What Word of Mouth Can Learn from Cartoons

What do Powerpuff Girls, Spider-Man and Disney's Cutie line all have in common? These US cartoon characters have all been re-invented by a process called transcreation. Far more than just dubbing in another language, these icons of the cartoon world now have relevance in the global markets they enter. Can transcreation help build stronger WOM programs? Read on.....

On 10/16/07, the Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article "Cartoon Characters Get Big Makeover For Overseas Fans". The article profiles some of the changes in well known cartoon characters to make them more relevant outside the US market. One of the most interesting changes to each character during it's transcreation process involved their super power origins. For India, Spider Man's alter ego Peter Parker gains his super powers from a "mysterious yoga" and not a spider, and for the Japanese market, Powerpuff Girls became super-heroines by eating a super-charged rice cake.

So what does this all have to do with WOM Marketing. In order for someone to talk about a product or service they have to be able to relate to all aspects of it. Beyond its features and functionality, it has to be relevant to their culture, their values and yes, of course their needs.

In marketing, values and cultures are many times not addressed, to say nothing about product re-design. Yes, a proverbial diverse photos may be added and translations done, but changing the product story or making design modifications based on physical differences in the market's people are often times overlooked. The Powerpuff Girls changes for the Japanese market, involved changing their physical look (longer legs), their storyline approach (more complex) and the length of each show segment (from 11 minutes to 20 minutes). Operationally; product design, production, contracting, writing all were impacted.   So imagine what could happen if products and services line designers, marketers and creatives took a page from the cartoon transcreation book. New revenue lines would be born, differentiation would occur and the result would be more referrals, great on-line reviews and more impactful WOM campaigns. So, for those of my readers who are in the planning stage for WOM programs in 2008, focus efforts on the product itself first and campaign development second. In other words, give you audience something to really talk about!