Three Considerations for Localizing Consumer Packaging
Product packaging is a powerful brand marketing tool. Whatever packaging your product comes in, it is perfect prime “real estate” to truly represent your brand. Package design can convey meaningful and cultural attributes through shape, color, material, and visual content types.
Localization and translation of consumer packaging can be a complicated task. In order to localize your packaging and ensure your brand is on-point while still attracting the attention of global customers, it is important to understand the impact packaging design can have on a business.
Packaging design represents what the brand stands for as much as do other elements of the brand visual identity. In fact a global study by OgilvyAction uncovered a global truth: purchase decisions are heavily driven by in-store experiences when consumers are face-to-face with products.
Here are some key things to consider when localizing packaging:
ONE: Aesthetics
One major characteristic that makes packaging unique is its physical form. The coloring, shape and material used can convey as much meaning as the material it is printed on it. When considering products for a global market, take into account the meaning and cultural connotations of the package’s look-and-feel as a tangible object.
TWO: Color
Color is a key consideration in cultural adaptation. The same color may be perceived very differently in different cultures. Many languages use names of colors to express moods and feelings. For example, people from Islamic cultures react negatively to yellow because it symbolizes death; however, they like green as this is believed to fight off diseases and evil. On the same scale, the color green in Japan has no popularity.
In all languages there are numerous expressions in which color plays an important role. Color combinations are considered culturally bound with certain ideologies and traditions. The combination of colors selected for a products, its packaging and communications may convey a meaning as a results of the specific color pairings. In China, black and red signifies happiness and therefore the color combination for both is commonly used for weddings are celebrations. According to the Chicago-based Institute for Color Research, all of us have involuntary physiological and psychological responses to the colors we see. Colors can impact our business life, leisure time, eating time and appetite.
THREE: Packaging Content
The typeface and content are critical to attract consumers, as they are a prominent visual element of any package. Different countries will have different regulations about the information product labels should or should not contain. Size and layout may need to change in order to for product to enter a certain country to accommodate with localization and comply with local regulations.
It is so important thing to consider the technical and regulatory content, including the linguistic and semantic accuracy of your packaging’s content. Regulatory requirements, compliance and safety in each country and language must all be considered when defining your packaging strategy for global markets.
There are several laws that indicate whether or not the packaging of a product needs to be labeled with the host nation’s official language. In North America, many multinational businesses develop their labels using a combination of English, Spanish and French (or all three). This means that products are shipped anywhere in North America, as those are the three most widely spoken languages on the continent. Consumer product packaging like food and cosmetics have to be labeled and described appropriately. It is against consumer law to misrepresent anything about products on the labeling, so it is important to ensure that you provide an accurate description, in the right language that meets the right local compliance and legal requirements.
In summary, it is vitally important that the localization and translation of your entire packaging is done to not only and industry recognized standard, it is also to an internationally recognized standard. Poor quality translation can result in misinterpreted directions for a product or even stating wrong ingredients or instructions. These mistakes are costly and can cause irrevocable damage to your brand and company within that market and country.
A key challenge when trying to build a locally consistent product is to interpret the global brand identity and creative concept in a meaningful way. Packaging has an incredible power over what people buy. A local market is a competitive market, a global market is fiercely competitive. Packaging is a key component of the overall global marketing strategy, so consistency and contingency must ideally be kept throughout all marketing campaign materials and this always should include packaging.
Find out more about Welocalize multilingual content solutions here.
