According to a recent article in Markedsføring, tourists are turning their backs on Denmark. And Denmark’s marketeers are blaming the porcelain-obsessed marketing that pushes Denmark as a fairytale land. Instead, the marketeers would like to see greater focus on Christiania, the gay scene and Denmark’s free-mindedness. This seems like a good idea to me.

Look at one of Denmark’s neighbours and biggest tourist competitors, Norway. Even Norway has a porcelain factory that pumps out exquisite, and expensive, porcelain. And while fairytales may be good for kids, Norway has fjords, mountains and polar bears (not in the streets!).

So the key would be to find Denmark’s unique selling points (USPs) and push these to the hilt. So what are they? As the marketeers say, Christiania is a good one - and regularly comes high on lists of Denmark’s top tourist attractions. But it’s been watered down in recent years.

So what else is there? While Denmark’s gay scene and free-mindedness may not be unique, they certainly appeal to the country’s closest neighbours. And they could be harnessed until Denmark becomes known as Northern Europe’s most open-minded nation. That would have some appeal to certain tourist profiles.

Whatever happens, as the marketeers point out, it has to overcome Denmark’s recent bad international publicity. Take a look at CCN’s Danish section and you’ll see why. It’s all Salmonella and Islamic ire. But according to CNN, Denmark still ranks highest as the happiest place on Earth. Perhaps it’s about time people outside Denmark began to see why - and when they did, they might also discover Denmark’s USP.

This car advert caught my eye on a recent trip to Poland. But something in the number plate put me off buying one.

“Do you want your caffe latte with taste?”
“Can I get it without taste?”
“Of course, but for only five kroner extra, you have it with taste.”

That was a snippet of a rather bizarre conversation I had recently in an Oslo cafe. I was rather puzzled by what a tasteless cafe latte may be: with a swirly straw perhaps. Maybe with a colourful umbrella. But after some further interrogation, I realised that the word the waitress was looking for was flavour. A small difference in word, but a huge difference in meaning. She was referring too flavoured sirups, but even with the correct word, the question still needs a little polishing to get the actual meaning right.

This wasn’t some out of the way cafe in the suburbs that wasn’t used to foreigners. It was on the main drag, two minutes walk from where the tourist boats dock - and with a clear view of the royal castle. Which made me think - perhaps special English courses designed just for waiting staff would be a good idea. If you know of any, let me know and I’ll pass the details onto the cafe in question.

For reasons that only the Norwegian state can explain, I’m not allowed a mobile phone subscription until I’ve lived in the country for three years. The solution offered by Chess, my mobile provider, was simple. Get the subscription in my wife’s name.

So on my wife’s birthday, I recevied an SMS from Chess wishing me (her) a happy birthday. But what is the point? I don’t for a minute believe that someone at Chess said to themselves, “Oh, it’s Klara’s birthday, I’ll just send her an SMS to give her my best wishes.” It’s so obvious that this is an automated function. And instead of making me feel like a valued customer, it made me feel like a tiny cog in a very large impersonal, automated money-making machine.

One great advantage of these systems is that they remind you of information like this. But the key is to turn this information into tailored, personal messages - if you do this, you can make your customers feel valued.

A couple of days ago I came across this vision from iStone. And it’s amazing how quickly I turned off as soon as I saw the word vision.

The vision of iStone is to become the customers’ obvious partner concerning everything that involves their business system. We want all our customers to be highly satisfied with our products and services. In order to achieve this we offer a cooperate agreement.

My reaction - glazing of the eyes, idling of the brain - leads me to believe that one of the biggest issues with vision texts is how they are presented. Visions are sterile things and we’ve become immune to them. To catch a reader’s attention, the vision has to be rephrased and represented in a compelling way. Instead of starting a sentence with Our vision, it would be better to kick off with something like:

We want to see…
For us, the future is…
We can see a time when…

But this still won’t work if the vision isn’t…well…visionary. Wouldn’t it be nice if a vision created an amazing future picture of the world that taps into the reader’s imagination? I would read, and care about, the iStone’s vision if it said:

Imagine a world where business systems run automatically, doing all the administration tasks for you so you have time to concentrate on the work you love.

