How to Localize Packaging for the Chinese Market
Intro
No matter your brand’s situation, marketing to local
consumers in China is challenging.
In our recent piece on the 5 best and worst Chinese
branding adaptations, we gave a few historical examples of huge
miscommunications between brands and consumers – like Mr. Muscle being
translated semantically into 肌肉先生 [jīròu xiānshēng], a direct homophone of “Mr. Chicken”.
Thankfully, most brand blunders are corrected quickly by the internal branding
teams and in 2016 these large-scale oversights are rare.
Now we see issues of brand localization happening at the
tangible level; specifically, in struggling to effectively localize a product’s
packaging. Here we will share some insight from Labbrand’s presentation at the
Food and Beverage Innovation Forum 2016: challenges you may not expect
during packaging localization.
Package localization in China is like a wedding
dance: the visual identity is the newly wed couple dancing on stage,
catching the eyes of the audience, enveloping them in a beautiful display. The
dance can be a fiery, jaw-dropping salsa, or it can be an elegant and refined
ballroom dance, but no matter the style there is always a shining diamond
– the verbal identity – which nobody can take their eyes off.
Together they create something striking.
But how large should the diamond be? What cut is best
suited? Some brands choose to show local verbal identity in an understated
fashion. Evian 依云,
one of the world’s premium water brands, chooses to focus on its Latin name to
remind consumers of the natural source at Evian-les-Bains in France. The
Chinese name 依云
(to sit on a cloud) is shown only lightly on the side. Conversely Nestle Pure
Life shows the full Chinese name 雀巢优活 (Nestle Outstanding Life) exclusively to
speak natively with its expansive target of families in China. The signature
lockup leaves no trace of a foreign brand.
Evian & Nestle Pure Life
In this article, we will go into the elements of
effective package localization, analyzing several cases through their Visual
and Verbal Identity components. These components can each be divided into three
areas: Chinese Culture, Brand Idea, and Category Positioning.
Visual Identity
There is no one style of dance that is universally
better. A young couple may choose an energetic and lively dance that fits their
personality while an older couple’s dance could be entirely different.
The newlyweds must discover what works best for them. What does the audience
want to see? More importantly, what do the newlyweds want to show?
We can define a Visual Identity on localized packaging as
the combination of logo, color palette, photography style, graphic style and
fonts. How a brand optimizes this combination is oftentimes the difference
between being idolized and ignored.
Chinese Culture
As foreign brands try to connect, there are a few obvious
routes to be taken that align with traditional Chinese culture, such as
identifying with the Chinese New Year holiday during the first quarter of the
year. Color palettes of red and gold are common across FMCG brands for these
promotions, as well as revamped graphic styles that highlight popular elements
like gift-giving or the new year’s Chinese zodiac animal.
Smirnoff, Nutella, Häagen-Dazs
Brand Idea
Expressing your brand idea on a localized packaging is a
major opportunity for communication. In China, there are 3 types of visual
identity codes that international brands can focus on:
·
Aesthetics:
the “code of beauty” has evolved to become a substantial factor in effective
design. Like the dress of the newlyweds it can stir an awe-inspiring and
powerful emotion just by how it looks. Nongfu Springs 农夫山泉last
year released limited-edition glass water bottles with a white scale color
palette and simple, elegant design that naturally attracts the eye.
·
Interaction:
designers can also prime for interaction – that is, using visual language to
describe the moment of use. Notice how the graphic style and font of Dove 德芙
describe the silkiness that floods forward with a bite of Dove chocolate.
·
Sharing:
the ultimate goal for an FMCG brand is to be shared, whether on digital or in
person. The bright and playful color codes of Xiaoming Tongxue 小茗同学 pair
up with an expressive cartoon to create an example of local packaging you may
even want to take a selfie with.
Nongfu Springs & Dove Chocolate & Xiaoming
Category Positioning
But each category is different, and what works for the
ready to drink (RTD) tea industry will not necessarily work for a brand
selling spirits. Mapping out the category’s competitors, saturation points, and
white spaces will allow you to develop distinguishable local packaging.
Northern Lights’ local packaging shows us how to draw
upon category best practices: its Chinese name 需洋渔 is understated below its large foreign
name to emphasis product origin; its color tones are comprised of blue and
white with a wavy-style window to remind of fresh ocean; it draws upon
professional photography style to show healthful creations.
Verbal Identity
No matter how beautiful a dance is, it means more with
the diamond ring. The cut, clarity, carat of the ring can reflect a local flair
or a foreign taste, and when made correctly this gemstone can form an emotional
bond with whoever is watching.
The Verbal Identity on localized packaging is comprised of a brand’s local name and tagline, and can either steal the show or scare shoppers away.
The Verbal Identity on localized packaging is comprised of a brand’s local name and tagline, and can either steal the show or scare shoppers away.
