Branding and transcreation

Dress the brand to fit the market

Оur client is BHS International, one of the UK’s largest retailers. They primarily sell clothing and household items.

BHS International wanted to expand into Asia. Their goal was to locate new franchise partners in China for two of their brands – Tammy and BHS Kids.

They came to us seeking consultancy about the Chinese market and requesting help to achieve a strong launch and long-term success for their brands in this hard-to-break market.

What challenge did we take on?

• We needed to consult with BHS International about localising the two brands so that they would appeal to the Chinese consumer and suit our client’s intended positioning in China.
• We would need to offer multiple clear options so that the client could select the version which best suited their overall branding and positioning.
• The final logo designs needed to incorporate the Chinese characters for the brands in a way that would have the desired impact on the Chinese target consumers while also retaining a visual link to the English logos.

What did we do?

After receiving a briefing on the BHS strategy for China, we instructed one of our in-house Chinese copywriters to analyse the two brands and offer several suitable options for the Chinese name.

For each option, we provided the Chinese characters, pronunciation, English meaning of each character and explanation of the related cultural and fashion issues. This enabled BHS to select the Chinese names that most closely matched their objectives.

Once our client selected the Chinese names, we instructed one of our in-house Chinese designers to analyse their English logo and approved Chinese brand names and propose several designs for their Chinese logos.

What was the outcome?

Not only were BHS International very happy with the branding, but they were also able to gain significant credibility with their potential Chinese partners.

The logos demonstrated a commitment to treating China as a unique market – in contrast to some of their competitors.
We were subsequently able to integrate the logos and the localised branding into additional documents which BHS International asked us to translate.

These included brochures, business cards, presentations and flyers. This localised collateral has been invaluable as the company develops its activities in China.

Read More Success Stories