You betcha! Once again, China proves that it is not a homogeneous part of the global marketplace.

Which car brand has the most cachet in China?

Well, according to a recent article in the New York Times, unless you are a retired pensioner, it is best to avoid a Mercedes-Benz in China if you want to make a statement of subtle and assured power. To add insult to injury for German car makers, despite improving sales, the BMW has acquired a reputation as the car for the arrogant and rash, rather than as a status symbol of the successful, upwardly mobile business executive of the West.

On the other hand, General Motor’s Buick brand – largely unknown outside of North America and once acknowledged by GM as ‘damaged’ in the US – has amazingly positioned itself in China as a top-tier luxury car.

However, in a country under the firm control of the political elite underpinned by a Byzantine bureaucracy, any brand bestowed with the patronage of all-powerful government officials is likely to be the one with the highest cachet.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, if you are an up-and-coming bureaucrat in China, the only car for you is the Audi A6 – Jeremy Clarkson, eat your hat!

Finally, a recent post on Sina Weibo, China’s most popular social media site, appositely sums up the current state of car demographics:

“A gathering of Mercedes indicates a get-together for old folks”, the writer said. “A group of BMWs means young nouveau riche are about to run someone over and have a party; several Audis, and you know it’s a government meeting.”

So don’t forget when promoting your product in a new locale, make sure your brief clearly and explicitly identifies your target demographic. And don’t make assumptions about their behaviour based on domestic perceptions.

Remember, any narrative-type content will require adaptation: “Clint, driving his ’98 Caddy down Highway 101, clutching a Starbuck’s latte in one hand with ZZ-Top blasting out of his iPod” will need a light touch to ensure that the message gets across in Shanghai, Novosibirsk or Doha.

Transcreation - a Trojan Horse for centralization?

Is transcreation just a Trojan horse used by Global VPs of Marketing to wrest global campaign production responsibility away from the countries where they will be executed?

I guess the answer depends on how paranoid you are or how dictatorial your VP of Marketing is. My own view is that in the present competitive, budget constrained environment, both transcreation and centralization have individual merit when considering the best approach to global marketing campaign production and execution.

First and foremost transcreation requires an intimate knowledge of a local market and constant exposure to the local media. Many Belgians, Canadians and Swiss speak ‘French’, although any Parisian would happily debate this over a Ricard (Pastis) or two. However, the TV, Newspapers and culture in Brussels, Quebec, Lyons and Lausanne vary considerably.

QED: any creative translators participating in the transcreation process should reside in their native country.

Anyone for Pastis?

There has been a significant trend towards centralization of production of global marketing campaigns. Cost, time-to-market and control of messaging are all reasons regularly cited by clients I meet. My experience tells me that the management culture and organizational structure of the individual large international corporation does play a large part in this decision too.

It is not surprising that where a company has a strong directive, command and control approach to management and the brand the more likely it is to be heavily centralized. I am sure several brands spring immediately to mind?

What can be centralized? Well pretty much everything. What should be centralized? That will depend on several factors of which budget, time-to-market and availability of local resources are but three.

I regularly see the following aspects of global campaigns centralized:

• Creative and copywriting
• Production and resizing
• Media planning and purchase
• Supply chain management
• Transcreation management (but not the transcreation activity)
• SEO
• CRM

As a rough rule of thumb: if you operate in a few countries and have a few products then you can deliver quite happily without going down the centralization route. Most marketing activities can be done for each country, by each country, based on central guidelines. The opposite is obviously true where you operate in 20 plus countries and have several products and continuous campaigns.

The tricky part is moving from one approach to the other!  As for centralized transcreation activity – which is championed by the few – I would, like the cliché, avoid it like the plague. But then again I have never been a big fan of the committee approach to transcreation.

Transcreation - a Trojan Horse for centralization?

Is transcreation just a Trojan horse used by Global VPs of Marketing to wrest global campaign production responsibility away from the countries where they will be executed?

