Utilise Bilingual Branding to enhance your Business Brand
Business of Bilingual
Your business brand is vital to how clients and potential clients or customers view you. Now depending on your location and business strategy, how you approach bilingual branding will be unique to your business. In the context of this blog we will be viewing bilingual branding from the perspective of where we are based, Wales. Wales has two official languages, Cymraeg (Welsh) and English.
Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.
Steve Jobs
Bilingualism in Wales is a part of the everyday fabric of Welsh life, you see it on television and traffic signs, hear it on radio and in the shops. The question is how does your business benefit from the power of bilingualism, regardless of whether you offer bilingual services or products?
Firstly if you are targeting a Welsh domestic market, having bilingual branding is a clear marker for people to recognise. Whether someone speaks Welsh or not, as soon as they see Welsh they immediately associate that to Wales and therefore to local. If you take a look at consumer research you will find localised brand loyalty is a powerful buying motivation.
Therefore if you want people in Wales to know you are a Welsh company, you can achieve this very simply by utilising bilingual branding and you can avoid using a cliche symbol, such as a red Dragon or daffodil, that may impinge on your brand identity.
Competitive advantage
Competitive advantage is something we all want as businesses. Your bilingual brand will help you achieve competitive advantage over both international and domestic rivals. Don’t forget there are overs 550,000 fluent Welsh speakers, but also there are the immediate and extended families of 101,000 (*stat 2015/16) Welsh Medium educated children, of which approximately 82% do not speak Welsh. Clearly however this often overlooked group have a strong connection to the language and therefore can be a key demographic to consider when branding your company in Wales, and this does not include the English language stream whom learn the language as a second language and number in excess of 350,000 individuals. So although Wales appears to have a minority language the reality is that the majority of Wales are interacting with the language on a daily basis and either conscientiously or sub-conscientiously the language is a trigger of identity, home and Wales – all of which are powerful buying emotions.
Stand out from the crowd
Subtle bilingual branding can achieve great results and also provide a uniqueness to your brand, in an age of visual consumption recognition in a crowded marketplace can be vital. A bilingual brand name or bilingual social media, for example, can provide that stand-out-from-the-crowd effect for your business.