But of course, vision still need to be presented internally. To do that, you could simply start We work towards creating a world where…

Perhaps a pharma company could phrase a vision something like this:

We want to live in a world where intestinal pain is a thing of the past; where everyone has access to affordable medicine that treats intestinal illness instantly.

(Internally, this could be presented as: Our goal is to create affordable medicine that…)

I guess I have a vision: Think of a future where company vision statements are truly exciting statements of the possible future of our world.

Sounds good, huh? But is it possible when it comes to copywriting? Many of our customers seem to think it is - and are using long-term service contracts to achieve it.

In short, this means creating centralised supplier contracts with fewer suppliers. Because the supplier builds up a relationship and knowledge of your company, you get a better end product and use less time on briefings. And you don’t spend time negotiating a new contract for each job.

Here’s what our managing partner, David Hoskin, has to say about it. “More of our customers are looking to solidify their relationship with us in this way. It allows them to build up trust over a number of jobs until we’re viewed as an extension to the marketing department. We can be called upon when things get busy – and guarantee to always have writers available to get the job done on time. Also, with this level of trust and insight into the client, we’re able to support other agencies who offer a unique service on a project but don’t know the client so well.”

So, could this be the death of supplier juggling? Read the full article to find out more.

Transcreation seems to be something of a buzzword in the translation and communication world at the moment. But defining exactly what it is can cause some issues. So why all the hullabaloo?

Japanese-web.com puts it like this: “transcreation is to translation what copywriting is to writing.”

Basically, the concept is that while a translation merely recreates the original in another language, a transcreation takes the feeling, ideas and messages, and renders them in the new language. And in order to do that, as the name suggests, a transcreator must be creative. They have to understand what connections the original text is making with readers, and carry that over into a new language, complete with the cultural references, idioms and expressions that make the original text work.

But not everyone agrees - especially not translators, it seems. And it’s not hard to see why. The concept of transcreation relegates translators to delivering a second-rate service. They are no longer specialists. Instead they become word-for-word automats blindly following the meaning - but not the essence - of the original. Suddenly, a transcreation agency can charge more than a translation agency. For some translators, the transcreation concept appears somewhat…well…created.

This is put rather nicely by John Yunker.

If the original text is rubbish so is the translation
We’ve all seen translations that are dull and poorly worded, falling well short of engaging an audience. But maybe this isn’t always the translators fault.

The current translation versus transcreation debate assumes one key point - that the original text is already excellent. This should be the case for high-profile ad campaigns (sadly, it isn’t always); but it’s rarely the case when a text has been developed in house by a non-professional copywriter. When this is the case, a translation has no chance of delivering great text, and transcreation becomes re-writing in another language.

…but it won’t. Or maybe it will. Who can say?

Here goes a little copywriter’s rant. The phrase design to is one of the most badly used in the marketing and advertising worlds. Think about this: Our product is designed to save you money. Fine, but does it? Why not say: Our product saves you money? If it does something, say that it does it. Simple.

So how should you use the phrase design to? When you are talking about something that it not used for it’s original purpose. Something like this: Originally, perfume was designed to cover up body odour, now it’s become an essential accessory for many women (and men).

Everytime you are tempted to write designed to, remember: The Sinclair C5 was designed to revolutionise driving.

Nearly every company wants to include its history on its website or in brochures. But very few company histories are interesting to read - and even fewer could ever be used as an advertisement. Finding a compelling way to talk about company events a hundred years ago isn’t easy. Some companies use graphs, some bullet points and others turgid text. And very few are successful.

