If you’re planning on making the leap abroad and selling your company to a foreign audience but think there are a lot of grey areas, don’t be so full of gloom and doom. What you need is internationalization. In this post, you’ll find out about one of the most intriguing and significant aspects of product or website internationalization: colour.
As we explained in our article International Content Marketing: The Key to Success, an internationalization strategy must be geared towards the audience you’re wanting to target your products at.
For example, if you’re looking to translate your export website, you need to bear in mind that the content is going to reach audiences from different backgrounds and cultures. Therefore, you need to do everything possible to avoid introducing elements that could be offensive or misinterpreted.
It’s not only translation that comes into play in this process of internationalization; adapting the content to the culture where you’re wanting to sell is also crucial. For example, no one doubts the importance of localising units of measurement of currencies on an e-commerce website.
Although it might appear to be of little significance, the colour of the products and the export website play an important communicative role in the message you’re wanting to transmit to your clients. Remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
One of the aspects subject to localisation is the background of your web or the packaging of your product. Depending on the colour and tone you choose, you’ll provoke one perception or another in the target audience of another culture. For example, you could denote a specific topic (for example, environment with the colour green) or an important special event (such as the sales).
Despite there being numerous services on the internet that let you design your website for free, it’s not all peaches and cream: turning to an expert is the best thing you can do so that there are no blunders related to such matters. However, if you’re a bit green and want to discover some interesting facts about the colours to use in your exports company, here are a few:
- Close your eyes and think about how the colour blue makes you feel. It reminds you of the calmness of the sea, right? In western cultures, this colour is associated with tranquillity, peace and security, all very positive connotations. This makes blue the safest option when reaching out to your clients with a product or service in a more effective way.
However, it’s not all good news. Do you remember what the third Monday in January is called? Blue Monday, the saddest day of the year! At Tatutrad, we hope it doesn’t take a toll on you and that the colour blue inspires calmness and tranquillity.
- Are you superstitious? Then yellow isn’t the colour for you. No doubt you’re thinking that it symbolises bad luck, but did you know that in Egypt it transmits just the opposite! It is the colour of gold and the sun, which represents eternity and indestructibility and it is closely linked to the gods. On top of that, it’s also a colour that tends to symbolise happiness and optimism.
- Green, on the other hand, isn’t only the colour of hope. It’s the colour of nature, which is why Ireland is known as the Emerald Isle. Moreover, if your company has something to do with environmental or ecological matters, it will no doubt be one of the best options.
It also represents fertility, luck, youth and wealth, and is the colour that represents Islam. In Mexico, it’s considered the national colour, the symbol of independence. But, watch out! If you’re looking to export your products to Indonesia, you should know that green is a forbidden colour, while if it’s South Africa you’re targeting, you should bear in mind that it represents death.
- Within the primary colours, we can’t go forgetting red. It is a risky colour, which can mean a lot of different things depending on the area. On the one hand, it represents love, passion and fertility (it is the colour of the dresses worn by brides in China), while, on the other hand, it can have negative political connotations (“Reds” is used as a form of reproach for communist sympathisers) or even be related to death (it is the colour of mourning in South Africa).
- What does purple mean to you? Perhaps nothing at first, but if you stop and think about how the colour is used in the United Kingdom, you’ll see how it commonly appears on buses, shopfronts and street advertising. This colour tends to be associated with products that want to inspire the consumer with confidence and a sense of high quality. Why? The colour purple is closely associated with royalty, for example, the British crown and its colonies. In fact, this is the colour of the flag of the Commonwealth of Nations.
- Although it may appear to be void of meaning, the colour white can be a sign of mourning (in Japan, China, Korea and the Middle East), as well as being associated with peace, purity, health and weddings.
If you want to correctly convey what your company means in order to effectively export your services on an international scale, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team of professional translators.
We offer comprehensive consulting services so that you find the option that best suits your company’s needs.
We apply all of our technical knowledge and extensive experience in internationalization and localization to help you make the right decisions and increase your sales abroad.
We’ll also take care of the translation process to ensure the best linguistic quality of your product and web page content. Remember, here at Tatutrad we’ll be delighted to lend a hand.