Adapting Content for All Customers: Content Nuances Across Nations
Does your brand sell in multiple countries or are you planning on expanding beyond your current marketplace(s)? If you answered “yes” to either or both questions, be sure to always adapt your content to appropriately speak to shoppers within each nation.
As discussed in blog #1 of our Adapting Content for All Customers series, Content Across the Advertising Funnel, it is paramount to adjust content in order to engage shoppers at each stage of their buying journey. This content adaptation approach is not limited to the advertising funnel; it is critical for brands that operate in different countries to modify their messaging to resonate with different individuals’ outlooks and cultures. To do this, brands must have a strong understanding of each nation’s local languages, market maturity, buyer behavior, and content preferences.
Global Overview can help you in this endeavor. We have talented copywriters that can translate your content for the UK and Germany as well as outsourced support that can enable you to speak naturally to other countries around the globe. Read on to learn about the different nation-by-nation distinctions we take into consideration when we assist our clients in crafting content for multiple marketplaces.
Translating Your Brand’s Copy
Words can be very powerful, but they can also put your foot in your mouth if you aren’t mindful when converting copy from your native language to a different marketplace’s language. When translating your content, be sure to think about:
Various uses of the same language in different countries.
German is an excellent example of this. German is the official language of both Germany and Switzerland, but they don’t write the language in the same way. The ß character, called eszett, is used in Germany but not in Switzerland (source). If you are a German brand that also has a presence in Switzerland, remove the ß from your copy and replace it with ‘ss’.You can see this happening with the different uses of the English language as well. Here are some examples that compare how the United States writes English vs. how the UK writes English:
Flavor vs. Flavour
Honor vs. Honour
Humor vs. Humour
Multiple languages that exist within the same country.
In Spain, Spanish is the most common language, but there are other co-official languages including Galician, Catalan, and Basque (source). If you are developing copy for a country that has multiple dialects, consider whether it makes sense to use the most spoken language or if one of the other common languages is more appropriate based on the people you want to reach.The impact of local phrases.
Local phrases may not have the same meaning or make sense when they are translated from one language to another. For instance, while “not everyone’s cup of tea” is easily identifiable in the UK, there isn’t a direct translation of this idiom in Spanish (source). This signals that brands need to be creative when developing content for each nation, focusing more on transcreation (copywriting that makes it coherent and relevant in a new language) so that their messaging is adapted to fit each country’s persona and culture.
Copy Preferences from Country to Country
The translation process is one thing, it’s a whole other ballgame determining how to alter your brand’s content to best resonate with the different countries you are selling in. Of course, not every person in a nation has the same values or outlooks on things, nor will they all react to a piece of content in the same way. However, there are tried and true content strategies enacted by established brands in each country, including:
Catering to countries’ overarching personalities.
Again, it cannot be overstated that individuals within their respective countries all have distinct personas from one another. However, there are marketing patterns that have been used time and time again that point to the common personality traits of people in each country. For example, Italians typically appreciate companies that have witty marketing campaigns. More and more brands are noticing this and are incorporating irony and understatement in their product messaging (source).
The French, on the other hand, value brand storytelling and content that allows them to provide feedback, endorsements, and suggestions for brands’ services or products. This can be seen in Air France’s Junior Lab that they initiated in 2017. This program reached out to French millennials and asked them to share different ideas on how flying experiences can be improved (source). This consumer-to-corporate conversation allowed French customers to have their voices heard and benefited the brand by receiving innovations they hadn’t thought of implementing before.Incorporating local words into your copy.
Even if your brand is selling in a country that speaks the same language as you, be sure to study the subtle variations of that nation’s dialect to embody their tone of voice and verbiage. Say you are a US brand whose items are available for purchase in the UK. Though the language is the same, there are a few key differences to keep in mind as you are adapting your content, such as using the word “trousers” instead of “pants” or the term “loo roll” over “toilet paper”. In fact, the word “pants” means “underwear” in the UK, so you’ll want to avoid that term if you aren’t trying to sell undergarments!Identifying copy length predilections.
Does the country you are focusing on prefer in-depth descriptions or copy that gets straight to the point? E.g., in Germany, brands tend to implement shorter calls to action. This can be seen on Salesforce’s German website where a button in the first pop-up window simply reads as “Kontakt” (Contact). This is shorter in comparison to the US version where the same button is slightly longer, asking “Need help?” (source).
