Marketing Content Localization. Part 2

Hello and welcome to this Argos Multilingual webcast. In this second of three webcasts we will look at copy, profiling your target audience and the role that a creative brief plays in taking your marketing content global. Copy refers to written material, rather than images or other layout elements, and covers a broad range of contexts, including magazines, advertising and books. In other words, the term refers to the text in books, magazines and newspapers; whereas the body copy refers to the content of articles, while display copy is the accompanying material such as headlines and captions, which are normally created by copy editors and sub-editors. In an advertising context; web marketing and similar fields, copy refers to the output of copywriters, who are employed to write material, which encourages consumers to buy goods or services.

We will focus on marketing copy – content which is designed to entice potential customers to buy into your brand. It might be tempting to try and sell your product to everyone, but not everyone needs, wants or is in a position to buy what you are offering. Advertising is expensive, and to get bang for your buck, your business needs to study and understand its potential customer base. Market research will help you define who your target audience is, and build a picture and a profile of whom you should aim to attract. This profile will help you to see the world through the eyes of your potential customers; understand the factors they will be considering when making a decision to buy, and will give you insight into how they will react to different messages.

Depending on your market, you might want to consider quite personal characteristics: age, gender, income, lifestyle, attitudes and aspirations. This doesn’t mean that you can’t sell to anyone who doesn’t match your target audience, but it means that your brand message has been designed with the optimal profile in mind. Nelson Mandela said “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” By carefully building your target profile, you will then be able to decide which tone of voice appeals to them and you can begin to build a word bank so that you use your target customers’ everyday language. Once you’re speaking the same language you can begin to appeal to the emotional benefits of your brand instead of simply the features of your products.

Understanding how to reach a potential customer’s heart, will allow you to define the right creative angle. This means that you know whether your approach should appeal to their worst fears, provoke them, or whether you should seduce them with intrigue, gimmicks or wit. Each approach has its place, but you need to understand your target customer’s hopes and dreams as well as what makes them wake up in a cold sweat in order to build a brand which resonates with them and makes them want to buy from you. Your creative brief is your campaign map – it will be used by copywriters to create a campaign that reflects your brand in the way you designed, and by target writers to translate your message in a way that creates the same emotional resonance abroad as with your domestic markets. On screen you can see the elements which you need to consider when putting together a brief. Also note, that the brief is likely to be the result of multiple teams’ efforts. Market research will drive the supporting evidence, but your company’s strategic direction needs to convert that evidence into clear goals, and is also likely to supply milestones and deadlines.

Finance may well want a say in budgets, creative design personnel will need to provide look and feel input, while sales and even production can supply valuable feedback on earlier campaign effectiveness and current market trends. Finally, in-country officers, distributors and your localization partners can all help guide you when it comes to specific regional considerations. Thank you for watching our webcast. For more information on how we can help your business to grow, visit us at .