Whether your marketing just targets Asia, or throughout the world, multilingual content will put you a step ahead when accessing the world’s growing markets.

So far, Asian producers are the most active businesses on Facebook, while Twitter boasts that their growth is concentrated in India, Japan and Indonesia. Instagram & Pinterest have become successful because of their active users based in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Make Images Work

A robust logo that has no borders, like the Apple icon, or Coca-Cola’s white and red design do not need any translations. Consumers already know what image certain brands carry. They can decide themselves if the product is fun-loving, upmarket or attractive to youth.

Unless your product or service is embedded in strong cultural traditions, avoid any image which is too tied to a single Language or culture.

Adapt both Media and Messages to the Local Market

Once a strong image has been developed that appears to transcend boundaries, familiarise yourself with the local market. What it seems to prefer will affect all the regions. For example, social media is now absolutely an essential component of all content marketing and certainly in the Philippines. ComScore has figures which highlight that Asia has some of the globe’s keenest online video viewing and Vietnam is currently the leader.

Also, consider a message that matches the culture of each targeted country. KFC gained its popularity worldwide when it started to blend its core products with local cuisine.

Coca-Cola has one good example and that is adapting its global brand to an audience which is country-specific. Its ground-breaking campaign was lucky to tap into country-specific Hong Kong teenagers. By using slang, it appealed to those who are fun-loving. It flooded the youth market with its use of interactive apps, Coca-Cola ultimately created and adopted a campaign that adapted carefully to local culture. The interactive promotional material used YouTube, television, cinema, Weibo, as well as outdoor advertising screens to speak its customer’s language.

Coca-Cola showed how language may truly make a campaign more personal as teenagers in Hong Kong quickly related to its message. In order to cover Asia, the brand needs to connect the customers in their own language. There are several languages that need to be considered.

Facebook began in English but now users can choose from more than 70 languages. Both Chinese and Indonesian languages are in the top 10 on the Facebook site. This global multilingual approach means global customers expect to be able to choose their language when thinking about purchasing a product online.

Mobile Multilingual Content

Mobile devices feature throughout Asia more than anywhere else in the world. For example, in China Mobile web browsing has taken over completely from desktop browsing. Today there are a billion mobile subscribers. In Japan, 4/5 of its population prefer mobile web use.

Multilingual content tactics aiming for Asian markets and in particular, the younger generation should include mobile campaigns. In order to grow brand awareness, an app for mobile devices needs to be developed to capture the attention of the public with an app that is useful and entertaining.

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