Chiquita Translations Ltd. John Freivalds JFA, Inc. In this article John Freivalds takes a provocative look at a hot topic in the language industry: global branding. After discussing past practice, mistakes and developments, he gives a hands-on guide to enterprises seeking to establish successful recognition. Brand identity is not anything people in the language industry have paid much attention to over the years. Worrying about brands has been something that people that sell bananas and detergent concern themselves with. Professionals in the language industry can't worry about such trivial things. "We are language artistes," is often the attitude. As a consequence, there are very few identifiable brands in the language marketplace. The two "oldest brands" in this business are Berlitz and Logos. Berlitz dates from 1878 when the language instruction firm, which later added translation, was founded, while Logos Corporation, the publisher of automated translation software and now a translation service firm as well, dates from 1969. The names of most other translation firms developed from some primordial urge of the founder to describe what they did in the name. As a result, we have a plethora of firms with "lingua", "poly", "trans", and "loca" in their names: Eurolingua, Inlingua, Interlingua, Linguanet, Linguavison, Linguamundi, Linguadata, Linguapoly, Polylingua, Multiling, Translingua, and Omnilingua. If I am the consumer of language services, can I really distinguish one from another? I have often wondered if Polylingua and Linguapoly merged, whether the new company would be called Lingualingua or Polypoly... The other naming dinosaurs are firms such as AAA Translation or even AAAA Translations, whose goal was to be listed first in the Yellow Pages. And for many firms that started business ten years ago, the Yellow Pages really was a source of business. This tendency still exists: if you go onto the Web you can find an alphabetical listing of language firms, which includes a couple of "A-I Translation" companies. In the days when most of these firms were founded, you probably didn't have to worry what you called your company. Translations were done locally; the client wanted to be able to talk to you directly. Each firm had its regional niche and life was simple. Competition really didn't exist, everyone had his or her own clients and there were few national firms. And since the companies were small, they could only do one aspect of the documentation process. Telecommunications and translation technology rapidly changed this bucolic situation. Translations could be done anywhere; if you had a modem you could do your translations in Germany even though you were located in Georgia. Now this multiplicity of prefixes and suffixes, "linguas", "polys", "trans" and "locas" was getting confusing. Interlingua in Madison started to get confused with Polylingua in Madrid. To simplify things and show they had the confidence not to have to state what they did in their name, the firms with a descriptor in their names started going by their initial letters. For example, Bureau of Translation Services became better known as BTS, International Translation and Publishing became ITP, and Language Management International LMI, while International Documentation became IDOC, International Language Engineering ILE, and-thankfully-Gesellschaft fuer Technische Dokumentation mbH became GECAP. The more successful of these firms also believed that they no longer had to have what they did in their title, but rather had to develop an identity in the marketplace and be easy for a client to say. There is a firm called TransDoc Translations, but the name is a tongue twister to me, and can you remember who is who out of TransDoc Translations and Doctrans? The growing third phase in this branding process has been the entrance of new firms into the language marketplace, which have been purchasing of old regional names and combining them under a single mantle. They have then been marketing the mantle to create brand awareness and a brand identity. This was the strategy of Alpnet, for example, which used its acronym rather than the name "Automated Language Processing Network". This strategy became even more relevant when Alpnet no longer sold software but went almost exclusively into the language services business. Berlitz has also been aggressive in bringing names into its brand identity. In the last two years Bowne Global Solutions and LMI have brought many smaller firms from around the world under their single brand. Other well-known names like Logos have added new services, yet still benefit from their old adaptable name. However, companies like Accent have had a harder time in keeping their original name and adding a new direction to their company, as people don't know what they really do anymore. The logic in having an identifiable worldwide name is not hard to figure out. Every company wants to serve all its multinational clients under a single name. Berlitz was probably the first to do this and now all the other language firms are following suit. Bowne Global Solutions is trying to do this by making the e-mail address for every one of its operations exactly the same except for the suffix of where the operation is located (this was not an easy task as each one of the five firms it acquired had its own moniker). The Corporate Word went through