The branding consultant Martin Roll says that Danish companies can use their “Danishness” to their advantage. In an interview with the Danish business newspaper Børsen, he advises Danish companies to stand up for their Danish values.
Denmark has many great values that can be relevant to people outside of Denmark. The challenge as I see it is communicating them in a way that the rest of the world can understand.
It’s not about imposing these values on others, but more about putting them in the context of what is important. Companies are experiencing that, yes, they can use Danish values - but they just shouldn’t call them “Danish values”. Instead, these Danish values need to be described specifically and in context using clear, concise language. This is the big challenge facing many Danish companies.
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.
At Eye for Image, we see spelling mistakes every day. Some make us cringe, others make us laugh. We cringed and laughed when we saw the job title “Pubic Sector Analyst.” Ooops. Even spellcheck wouldn’t help with that one.
But can you just imagine you are a Public Sector Analyst? You’re at a meeting. You’ve just given out your business cards to each of the 10 people at the table. Then you notice the missing letter ‘l’ in your job title. How on earth do you recover from that one???
Spelling. For some, it’s a cinch. For others, it’s a minefield. It’s one of the very first things we begin to learn at school, and we keep on learning as long as we are reading and writing. Oh, how spellcheck programs have simplified our lives! But those pesky misspellings show up anyway.
Our recent WordSpin article on misspellings in English lists 16 common ones. Check it out and see if you learn something new.
Got a memorable spelling mistake yourself? Post a comment on this blog entry and let us know what it was. We promise to laugh with you, not at you!
Looking for a competent sales director? Wouldn’t you rather have an experienced one? Or successful? Or even well-qualified? Or is just about good enough good enough for you?
Looking for a competent page turner
Danish companies love the word competent. Problem is, it isn’t quite the heavy-weight champion of job ads that it might appear to be – and though it can mean ‘qualified for the job’ in certain contexts, it certainly doesn’t carry the weight of Danish ‘kompetent’.
Look up ‘competent’ in an English dictionary. The issues jump out at you straight away. It has two related, but conflicting, meanings. Dictionary.com shows:
Having suitable or sufficient skill, knowledge or experience for some purpose
2. Adequate, but not exceptional.
So, competent means ‘suitable’ – a skills-set that’s a good fit. Nice. That sounds like just what I’m looking for in my sales director. But ‘sufficient’? Just about good enough to get by? Mmm, not so good…
The second definition, though, really starts to get to the heart of the problem. Adequate. Not very inspiring, is it? I wouldn’t recommend anyone build their job interview strategy on how adequate they are. Kicking off with, “I can guarantee adequate results” in a job interview for any managerial position would be as effective as breaking wind.
Saying “I’m competent,” isn’t quite as bad as saying “I’m adequate”, but it’s not much better. It sounds like you haven’t finished your sentence. And the interviewer would finish it for you: “…but nothing special/not very good/a bit slow on the uptake”. There’s no escaping it, to most people on the street, competent means ‘just about good enough’.
But there’s more.
The negative form of competent – incompetent – is used much more often than ‘competent’ in everyday speech. It’s commonly used to make complaints, especially about people’s work. Calling someone ‘competent’ conjures the shadow of its more popular, darker sibling. And never quite shakes it off.
How do you use ‘competent’? Do you think it’s appealing enough to use in a job ad, or a job interview? Let us know what you think: write a comment.
In Denmark, “You are welcome to send an unsolicited application” is used quite a bit – but few feel comfortable with it. Quite often, our clients ask us: Is unsolicited application the right term to use? Will people understand it? What can we say instead?
This was one of the questions asked during our seminar yesterday, “Boost your brand with great writing”. At the seminar, we looked at how messaging platforms, tone of voice guides and style guides are essential tools for marketers and communicators. As communications managers, everyone could see the value in these. But afterwards, a few people asked me basically the same question: “How do I convince company management?”
I can see the problem. To someone who doesn’t prioritize communications, it seems like a lot of resources to allocate to preparation and planning. “Can’t we just get this campaign rolling next week?” management may ask.
The point is, of course, that it’s much easier to produce any campaign if you’ve done the planning and set specific, long-lasting guidelines. For each campaign, you’ll greatly increase your chances of success – such as increased response and more sales opportunities. It also ensures your company’s communications remain ‘on message’ and that no rogues appear from different corners of the organization.
With a firm eye on the bottom line, top management wants to see financial benefits. Yes, investment is required upfront, but in the not-so-long term, there should be savings as marketing materials are produced faster and more consistently. A challenge for communications and marketing managers is to document results and, wherever possible, show the numbers.
Another important argument is that the leading brands do it. Why is it that GE’s ads, website and other external communications continue to build a homogenous picture all based on the same story? You can say the same about Apple, Microsoft, LEGO and many others. Look at the effort that goes into communications planning – and look at the value of their brands.
