Inventive Latin American product branding (3): The doctor’s advice

As an alumnus of two Marketing related studies I am always interested about “How to connect to the customer”. If you are not Coca Cola, Adidas or Burger King and therefore far away from the relevant set, it might be quite difficult to reach the consumer. Because of this you will need to have a strong brand name to catch customers’ attention. Unfortunately the best seats are already taken, what a bummer! So why not trying it with the easy way? Very suboptimal idea as I will show you now with a couple of wonderful examples, that I have seen across my travels to South America.

Whenever I hear talking about a doctor, I have the imagination of white gowns, the smell of disinfectant spray and someone with a lamp on his forehead. I automatically think about a doctor of medicine, although there are several other doctoral studies possible, such as Dr. jur., Dr. phil., Dr. oec. etc. But my first is always dedicated to the men and women whose profession is to heal other people. A doctor title gives a man or a woman reputation and prestige. The enhancement of a Dr. to the real name makes a difference amongst all commons.

After the other article I wrote a few weeks ago I thought, that it might be a good idea to summarize and analyze some brands in South America who are trying to bask in the light of fame of a doctor. Let’s take a look, if this article can be as funny as the previous one about all the Misters in South America.

Doctor Cell – Quito, Ecuador

Doctor Cell has a very small store at Avenida Cristobal Colon in Quito next to an Oki Doki shop. Many more information I couldn’t get about Doctor Cell, there is neither a homepage, nor a Facebook profile available. Probably you can let your mobile phone (in Spanish: ‘celular’) repair in that store, because the key visual holds one in his hands. Or you can go maybe to Doctor Cell to let your body cells heal.

Dr. Clean – Quito, Ecuador

I don’t remember where and when I took this picture, but supposedly it’s from Ecuador, because I can see a little Ecuadorian flag on the left bottom. Okay, after a quick Google-check I can say, that it’s an Ecuadorian company. Hmmm, thinking now about the mind transfer from hygiene to health to doctor. You only need a doctor, when you are sick. Not when you want to clean your house or body. Not convincing idea!

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Inventive Latin American product branding (2): The power of the Inca

Marketing

(Approximate reading time: 5 minutes)

South America is a very colorful continent. Many cultures, many people, many races, many ethnicities, many languages. But not so many countries. Only 12 different states counts the continent of 17,8 million km². To all fans of the non-metric system who don’t have any idea how many miles this is: It’s quite a lot! The whole continent was colonized by ancient European royal dynasties hundred of years ago and still today the roots of the South American continent are deeply visible.

Before the Spanish and Portuguese conquerer came to the American continents, not many advanced civilizations existed. Naming here especially the advanced civilizations from the Peruvian tribes who cultivated corn and implemented the pottery 2,000 bc. and later the metal processing with gold and bronce. And the Inca still have a have a very high credit and reputation within the Peruvian population because all the achievements and acquisitions they made. Peruvian people are proud people. And their proud is reflected amongst several products and service they offer.

Read here more about the interesting substantiation from all the Inca products and the explanation of their names.

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Inventive Latin American product branding (1): When a Mister rules a whole continent

Marketing

(Approximate Reading time: 9 minutes)

We will start with some funny examples to show you why the easiest name isn’t always the best. In today’s edition I will try to fathom and comprehend why South American businessmen, entrepreneurs and companies are using a very obvious English salutation to stigmatize and brand their own products and service. Although the English level isn’t the highest amongst the population of several South American countries.

In the traditional South American culture the power isn’t equally distributed. Let’s just say, that men have ordinarily more to say then women in society, family, job, etc. Many structures, traditions and regimes are characterized by a the macho component. This shows up as well in the language itself, e.g. when talking about groups of people. You would not understand virtually the difference between the personal pronouns when talking about a group that only consists of men (‘Ellos’) and a mixed group of men and women (‘Ellos’). Regardless, if there are one man and 50 women you are talking about, you still call the whole group with the masculine personal pronoun. Only if talking about a group that exclusively consists of women, you would make a difference (‘Ellas’). But this is just one of the examples to explain the macho culture. Not all languages can be so easy as English, where to use the ‘You’ as a direct and indirect salutation and for groups irrespective of their gender.

Another reason next to the macho roots of South America might be the attempt to use the polite way to call someone. A ‘Mister’ simply sounds better and the influence of the United States in South America is still big. There are a lot of so called ‘Yankee Investors’ who take influence with their businesses, products and services to the local population. And a lot of businessmen want to be treated with respect and politeness when coming to the particular countries and cities. So there were a lot of ‘Misters’ around, that wanted to be treated politely.

But probably the most important reason is to enhance the product and give it a strong imagination. A product is plainly possible to embody and typify with a masculine character, a ‘Mister’. Finally it can be said, that the simple salutation might be one of the easiest words to remind when learning English. This word remained in a lot of memories, even if your English level is know you know what it means. A ‘Mister’ sounds strong with its American-syle or noble English way.

The biggest problem is, that it’s not original, nor quaint. There isn’t one very strong product that outshines it all, there are thousand smart entrepreneurs who thought, that it’s a good idea to call their products ‘Mr. PRODUCT’.In all sorts of markets and industries. It’s not quick-witted idea and can stand solely for quality. It only raises for a single moment the attention, but then every consumer has the “I have seen it already somewhere else” – feeling. And here is the biggest problem: It’s not unique and if they have seen it already somewhere else, it’s easy to replace with another product. Only if the quality is convincing, the consumer will remind the product. But not a name which exists with hundred other products.

I can’t imagine this type of branding in other languages. At least in Dutch or German it simply doesn’t work. Not because of a lack of politeness, but it simply wouldn’t work. But To give you a few examples, I will show a few screenshots I made during my travels in South America and will describe them a little bit.

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