And then I came across this:

He just wanted a decent book to read…

Not too much to ask, is it? It was in 1935 when Allen Lane, Managing Director of Bodley Head Publishers, stood on a platform at Exeter railway station looking for something to read on his journey back to London. His choice was limited to popular magazines and poor-quality paperbacks - the same choice faced every day by the vast majority of readers, few of whom could afford hardbacks. Lane’s disappointment and subsequent anger at the range of books generally available led him to found a company - and change the world.

‘We believed in the existence in this country of a vast reading public for intelligent books at a low price, and staked everything on it.’
Sir Allen Lane, 1902-1970, founder of Penguin Books

The quality paperback had arrived - and not just in bookshops. Lane was adamant that his Penguins should appear in chain stores and tabacconists, and should cost not more than a packet of cigarettes.

Reading habits (and cigarette prices) have changed since 1935, but Penguin still believes in publishing the best books for everybody to enjoy. We still believe that good design costs no more than bad design, and we still believe that quality books published passionately and responsibly make the world a better place.
So wherever you see the little bird - whether it’s on a piece of prize-winning literary fiction or a celebratory autobiography, poitical tour de force or historical masterpiece, a serial-killer thriller, reference book, world classic or a piece of pure escapism - you can bet that it represents the very best that the genre has to offer.

Whatever you like to read - trust Penguin.

This was a full-page ad at the end of a Penguin book, and as soon as I started reading it, I was hooked. So why does it work so well?

For a start, the opening question sets up a little mystery for the reader. We hate an unsolved question, and we read on to find the answer. The same question puts us in Allen Lane’s shoes, we can feel his frustration - we’ve all searched the newsagent book stand looking for something decent to read, knowing that if we don’t find something we face a long, boring journey.

Then there are the details. Exeter train station, a packet of cigarettes. These locate the story for us in something concrete that we know and understand. Notice that these aren’t overdone: we don’t know if it was raining, or hear about the bussle of a busy station. But there’s just enough for our imaginations to flesh out the story.

Next are the emotions. We know that Lane was disappointed, angry even. Using these emotions enables the story to make quite dramatic claims (he changed the world). It also lends weight to the words believe and trust towards the end.

Then comes a strong (and slightly humorous) link to the present day. Things have changed the story tells us, but the belief at Penguin stays the same, and that means we won’t experience the same frustrating moment on Exeter train station.

Finally, it doesn’t tell too much. It doesn’t talk about takeovers, factories opening in Asia or recent product innovations. It tells just one story - the one that supports Penguin’s basic principles.

So, if you want your company story to do more than just be a list of facts and figures, look back into the past. Every company has an starting point - and with the right treatment, it can be used to enhance you brand.

You can read the full Penguin story. This version was a little too long for my taste. But still, every paragraph contains elements of what’s described above.

In one of his books, John Simmons (writer, brand expert and much more) recounts a wonderful story. I’m going to paraphrase the story here (appologies, John, if I get anything wrong):

John had just finished his book Great Brand Stories: Innocent, and emailed one of the founders of Innocent Drinks to let him know everything was done. John received a reply that said something like: “well done, it’s a beautiful day, you should go to the park to celebrate”. So John sent back an email that looked something like this:

Subject: Out of office reply.

John Simmons is not in the office. He’s in the park enjoying the beautiful day.

This story made me think. Are we missing a trick on our out of office replies? Surely, this is a good place to build closer relationships with clients and suppliers. Explaining what you are doing could be the starting point of a friendly dialogue when you get back. It would certainly add a little more personality to your communications - and as we often only ever meet each other over email, extra depth is something we could often use in our work relationships.

Obviously, in some cases, details can be less than helpful. It may not be a good idea to write: “I’m not in the office today. I’m in court facing charges of shoplifting.”

But “I’m skiing in Norway for four days. Barring accidents, I’ll be back in the office on Friday and will get back to you then.” is a nice thing for people to read. We all take holidays, go to children’s birthday parties, travel on business. And it may be nice to share this information with clients.

So, I’m going to try it. I’m out of the office until next Tuesday. Send me an email - and you’ll find out what I’m up to. And of course, I’ll get back to you next week.