Cemetery Chain Case Study
Background
A client who owns a large chain of 17 cemeteries wanted to penetrate the Hispanic market and approached us to translate their marketing campaign. Their marketing strategy for the American market was very aggressive and included a website, and doorknob flyers.
The challenge
Our goal was to adapt the material for a Hispanic audience so that it respected their established traditions and culture regarding this sensitive subject but would still maintain its persuasive selling points.
Our Solution
We had linguists with marketing backgrounds from different Spanish speaking countries review the English material and provide us with feedback. This process revealed that the English message was too aggressive for a Hispanic audience. There were several references to money and savings that needed to be reformulated or even eliminated because these references appeared too materialistic to a strong, family-oriented culture. In addition, the photos weren’t representative of Hispanics. Our client accepted our suggestion to eliminate some of the material (ex: door knob advertising) and the remaining marketing materials and website were adapted for translation by changing slogans, taglines, mentions of money, and photos, to contain values about death and dying that are reflected among the target Hispanic population.
Benefit to the client
Our client was able to effectively communicate their potentially unsettling message in a culturally sensitive manner without incurring the cost that would be involved in completely redesigning the material.
Lessons Learned
Working with the concept of death and dying can be uncomfortable regardless of your culture or background. We learned that the key concepts of respect for the sensitivities of others and calm, understanding behavior in the face of emotional distress are the building blocks for any marketing campaign that attempts to bridge cultural associations with important issues that affect all of humanity.
- Client Testimonial
- Thank you again for your fine and speedy work in translating the material I sent you earlier this week.
N. G., Esq.