Chinese Culture
Some characters in Chinese draw distinctly positive
associations because of historical significance, or because they are part of a
multiple-character phrase with positive associations, or because there is a
distinct cultural inclination towards the meaning. Cadbury 吉百利
leverages the characters for “auspiciousness” in its Chinese name, while Bud’s
Ice Cream 八喜
combines the lucky number 8 with one of the two characters that comprise
“happiness”.
Cadbury & Bud’s Ice Cream
Brand Idea
The Verbal Identity’s role in expressing the brand idea
is meant to last, and as such a company must choose carefully its local name.
For international F&B brands entering the market, there are 3 types of
verbal codes we can focus on:
·
Aesthetics:
while being aesthetically appealing is subjective for a verbal identity, there
are certain names that universally succeed in piquing interest, such as the 茶π
brand – combining the Chinese word for “Tea” with the symbol for the
mathematical constant. The uniqueness and individuality of this gem catches
eyes and turns heads.
·
Interaction:
priming the customer for the moment of interaction is a simple way to bring out
emotional benefits in a brand name. Here, Chips Ahoy 趣多多
reminds the consumer of enjoying the cookies again and again.
·
Sharing:
Coca-Cola has perhaps the most famous example of how to locally design a
package for sharing, by leveraging first trending
subcultural nicknames and then popular song lyrics. A lesser
known example is KFC, who created custom messages on their family buckets for
different target sub segments, including “movie lovers”, “brothers”, and
“new generation”.
ChaPi, Chips Ahoy!, KFC
Category Positioning
In a given category, Chinese names tend to revolve around
similar language codes. Mapping out where there is heavy saturation among
verbal identities can allow you innovate around the edges.
Pepsi 百事可乐 operates in the well-known carbonated beverage category,
in which many brands follow Coke’s lead by translating “Cola” to 可乐
[kělè] back in the 40s – a phonetic similarity that can be roughly translated
to “allow happiness”. But as Verbal Identities in the category look
increasingly similar, Pepsi MAX leveraged a loud and intense local translation
to allow for greater differentiation: 极度 [Jídù], which directly translates to “the
extreme”. The Visual Identity assists in the emphasis on 极度 with
a bold typeface and lockup.
Pepsi MAX
Key Takeaways
Like the groom slipping a gemstone onto his bride’s
finger, Verbal and Visual Identities must complement each other; the flow of
one must be reasserted by the other. They must be synchronized from the first
step forward. When designing a localized packaging, we must always consider the
importance of Leveraging Visual & Verbal Together.
BelVita Breakfast Biscuit is a best practices case of
this. The Verbal Identity refers to slow baking with sustained energy, and
implies sunny mornings and clear skies with a bright, energetic tone. The
Visual Identity uses high-caliber photography, a friendly font, and a bright
color palette to catch the eye of the consumer and drive home a healthy,
balanced, and positive message.
Over all, we can say there are 4 other takeaways that can
be useful regarding packaging localization in China.
·
The
balance between Chinese and Alphabetic brand name on packaging: There is a
growing trend towards usage of Chinese language even on imported product or
foreign brands locally produced in China. Finding the fine balance
between Chinese and Alphabetic names is a question that must tackled for new
packaging development.
·
The
impact of Chinese culture: leveraging the Chinese culture for visual and verbal
codes is a necessity. It is the single most powerful lever for your brand’s
success.
·
Designing
for sharing: Brands are always meant to travel, but digital has made this
possible in a way never imagined before and opened new possibilities for
design’s role in the sharing process.
·
The
power of beauty: After a century that reached the apex of rationalism, visceral
beauty is again in vogue and growing. Investing in aesthetics pays off.
How is your brand localizing its packaging?
Marking Awards 2018
Marking Awards 2018(Click to read
more)，Initiated by FBIF (Food & Beverage
Innovation Forum), Marking Awards is a food and beverage packaging design
contest organized in Shanghai since 2016
while targets the global. In a forum platform where attracts worldwide attention,
Marking Awards was born to find and praise brilliant Chinese F&B package
designs, and encourage communication between local and global design power. In
doing so, the awards committee aims to speed up local brands’ packaging
innovation, package functional optimization and improve their aesthetics
standards, thus finally all the stakeholders can build a creative packaging
ecosystem together. Marking Awards is not only an industrial competition, but
more like an attitude injecting creativity and wisdom to our daily life.
/ WeChat Groups /
Add Ada Chen (ID: 15021839607) to join in CEO, CMO, Chief
R&D Officer, Functional Foods, FSMP, Infant Food, Dairy,
Alcohol, Catering, Beverage, Snacks, Marketing, R&D, Packaging, Design, etc.
WeChat groups (Group members include seniors from Nestle, Coca-Cola,
PepsiCo, AB-InBev, Yili, Mengniu, Master Kong and Nongfu Spring etc.)
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