxy.



Keys to Success: Recognizing that some aspects of American culture are firmly planted in the psyche of consumers in foreign markets and using those positive associations to promote a relevant brand.



Want to creatively tackle new language markets but not sure to what extent you need to localize (or "transcreate") your marketing campaign? Contact Acclaro to learn how our in-country linguistic marketing experts can help you so you’ll be the next brand to have a marketing success story to tell.