Burning issues
At our seminar yesterday, there were lots of other interesting questions. We always learn a lot hearing about the real issues facing companies today. And with company sizes ranging from over 90,000 employees to less than a hundred, we heard a fascinating mix. Some of the issues that spring to mind are:
Are a company’s values the same as the company’s tone of voice?
We use our style guide, but no-one else in the company knows it exists
When we have the tools in place, how do we make sure they have the right effect in our local offices around the world?
We’ll be holding more seminars about these and other communications topics, so let us know if you’d like to be kept in the loop. And we’ve also written a WordSpin article on a similar topic. Check out Who’s telling your brand story?
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.
Der er i øjeblikket en heftig debat i gang blandt kommunikatører om, hvorvidt det danske sprog er ved at blive oversvømmet og udvandet af engelske ord. Uden at gå for meget i detaljer omkring, hvor jeg selv står i den diskussion, vil jeg gerne dele en lille anekdote med jer.
Jeg deltog for nylig i en konference, hvor en masse dygtige danske forretningsfolk gav vi andre dødelige et indblik i, hvordan de arbejder med markedsføring og kommunikation. Eventen “in itself” vil nok ikke gå over i historien for mig, men flere af talerne gjorde dybt indtryk med deres brug af flotte engelske ord!
Jeg har derfor opdigtet en lille tekst, der ikke har direkte relation til det, en af talerne i virkeligheden delte med sit publikum. Men samtlige engelske ord i min tekst indgik rent faktisk i vedkommendes ”danske” indlæg. Enjoy!
En lille exercice
“I denne lille exercice vil jeg tage jer med på en tur gennem det danske sprogs mange nye opportunities – et indspark til debatten om de mange engelske ord, der hver dag sniger sig ind i det danske business-language.
For at se, om vi er on track, kan vi foretage forskellige actions for at måle det danske sprogs performance ude i den virkelige business-verden. Man kunne for eksempel starte med at opstille en execution liste og outline en workstream, så vi er sikre på at få det hele med. Det giver os mulighed for at predicte på, hvor mange engelske ord, der sniger sig ind i f.eks. danske business blogs, websites eller one-pagere.
Når vi så har handled analyserne og løbende har tjekket op på vores KPI’er, så vil de fremkomne charts formentlig give os et view på, om vi har nået vores targets. Resultatet vil uden tvivl vise, at det danske sprog ikke længere er aligned med det sprog, man talte for bare et par år siden, da den engelske influence var noget mindre. Vi er nået way past common-sense stadiet, og jeg tror, at der skal sættes nogle drivers i gang, så vi ikke ender med totalt at out-spende vores kvote af tilladte engelske ord per tekst i det danske sprog.
Hvad er vores learning?
Vores learning må være, at vi hver dag når nye milestones med vores sprog – og at vi dermed løber nogle risks for ikke at kunne benchmarke sproget og skabe ækvivalenter til de mange engelske business terms…”
Walking into a pre-sales meeting armed with a complete and comprehensive power point presentation can be dangerous. Not dangerous as in something to fear. But dangerous in the sense of missing something important – such as an opportunity to provide an important client with something they need.
Marketing is no longer about persuading your prospect to see things your way. Modern business communication is just too advanced for that. Try it, and your audience will almost certainly get restless, if not outright hostile. Dangerous. Something more open-ended and interactive is needed so your prospect becomes an active and more engaged part of the process.
Techie trickery - or not…
I recently made a presentation to give some feedback on a project we’d run with a major client. Unfortunately, we had some technical difficulties – not uncommon when I’m involved. To cut a long story short, I couldn’t access the slideshow I’d put together.
Rather than shout, ‘Look, a baby wolf!’ and run out of the room, my colleague and I sat down and began asking our clients questions. We knew what we wanted to talk about, but by asking questions, we quickly found out what they wanted to talk about. And we had the responses to hand without needing a single bullet point.
Your client will always get the point - if they made it themselves
When we did finally hook up the laptop, we’d already covered most of the points - or our client had covered them for us. As a result, we raced through the slides while everyone in the room nodded their heads in agreement. How could they do otherwise? They’d made most of the points themselves. And there they were, on the screen, as if by magic. It was clear that everyone was onboard: when we all walked out of the meeting together, we were still talking.
In fact, the conversation made it through reception and into the kitchen. The result? Two further meetings have been scheduled already - one of them with top management. It would seem that the ‘Best parties end up in the kitchen’ rule could also apply to business meetings.
While a loose, informal approach may not be appropriate in all business meeting scenarios, when it comes to finding out what your clients need, it never hurts to listen.
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.
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.
