Globalization is a reality for brand owners today. The breakdown of trading borders, the spread of communications and above all the speed and availability of the Internet and mobile communications mean that strong global brands (think of GOOGLE, SONY or NOKIA) are more powerful than ever. But entering new markets, which may have different languages and cultures, presents special challenges to in-house counsel. These may require the consideration of localized branding, advertising or marketing campaigns-which may in turn have an impact on the value of the brand itself.
During today’s session CM01-Effective Global Branding: Crossing Cultural and Economic Borders, which starts at 10:15 a.m., Ana Cashman of Playboy Enterprises, Paul Rawlinson of Baker & McKenzie London and Sven Klos of Klos Morel Vos & Schaap in The Netherlands will discuss ways of dealing with such issues.
One of the key questions for any brand owner to consider when launching a new brand or revising an old one is whether to pursue a global or local strategy. This raises questions such as whether to translate the brand into local languages, or use non-Roman scripts. While there may be several advantages to translating a trademark or marketing slogan, such a move could potentially dilute the brand’s value and create confusion, which counterfeiters and rivals might be able to exploit.
During a roundtable on global brand strategies last year, Linda Heban, vice-president and chief trademark counsel with Harley-Davidson, told Managing IP: “It’s just not practical for us from a marketing perspective to have to name the same product with different names in different jurisdictions. We wouldn’t go down that path.” But, speaking in the same discussion, Joe Quigley, assistant general counsel with Nike, pointed out that sometimes you have to draw a line: “I am curious when you are trying to clear something internationally and you have cleared it in every country except, say, Spain, is there a cost-benefit analysis to say: ‘Well, what are our sales in Spain or where does Spain rank in terms of the importance to the business? Therefore we won’t let that hold up something that the marketing group just absolutely is in love with.’”
And, in some cases, failing to translate a brand into the local language can have devastating effects. Randall Frost, author of The Globalization of Trade, has written about how Microsoft’s VISTA translates to “a disparaging term for a frumpy old woman” in Latvia and Motorola’s Hellomoto ring tone sounds like “Hello, Fatty” in India. Other examples of brands that do not translate well include the Vauxhall NOVA automobile-No Va means don’t go in Spanish.
Much attention today is focused on the so-called BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and a key consideration in these (and other) markets is transliteration of marks into languages such as Mandarin, Hindi and Russian, which use non-Roman scripts. But transliteration also presents challenges, particularly where languages are based on characters rather than letters-as companies including Sony Ericsson, Coca-Cola and Pfizer have discovered in China. Companies have different strategies on this question. In the roundtable, Heban said: “Particularly in China we have transliterations of our core trademarks and model names all registered in China and we have domain names with Chinese characters. We do that in Japan as well.” Quigley commented that Nike rarely pursues translation or transliteration: “NIKE is a fairly simple mark and not necessarily prone to a lot of issues with the local language and we are pretty consistent in our branding.”
The virtual challenge
The Internet exacerbates many of these challenges as it allows companies to reach millions of consumers in an instant and dramatically raises the stakes for brands that are known worldwide, potentially opening the floodgates for counterfeiters and increasing the potential for piracy and brand confusion. User-generated content, keyword advertising, domain name kiting and phishing all present new frontiers in brand protection and weigh heavily in a company’s brand management strategy.
The challenges of online protection are bound to increase, with new top-level domains (TLDs)-including internationalized domain names (IDNs)-on the horizon. In Paris next month, ICANN’s board is expected to vote on a policy framework regarding how new TLDs will be integrated into the domain name system. Brand owners could soon be faced with tough decisions about whether to register their rights online in many different languages, different texts and under different domains.
