When you really think about it, it is somewhat bizarre how the birth of a man over two thousand years ago in a land far away has anything to do with the holiday most of us think of when we celebrate Christmas.
Even more profound is the way in which this religious festival has transcended borders and language barriers, taking the world by storm.
Christmas across the world
To understand the appeal of Christmas worldwide, it’s important to consider the culture and the language surrounding the festival first. Apart from Easter, Christmas is the most important date in the calendar for practising Christians. On Christmas Day, Christians believe Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary in a stable in Bethlehem. You might think a religious festival for Christians might have limited appeal, considering almost 70 per cent of the world’s population is non-Christian.
However, the festival surrounding the birth of Jesus has morphed over the centuries, to the point where a Japanese person can celebrate during the festive season, but entirely differently. In Japan, there are just one to two million Christians out of a population of 125 million. Christmas Day itself is just like any other regular working day, and it isn’t considered a national holiday (yet). Even so, the Japanese have taken Christmas to heart, taking phrases such as Merry Christmas and localising them as ‘Meri Kurisumasu’. Cakes are baked, cards are exchanged and a season of goodwill is extended to all.
Fast-food chain KFC is a high-profile example of a brand that helped popularise Christmas as a special occasion overseas, especially in Japan. During the festive season, Japanese people are known to bring fried chicken to the dinner table. This is believed to stem from a popular 1974 marketing campaign by KFC dubbed ‘Kentucky for Christmas’ (or ‘Kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii’ in Japanese). Such a marketing campaign may have succeeded in spreading the popularity of Christmas in Japanese markets, by acknowledging the emphasis on food and being merry, as opposed to marketing Christmas as a western-based religious festival.
Localisation of Christmas
Having the right words at your disposal for Christmas marketing overseas is just one part of the story. To see how brands can get things horribly wrong at Christmas when marketing abroad, check out some of our Finest Festive Translation Fails, to see how brands have got lost in translation.
The experience of KFC making a success of selling Christmas to Japanese consumers is a perfect example of how localisation can be carried out in practice. Christmas is a remarkably appealing festival to market globally, as many of the traditions it entails appeal in a cross-cultural sense: gift-giving, fun and games, good food and a sense of getting loved ones all in one place. Having the right words is one thing, but knowing the context and the cultural differences is another. This means a proper localised campaign at any time of year using the right words should strike the right note and feel as inclusive as possible, while also making grammatical sense.
If you want to avoid overseas markets going cold turkey on your brand this Christmas, it pays to have translation service providers who are sensitive to the target market you have in mind. Bubbles have been helping businesses in this regard since 2003. We’ve helped translate into 280 languages, with a team of translators who work well with tight deadlines and last-m
