Localising Brands - Part 1

Take a look at this.

One bold swoosh and we know what's inside. What's funny is that a global brand that does not need to write it in English has to have ‘Nike’ written in the local Hindi script on the left bottom corner of the signboard. [Credits Geeta from wn.com/nike_apparel]

Localised Brands. This is one area that companies should take more seriously. It doesn't cut it when they move into new geographies without a superbly crafted logotype in the local script.

They come across like this: "We better put some local language font out there. Who cares about the font and all that - just make it really small so that some crackpot doesn't come around making trouble."

They should instead choose this approach: "Here's the 'local' version of our brand identity. We really love being a part of this new place and we respect the local people, language and customs. "

There are some great examples of how to do this: Jason Smith of Graphicology has a popular post on Western brands in Dubai and is a great collection of Localised Brands - Logos and Packaging.

Here's the approach we took to solve the local + English language problem while designing the Big10 branding for Bangalore's bus system. It reads both in English and Kannada in a single Graphic unit.

The below image shows the online version of Google Bharat and our sketchy idea for a Hindi version.

A small investment into creating this localised branding would really make people feel like the brand is inclusive. And this goes across the gamut of communications: from Logotype to brochures and brand messages.