this process in a methodological style at a "substantial cost" according to its President, Tom Blondi. Blondi was the head of an investment group that named itself Language Management International. When buying The Corporate Word, an established translation firm, they realized a name change was in order. "We also localize code", stated Blondi, "not just translate words." Thus the venerable name was retired to the verdant hills of Pittsburgh and future acquisitions were done under the name Language Management International. Blondi instituted a multilingual search program to make sure that the eventual name, LMI, had no negative connotations. LMI will become the brand for this Denver based company, which now has operations in South America and Asia. The new attention to branding also reflects the fact that firms in the language business need to offer more of a total solution to their clients than in the past. In the old days (like ten years ago), the client delivered a box containing the English text for translation. The translator translated what was in the box and gave it back to the client. Now companies want their translation vendors to get involved in the entire process of documentation-if not globalization. If you have a limiting brand name (i.e. if it doesn't have "legs" in marketing parlance), this becomes more difficult to do. People also realize that with larger translation budgets firms like Andersen Consulting, which has a brand name to do just about everything, will be moving into the language and localization business through their MIS work. So in the face of this trend, having a company name like "Fred's Translation Service" might not help, nor would adding "localization and documentation" to the title. It would not be surprising if, in another ten years, there are no world-class players in the translation and localization business that have those words anywhere in their names. I also have a theory that the corporate names among language and localization vendors followed the job titles of the clients they served. Thus, when there were just documentation mangers to sell language services to, many firms had the word "documentation" in their title. We then went through an evolution to where we now have job titles of "globalization manager" among companies. I thus predict renamed firms will start calling themselves "global" this or that. The New Name Rules When LionBridge Technologies hit the localization scene a couple of years ago they announced "Welcome to LionBridge Technologies-a new brand name on the localization front..." And then, when they made alliances with different firms in the industry such as Trados, they announced "two of the leading names in the translation business announce a future oriented value added relationship..." This is just an example of the efforts of the new brands in our business to develop a reputation and name identity. These more modern entrants and the firms that are adding new services to venerable names know that they are in the marketing business, and that marketing principles apply. There is not one set of marketing principles specifically for translations and localization and another for the rest of the world. We all know and intellectually accept the famous "Intel Inside" advertising campaign. This campaign has manufacturers marketing their computers with the Intel Inside swirl logo. The message is that this computer is better because it has Intel's chips. Intel marketed this concept separately, just like Nutrasweet did with soft drinks to convince the Coca Colas and Pepsi Colas of the world to use its sweetener. But where did Intel get the idea? It wasn't from an industry consultant or MIS specialist. What inspired this concept of ingredient branding was the Smucker's jelly inside of Kellogg's Pop Tarts, Dennis Carter, Intel's vice president of marketing noted. "Smucker's is really a strong brand, and jelly is a well-understood product. The concept of putting Smucker's jelly into Kellogg's Pop Tarts and combining the two very strong brands was really brilliant. I wanted to create a situation that was win-win like that." I can see a publisher of multi-lingual software beginning a campaign to have language firms state that translation was done with its software. This already happens to a certain degree when language firms list the resources that they have and they inevitably list the types of software they are using. The branding permutations are endless, which is what the sophisticated marketers that are ever more present in this industry are finding out. How to Build a Brand Identity in the Language Business There are several immutable laws that you need to follow before you can create a name that comes up automatically in the minds of the client or consumer (don't assume that because everyone in the language business knows who you are that those in the marketplace do as well-everyone in the language business may, but certainly not everyone in your target market will). 