Quality vs. Price Point
Does the nation you market in care more about getting a better bang for their buck or buying products that last them a lifetime? If people care more about buying premium products no matter the cost, it won’t matter if your content showcases amazing deals if your products’ value propositions aren’t on display.
Two countries in which quality is of the utmost importance are Germany and Italy. Brands that sell in these countries spend less time promoting discounts and more time demonstrating the superiority of their items (source). For Italy specifically, their focus on quality has much to do with their longstanding manufacturing tradition. If a product doesn’t live up to other items Italians have consumed in the past, it will not last long in the marketplace (source).
With that being said, don’t overpromise and underdeliver.
If you currently sell a cost-effective item that isn’t built to meet the quality standards of, say, Germany or Italy, don’t craft your content to describe the product as premium. This will backfire, and your reputation will take a hit (source).
National Holidays & Cultural Traditions
Being aware of various national holidays and cultural traditions will help you plan your content calendar appropriately. If the nations you sell in, or plan on selling in, celebrate different events, it’s worth it to:
Determine whether you want to highlight a specific holiday or event in your marketing materials.
And, if you do…Be sure those marketing materials are only run in the countries where the event or holiday is taking place.
For example, if Spain is celebrating San Anton, create content related to that holiday for your Spanish marketing channels and develop separate marketing materials for other countries (source).
Knowing when these events take place will also educate you on when your advertising will be most impactful. These special events can contribute to the success of your brand’s performance (e.g., Black Friday/Cyber Monday), but they can also detract from it. This is evident in France during the month of August as most French families go on vacation during this time, meaning they are more difficult to reach and connect with from a marketing perspective (source). Being mindful of scenarios such as these will help you avoid making big marketing pushes when people in a specific country are less likely to pay attention.
Imagery & Video
Nuanced copy is not the only thing you need to implement – you also need to develop imagery and video content that is custom-fit for each country.
Let’s look at prominent brands in Germany and the way they present themselves through their imagery. Companies like Volkswagen, Adidas, E.ON, Deutsche Bank, and Audi all use very minimalistic visuals with simple color palettes, speaking to how German citizens prefer sleek and straightforward designs (source). If you tend to have louder colors and busier prints, consider muting your palette and reducing the number of textiles you use for the German marketplace.
On top of adapting your imagery, you’ll want to develop specific video content to cater to each nation’s preferences. Video is becoming more and more prominent across the globe with 86% of businesses using video marketing in 2021, and brands are seeing the positive impact within their respective marketplaces (source). In a survey run by Venngage that queried 200 marketers that sell in the UK, 40% said that video and presentations were the visual content types that were the most beneficial in helping them achieve their goals (source).
To maximize these benefits, you need to pay attention to each country's video content proclivities. For example, brands in Spain love using video campaigns that entertain viewers, engaging them to the highest extent in an effort to acquire new customers and encourage repeat purchases. They’ve also seen positive responses from Spanish consumers when they’ve included social awareness messaging, product demonstrations, event announcements, and testimonials within their video ads (source).
EXAMPLE: A Well-Established Brand Launching on Amazon in Germany
Now that we’ve covered the necessary tactics to keep in mind as you market your brand in different countries, here is an example of the overarching content strategies we’d recommend if you were a well-established brand launching on Amazon in Germany.
The first thing you would want to do is alter your copy and imagery to resonate with the German people. Be sure to translate your text to German across your product detail page titles, images, bullet points, A+ content, and brand store as that will give you a stronger chance of becoming a successful seller in the marketplace.
You’ll also want your content to illustrate the heritage and legacy of your brand. As we mentioned before, Germans prefer brands that highlight quality over a lower price point – showcasing that your brand has a strong history behind it will convince consumers of the efficacy of your products, ultimately helping with conversion.
Second, because your brand isn’t prominent in Germany yet, you must use advertising tools beyond sponsored ads to build brand awareness. GO is a strong advocate of the full funnel approach, meaning we embrace and believe in the power of Amazon's upper funnel media to help brands acquire customers in new markets. We especially encourage you to incorporate Streaming TV into your marketing mix as it will soon be self-service.
IT'S GO TIME
Adapting content for different nations is not a walk in the park. Connect with the GO team if you need help developing content or reimagining your current marketing copy to best fit the country or countries you play in.
ADAPTING CONTENT FOR ALL CUSTOMERS (series)
For more ideas on how to modify your content to be as relevant as possible for any type of shopper, check out the other posts in our “Adapting Content for All Customers” series!