Allowing for cultural differences

[chanetsa]

I am interested to know if copywriters allow for cultural differences in target audiences and if so, how do they do it successfully.

I assume that writing sales copy for the web would be subtly different if the audience was say American, English or Australian. Even though the demographic may be similar, there are subtle differences in the way people from these countries respond to messages.

I am from Africa and have lived in the UK and Australia. Most of the copy writing material I have read is from US copywriters. Sometimes I feel that what is being taught might work in the USA but I feel would be less effective in the UK or here in Australia. I feel comfortable if I am wrtiting for an Australian audience because I feel I understand them a bit better. However, how could I be sure I was not missing something important when writing for an American audience?

So, if you are a copywriter who writes copy for audiences from different cultural backgrounds than yourself, how do you do this effectively?

I look forward to getting your thoughts on this.

Thanks, Chanetsa

[aandersen]

Vin Montello wrote a good blog post on this topic:

Wanna Make More Money Online? You Gotta Be American!

Between the article and the comments, the subject is covered pretty well.

[Marculi_the_Ghost]

Hi Chanetsa,

Well, I think copywriters absolutely have to allow for cultural differences. It is the smart thing to do and I truly feel it makes you stronger professionally. As a copywriter, you will likely find yourself getting clients who may be located anywhere in the world, so in my mind having your writing reflect the language variations of your client is crucial to your success.

Chanetsa, you are right in your example. There can be subtle (and not so subtle) differences between American, Australian, and British people in how they may respond to a media message. Much if not all of our purpose as copywriters is to influence, motivate, or persuade in one way or another. So this cultural consideration would seem to be vital to how well our writing connects with the reader.

The good news is most of what we write will come across effectively with few problems in its interpretation. However, if we do not account for those small amounts of words or phrases that are a bit different, it can ultimately lead to poor overall work on our part. Therefore, we cannot be lazy here.

My wife is a translator, and our job as a writer in these types of situations is similar to the process she must go through when translating a text from one language to another. It is vital that she clearly understand the source material in its accurate meaning for the best translation. This includes, among other things, variances in meaning, context, colloquialisms, formality and style.

For us as copywriters, it is quite similar. For example, I am an American and currently in the middle of ghostwriting an eBook for a client who is from the UK. Most of my work was not too terribly difficult, but there were a few words, phrases, and spelling differences that I had to aware of so that my writing was reasonably consistent with common British writing.

What I find works for me is simple research. Google is your best friend for this task. I suggest reading similar texts to what you are writing about from the country of your client. Be sure to set Google’s search engine to the target country you are writing for (google.com.au, google.co.uk, etc).

If in doubt about how you are wording something will translate to readers of another culture, type in those words and see what you come across. Finding news articles, websites, and blog posts should help. They will either confirm that your wording is indeed used, or they may suggest different words or phrasing that is more commonly used in that country.

I also want to mention there should be an open dialogue with your client. If you need clarification on the meaning of a few things here and there, you should be able to discuss those things during your draft revisions with the client. Usually that will not be a problem assuming you are not calling them every fifteen minutes to explain something! In the end, your client wants the best product so your open communication is likely to be appreciated.

I hope that helps a bit. Good luck!

Mark

[pickthat apple]

Hi chanetsa,
I will answer your question, if you don't mind, although I am not a copywriter.
I imagine that it is not possible to target, broadly speaking, more than one Continent at the time.
Also, some Countries maybe so unfamiliar with computers and online marketing, that it would be hardly worth the effort, financially speaking, to address yourself especially to them. (Of course you may want to address those Countries for more than one reason)
But the good thing is that they would probably accept English as widespread Internet language, without knowing too much about if the spelling and the expressions sound more American or more British.
Nevertheless I think that targeting the American Market because there are a lot of them and communicate in English, would be more profitable than any other market.

[Pusateri]

Clotaire Rapaille has built his consulting business around this subject.

His book, The Culture Code - An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around the World Live and Buy as They Do is excellent.

His firm conducts interviews with hundreds of people in a subject culture regarding attitudes about a given product or category. They then analyze the data and come up with a single word or phrase which is the 'culture code' around which the most effective marketing campaign can be built.

The primary American culture code for food is FUEL, whereas in France it is PLEASURE. To be 'on code' you would need two very different campaigns for these markets.

If you're writing for the dating market it's helpful to know that, for both sexes, the American culture code for seduction is MANIPULATION. Rapaille does not give the English code, but from his description it is probably something like DETACHMENT for men and DISPLAY for women.

[chanetsa]

Thank you for all your comments and references for further learning.

Having lived in 3 countries, it is clear that cultural differences are sometimes difficult to detect; even when you live with them daily. I can't comprehend how I might learn to write for an American or Canadian market when I have not experienced their cultures. Even then there are sub-cultures that have their idiosyncrasies.

I guess it's just another challenge I will have to try and overcome.

Thanks again!

[AdwordsMogul]

Originally Posted by Pusateri

If you're writing for the dating market it's helpful to know that, for both sexes, the American culture code for seduction is MANIPULATION. Rapaille does not give the English code, but from his description it is probably something like DETACHMENT for men and DISPLAY for women.

This is so true. The funny thing is that these cultural aspects are so ingrained that you constantly have to feed the illusion.

Nobody needs an iPhone or a Blackberry. But we live in a culture where kids get suicidal because they don't have one of those toys.

Modern commerce means having to be careful not to shutter the illusion.

In may cultures, 95% of cash is spent on things we don't need. To succeed, you have to understand what the people think they need.

Then you give it to them. For long term results, do your best to give them what they should actually have.

Here is a statement to go by: value lies in the eyes of the beholder.