1. Have a quality product or service to sell. A rustic friend of mine who lives in Wyoming put it simply: "Can't make dogs into cats." If you do not have a quality product or service, no amount of branding will help you win customers. So before you go out and hire the best that Madison Avenue has to offer, make sure that you are offering the best to the customer. The best-known firm in our business found this out in the early 1990s when it was going through a period of corporate turmoil: the chairman of the holding company died mysteriously, the corporate rudder was adrift and some of the best personnel started leaving. Clients like UPS, Medtronic and Allen Bradley left. They had the best name in the business but the marketplace wanted more than a name-it wanted to be assured it had the best service and technology. 2. Have a name that is easy to say in a variety of languages. A one- or two-syllable name works very well in multiple languages, as do initials as long as they aren't confused with someone else's. There have been cases where one company has been spending good money on its identity, only to find the money was helping someone else. I think it's fair to say that in this age of the Web, you have to have a name that is yours exclusively on a worldwide basis. It's no longer good enough for you to have the only name like that in London. Too often when company names are selected, language executives forget that many names that may have positive meanings in their native language, do not translate well, if at all, into other languages. Unlike natural language, a product or service derives much of its meaning from the perceiver's experience with the names of similar things. This is why you wouldn't name a refrigerator "The Explorer" or call a power saw a "Dove". One high-tech company found this out when it named its software after Greek gods in English, such as Zeus or Jupiter. While these names denote strength in English, they meant nothing in other languages and were also hard to pronounce. So what is the world's perfect product name? The name that is not only easy to pronounce in most languages, but which also carries a positive connotation. Maybe it's "OMO", the laundry detergent form Unilever. The "omo" sound sounds like "mother" in many languages. In our industry, Trados and Logos carry the heavy "o" sound from "omo" very well-"mother's software?" There are several steps a company can take to make sure its name has "legs". First: get the message right. Second: have legitimacy. And third: express function. Professional language firms start with a list of messages to be expressed in potential names. The names consist of linguistic elements called "morphemes." These elements of a word connote what a word might mean. For example, "in" connotes a drug or scientific advance. It's not coincidence that Excedrin, Motrin and Anancin all end with the same morpheme. And we have discussed how the morphemes "trans", "loca", "poly" and "lingua" have been overused in this business. Whatever morpheme you use, and "global" and "solution" are certain to enter into more common usage, it has to fit in to the character of the product or service. This avoids having a name fit for a banana being used for a new multi-lingual software product. Similarly "Barcelona", which Globalink uses to describe its new software, worked because everyone knows that Barcelona is an international city. I don't think the product would work as well if they had called it "Kansas City." That name applies better to a barbecue. Finally, after these elements are dealt with, companies need to consider "speech stream visibility." Along with the other characteristics, this addresses the question of whether the name is easily pronounced in other languages. Some of the world's most successful global names such as Sony, Acura and Exxon were derived by screening out sounds and symbols not common in certain languages. And if you want to develop a worldwide brand name for a language product or service, you have to follow the same rules. 3. Sponsor Something Intellectual Sure, you have to advertise and buy pens with your logo on them but the best way to get your name known in this business has always seemed to me to be to sponsor an intellectual event. Associate your name with the expansion of knowledge in the industry. It has become almost de rigeur that if you introduce a new product or service in the language industry you become a LISA sponsor. However, the process does not end with LISA, Logos has embarked on creating the Logos Institute, which brings its clients and potential customers together for an interchange of ideas relating to language management. Companies that add value, not lower prices, are the most successful in any business. 4. Share of Mind is Share of Market McDonald's spends US $ 1 million a day on reminding us that if you want fast food, McDonald's is the place to go. The same sort of constant reminder needs to be sent to your clients and customers. One firm sent clients and potential clients case histories of how different companies handled their language management. The case histories were kept in a binder, the spine of which had the company's name and logo on it. This was usually put on a bookshelf over the recipient's desk. Every day that company's name was seen by the intended recipient. 5. Repetition, Repetition, Repetition You should find ways to keep repeating your name and message to clients on a continual basis. It has always been my contention that you stretch your identity dollar over the period of an entire year instead of say, dropping all of it at some event like COMDEX or CeBit. John Freivalds JFA 5160 Colonial Drive Minneapolis Minnesota 55416, USA Tel +1-612-525-0731 Fax +1-612-525-0659 E-mail JFA@worldnet.att.net