Copywriting Techniques in International Copywriting

Marks groans wretchedly.

This old chestnut once more. Here we go again. (Thanks Steve).

You're all (subjectively) still wrong. I said it then and I'll say it again until I'm blue in the face. Americans, 'bless their little cotton socks' are fantastic at going in for the kill. The hard sell. Perhaps because this is an accepted expectation on the part of the American public?

But... (Mark groans again and plugs his ears in advance lol) I don't care what anyone says, adopt the same American style copywriting techniques to a by and large British audience and chances are, your sales copy conversion wise, will go tits up.

Yes there are exceptions and some niches help obviously better than others but overall I believe, British copywriters for example, are much better writing copy for a British audience than any American copywriter will ever be. A broad tarnish of the brush, a sweeping generalisation perhaps but it's just the way it is. With, granted the odd exception of course.

Conversely, I do believe it's a lot easier to adopt an American sales copy approach for an American audience when said copywriter heralds forth from the UK or Europe for that matter. At least on a par if not better than... no, in actual fact, I'll leave that thought pattern right there. (You can fill in the blanks yourself).

Continuing...

Rather unfortunately depending on which side of the pond you originate from, here we're absolutely inundated with American culture every day through the media. Not much choice in the matter either which is a major pain in the arse but there we go. It is what it is.

I'm sorry, I digress.

British English, nuances of speech and accepted selling techniques either in print or via the spoken word is a rather complicated affair dependant upon a huge number of factors. Make the slightest cock up and the sale is out of the bag. Not much chance of recovery either. Not to mention you're also dealing with different classes within society itself. And therefore the many and varied nuances, linguistic challenges this represents.

Rather than writing a thesis upon the subject or any more of my rather wanton gibberish as some would have you believe it, I'll leave it there for now.

In summary... with reference to a British product or service, I believe the clients best interests are served only with a British copywriter. Happily enough for us, we're also pretty darn good at selling to the Americans.

Americans on the other hand are quite brilliant at copywriting for their own audience but for more localised international markets, most definitely not.

Mark hums a tune and awaits the impending furore which no doubt will break out any second... now.

La la laaa la laaaaa.


Mark Andrews

That is a good reply to start with, Mark.

I see your point about how someone intimately familiar with the local classes, traditions, customs, and nuances of speech would best understand how to communicate within that market. You will get no argument from me there.

I can even see how a British or UK writer could learn to communicate with the American market easier than an American could learn to communicate with the British market, because the American market is a lot more of a melting pot, without the rigid social class structure (and interesting hats).

You also answered my question (at least for the British market) about using colloquial expressions, by using terms such as "tits up," "pain in the arse," "slightest cock up," and "out of the bag." (I'll bet a Gary Halbert letter written from a UK perspective would have been interesting!)

However, to the point I was trying to make - regardless of idiomatic and cultural differences (of which there will be many) - are the MECHANICS of creating good copy the same internationally? So (for example), a Japanese citizen could come here, learn everything he/she could from the masters about creating great headlines, attention-grabbing leads, unifying themes, bullet points, irresistible closings, etc., and then go home and apply those skills in a regional context and get stellar results?

I did not mean to start an argument about whether Brit (or whoever) could write to the American market better than an American could write to a British (or whatever) market. I was asking if both of them learned the exact same things from the American copywriter masters, could they have equal results in their own home market?

In other words, are there any fundamental ways that writing good copy varies from country to country, regardless of the local flavors? Perhaps the American market writer would do more of a hard sell, perhaps the UK writer would appeal to a certain class, and the Chinese writer would...well, I don't know what he'd do. But the question still remains - would the same core skill set work for all of them?

While my original question had to do with the physical structure of copy in international marketing (presence and placement of elements), clearly emotions, culture, and language (structure and alternative meanings from translations) are going to be a huge part of the mix.

There is the noteworthy example where Pepsi repeatedly came up against translation issues in China. One variation on the legends (take with a grain of salt) gives the following:

In the 50’s Pepsi’s, “Be sociable” translated to “Be intimate.” Sales went down.

In the 60’s, Pepsi’s slogan “Now it’s Pepsi for those who think young” translated to “New Pepsi is for people with the minds of children.” Sales fell further.

Pepsi quickly changed the slogan to “Come alive with Pepsi!” The translation for that was “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead.”

Noting the problem, Pepsi switched to “Come alive! You’re in the Pepsi generation!” However, that translated to “Resurrect! Your body will be made of Pepsi!”

(This was from www dot all-lies.com/legends/business/products/pepsiinchina.shtml, which also has a long list of other supposed failed translations for other companies.

Snopes.com has a somewhat different take on the murky Pepsi situation at www dot snopes.com/business/misxlate/ancestor.asp.

Wine names that offend upon translation are found at www dot thedrinksbusiness.com/2012/02/explicit-wine-brand-offends-cantonese/)

Back to the point: the US market alone has huge numbers of some ethnic populations, for example the large Hispanic market in some states like California, Arizona, and Texas. There are other submarkets too, such as the large Asian populations (with their own point-of-origin submarkets) in Los Angeles and some areas of Washington. Clearly, a thorough marketer will need to consider or appeal to these as well.

Can anyone recommend any good books on international marketing for copywriters? I did find some online references to get started with.

That is a funny story about asking about fags in an Arizona cowboy bar – and likewise, any marketing inadvertently trying to sell fags to the Arizona cowboy market is not going to work very well either. I'm hoping that a basic understanding of regional markets within our ad’s influence area will avoid that kind of unintentional misunderstanding in ad copy, lol.

There are fundamental principles of human nature that apply to every human being. People buy to fulfill needs, and all human beings needs safety, comfort, excitement, validation and respect.

But there's an ocean of difference in the way people interpret these needs: the language they use, the images they associate with each need...that's a world unto itself.

Understanding human need would certainly help you to adapt your style by learning the cultural language patterns and images associated with those needs, but you have to learn the language or you could end up sending the wrong message.

My advice, immerse yourself in the culture and learn their "language." Or, you could just stick with selling to Americans, they are some of the biggest consumers on the planet.