March 18, 2008
Translating Retail Success Across National Borders
By Bernice Hurst, Managing Director, Fine Food Networks
There is yet another potential impact of importing and exporting that retailers are now starting to consider. Boasting 273 stores attracting some 583 million customers each year, IKEA, for example, needs to be aware of what people think and feel.
Both The Independent and The Daily Telegraph in the UK reported that Danish customers of the Swedish shop are less than happy with what’s being offered for sale or at least with what the products are called.
IKEA’s products tend to have names rather than numbers, a situation that has recently caused complaints from customers in Denmark, historically a rival of IKEA’s Swedish-based empire. According to The Independent, complaints have been made about some of the names chosen. Apparently those with Danish derivation are used for some of the retailer’s less salubrious, or lowly, products such as doormats, rug linings and toilet seats, for example.
A free Danish newspaper, Nyhedsavisen, seems to be stirring things up by pointing out that Swedish names are used for “more prestigious” products, such as leather sofas. To rub salt into Danish wounds, it seems that “Norway gets sleek black bedroom furniture like Mandal, Finland gets solid wood dining tables and chairs, but they get mats to wipe your feet on.”
Simon Andersen, editor of Nyhedsavisen, later owned up to being less than serious with his complaint but reckoned that the retailer deserved a bit of teasing.
Joking aside, the fact that retailers are opening outlets far and wide does raise issues of cultural sensitivity. Following our recent discussion on this site about preparing for launch in a new market, it may be that there is an opportunity to make new friends by selecting names that are compatible with local history and a mutual sense of fun. As IKEA spokeswoman, Charlotte Lindgren, told The Independent, “If I were a Dane, I would be very proud because a carpet gives a space that something extra. It is the jewel of the room.”
Discussion Question: Is the IKEA Danish experience unusual in the arena of global marketing? Where do retailers go to acquire the cultural education required to open without incident in new international markets? Is there are retail company or brand that you think best epitomizes how to go about expanding globally?
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IKEA’s reliance on names over numbers really puts them in a global tight spot when even ONE master brand name can get companies into a world of lost-in-translation trouble these days.
Not sure what the solution for IKEA would be at this point; however, it does bring up an intriguing opportunity. What if retailers and brands utilized regionalized name-changes or sub-brands in the mad dash to execute “localization” strategies (rather than relying on unique product assortments alone)?
Names are culturally relevant and finding names that are equally appropriate across cultures is a difficult challenge. There are several alternatives: choose names and realize that some cultural problems will result and live with it, choose names and adapt them to cultures (meaning that you have different names for the same product in different countries, assign each name a number so that different names can have the same number for the same item, or…just use numbers.
Easiest way to gain cultural sensitivity? Buy a well-run local retailer and respect the management. Option #2: hire competent local managers and respect them.
Numbers have cultural issues, not just names. Allegedly, 666 Fifth Avenue, a luxury Manhattan office building, sometimes suffers marketing issues because “666” is the “sign of the devil.” And look how many USA buildings have no 13th floor. Best solution: make up names, like Kodak or Tylenol or Xerox. Or use proper names, like Borden or Nordstrom. Or don’t take yourself seriously, like Smucker’s.
If IKEA’s greatest problems were what their names for some of their products were, they would be much larger than 273 stores globally. Cultural sensitivity is one thing, but claiming that alignment with a specific name is discriminatory against a culture is pushing the concept too far.
There may be a few folks who have issues with names, but the same could be said for numbers (my birthday is in June and BMW always relegates its middle class of cars to a “6” series) or just about anything. Extrapolation is dangerous and in this case, absurd.
As some of our BrainTrust panelists have pointed out, there is also history here.
International expansion of brands and retailers always creates the potential for cultural missteps. IKEA did not purposely name their products with names that would offend Danes. Using names for their products vs. numbers requires them to either use different names in different countries, or choose to not care if one country has an issue with a name that is fine everywhere else.
When a retailer or brand expands into a different country (or even a different state) it is incumbent upon them to do some due diligence in the new location, particularly regarding marketing and branding methods. It would not have been a significant issue to rename a few of the IKEA products for the Danish market if indeed some of the names are offensive.
Examples of brands and retailers who have expanded globally effectively include McDonald’s and DFS Galleria. McDonald’s offers key products like the Big Mac worldwide, but then adds menu items that relate to the local populace. DFS Galleria, the Hong Kong-based purveyor of luxury brands in gallerias and airport duty-free locations throughout the Asia Pacific region, pays close attention to how each nationality communicates and shops. In-store signage, associate language skills, and marketing efforts all support this effort.