I guess the answer depends on how paranoid you are or how dictatorial your VP of Marketing is. My own view is that in the present competitive, budget constrained environment, both transcreation and centralization have individual merit when considering the best approach to global marketing campaign production and execution.

First and foremost transcreation requires an intimate knowledge of a local market and constant exposure to the local media. Many Belgians, Canadians and Swiss speak ‘French’, although any Parisian would happily debate this over a Ricard (Pastis) or two. However, the TV, Newspapers and culture in Brussels, Quebec, Lyons and Lausanne vary considerably.

QED: any creative translators participating in the transcreation process should reside in their native country.

Anyone for Pastis?

There has been a significant trend towards centralization of production of global marketing campaigns. Cost, time-to-market and control of messaging are all reasons regularly cited by clients I meet. My experience tells me that the management culture and organizational structure of the individual large international corporation does play a large part in this decision too.

It is not surprising that where a company has a strong directive, command and control approach to management and the brand the more likely it is to be heavily centralized. I am sure several brands spring immediately to mind?

What can be centralized? Well pretty much everything. What should be centralized? That will depend on several factors of which budget, time-to-market and availability of local resources are but three.

I regularly see the following aspects of global campaigns centralized:

• Creative and copywriting
• Production and resizing
• Media planning and purchase
• Supply chain management
• Transcreation management (but not the transcreation activity)
• SEO
• CRM

As a rough rule of thumb: if you operate in a few countries and have a few products then you can deliver quite happily without going down the centralization route. Most marketing activities can be done for each country, by each country, based on central guidelines. The opposite is obviously true where you operate in 20 plus countries and have several products and continuous campaigns.

The tricky part is moving from one approach to the other!  As for centralized transcreation activity – which is championed by the few – I would, like the cliché, avoid it like the plague. But then again I have never been a big fan of the committee approach to transcreation.

Indeed, the Saudi Religous Police and State media take a dim view of anyone even displaying anything red never mind hearts.  Associated Press recently reported that,  “Those who don’t comply will be punished,” according to the  official statement, without going into detail of the precise measures that would befall the offenders.

This Valentine’s Day prohibition reflects Saudi’s strict Wahhabi school of Islam.  Not surprisingly, the birthplace of Islam also bans several Muslim holidays except the two most important ones because it considers them “religious innovations” that Islam doesn’t sanction.

For marketers and advertisers the point here is that hearts and red are not anathma during the rest of the year, only on the day itself.  So with a bit of sensitivity these symbols can be used in ‘romantic ways’ in Saudi bearing in mind that romance takes place behind closed doors with married couples.

Other Muslim countries have very different views towards  St. Valentine’s day and romance in general and even within the Gulf itself.  Reinforcing the need to localize campaigns style, imagery and messaging.

Under Soviet authority religious holidays were either suppressed or replaced.  Prior to 1989 Russian and their fellow soviets celebrated International Women’s Day which is a heady cocktail of St.Valentines day and Mother’s day and held on March 8 each year.  When, woe betide any son,  brother,  uncle,  nephew,  father that does not turn up laden with roses, chocolates and perfume for all his female relatives.

Celebration of this holiday is stronger then ever today in Russia but that has not prevented the adoption of  the familiar romantic rituals of St. Valentines day in the larger cities.  Today this holiday is observed in some 56 countries from Albania to Zambia. (Full list is here).

What you may not know is that the first IWD was observed on 28 February 1909 in the United States following a declaration by the Socialist Party of America.  Three words  that you rarely see together in the same sentence.

Thus confirming that one of the key items in any global marketer  toolkit is a calendar of world holidays.  An item equally important to the logistics of any campaign as so the creative development and messaging.

Oh yes and just complete matters the year of Tiger also began on February 14, 2010!

p.s. Wordbank and I will be at Technology for Marketing and Advertising Exhibtion London  from 23-24 February. Stand E46!