Let’s remember there is some historical animosity between the Danes and the Swedes.
In matters like this (especially when the critic is clearly mining a vein of satire) it’s good to keep things in historical perspective. Would an Irish retailer, for example, name the top of their line after the English monarchy? Or, would a French retailer select a German name for its prime offering? I don’t think so.
That said, there are legitimate cultural traps all over the retail landscape. And, you don’t have to leave home to fall into them. Just look at all the mistakes “ethnic marketers” make every day here in the U.S.
How do you avoid these kinds of errors? I’m not sure but I guess you start by thinking more like a customer and less like a marketer.
This issue illustrates how important it is to be culturally sensitive to the market you serve. If anything, IKEA could have contacted local chambers or councils to get opinions on product names. I think this particular issue is trivial but we have to remember that we are in it for the customer and their feelings must be taken into account.
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IKEA’s reliance on names over numbers really puts them in a global tight spot when even ONE master brand name can get companies into a world of lost-in-translation trouble these days.
Not sure what the solution for IKEA would be at this point; however, it does bring up an intriguing opportunity. What if retailers and brands utilized regionalized name-changes or sub-brands in the mad dash to execute “localization” strategies (rather than relying on unique product assortments alone)?
Names are culturally relevant and finding names that are equally appropriate across cultures is a difficult challenge. There are several alternatives: choose names and realize that some cultural problems will result and live with it, choose names and adapt them to cultures (meaning that you have different names for the same product in different countries, assign each name a number so that different names can have the same number for the same item, or…just use numbers.
Easiest way to gain cultural sensitivity? Buy a well-run local retailer and respect the management. Option #2: hire competent local managers and respect them.
Numbers have cultural issues, not just names. Allegedly, 666 Fifth Avenue, a luxury Manhattan office building, sometimes suffers marketing issues because “666” is the “sign of the devil.” And look how many USA buildings have no 13th floor. Best solution: make up names, like Kodak or Tylenol or Xerox. Or use proper names, like Borden or Nordstrom. Or don’t take yourself seriously, like Smucker’s.
If IKEA’s greatest problems were what their names for some of their products were, they would be much larger than 273 stores globally. Cultural sensitivity is one thing, but claiming that alignment with a specific name is discriminatory against a culture is pushing the concept too far.
There may be a few folks who have issues with names, but the same could be said for numbers (my birthday is in June and BMW always relegates its middle class of cars to a “6” series) or just about anything. Extrapolation is dangerous and in this case, absurd.
As some of our BrainTrust panelists have pointed out, there is also history here.
International expansion of brands and retailers always creates the potential for cultural missteps. IKEA did not purposely name their products with names that would offend Danes. Using names for their products vs. numbers requires them to either use different names in different countries, or choose to not care if one country has an issue with a name that is fine everywhere else.
When a retailer or brand expands into a different country (or even a different state) it is incumbent upon them to do some due diligence in the new location, particularly regarding marketing and branding methods. It would not have been a significant issue to rename a few of the IKEA products for the Danish market if indeed some of the names are offensive.
Examples of brands and retailers who have expanded globally effectively include McDonald’s and DFS Galleria. McDonald’s offers key products like the Big Mac worldwide, but then adds menu items that relate to the local populace. DFS Galleria, the Hong Kong-based purveyor of luxury brands in gallerias and airport duty-free locations throughout the Asia Pacific region, pays close attention to how each nationality communicates and shops. In-store signage, associate language skills, and marketing efforts all support this effort.
Let’s remember there is some historical animosity between the Danes and the Swedes.
In matters like this (especially when the critic is clearly mining a vein of satire) it’s good to keep things in historical perspective. Would an Irish retailer, for example, name the top of their line after the English monarchy? Or, would a French retailer select a German name for its prime offering? I don’t think so.
That said, there are legitimate cultural traps all over the retail landscape. And, you don’t have to leave home to fall into them. Just look at all the mistakes “ethnic marketers” make every day here in the U.S.
How do you avoid these kinds of errors? I’m not sure but I guess you start by thinking more like a customer and less like a marketer.
This issue illustrates how important it is to be culturally sensitive to the market you serve. If anything, IKEA could have contacted local chambers or councils to get opinions on product names. I think this particular issue is trivial but we have to remember that we are in it for the customer and their feelings must be taken into account.