RightSpot Media | Digital Performance Marketing

Soda or pop? Language choice essential to content optimization

Posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 3:59 PM by Sara Chappel  |  Comments (0)

Colour or color? Recognise or recognize? Pop or soda?

Does it matter?

If you think the answer’s no, then you’ve never engaged in an argument about the relative merits of "cotton candy" versus "candy floss." Or "couch," "sofa" and "chesterfield."

English is so variable that academics at East Central University in Oklahoma have produced a map of the US that shows the distribution of generic names for soft drinks.

(For the record, I say "pop." My Buffalo relatives say "soda." It turns into a heated debate over Christmas.)

Language is more than spelling and grammar

See, people are sensitive about language.

Variations in spelling, phrases and slang are really symbols of a greater cultural identity.

Canadians, for example, can be squirrelly about the whole language question.

Ever seen Joe Canadian and heard his rant?

"I speak English and French, not American … and it is pronounced zed. Not zee! ZED!"

It’s a perfect illustration of the potential pitfalls of choosing an appropriate language for your website.

Use the wrong one, and you cause friction for your users—which means you could end up losing customers.

How to optimize content for language

Luckily, this very subject was the topic of Jakob Nielsen’s December 1st Alertbox posting, "American English vs. British English for Web Content."

Nielsen’s excellent points all boil down to the marketer’s mantra: "Know thy audience."

Not only that, but know them well enough to predict what language variants will cause them the least amount of friction.

Here are some points to remember, drawn from Nielsen and from our own experiences with our clients:

1. Choose the right language for your offering
   If you’re trying to emphasize the local-ness of your product, for example, use your local variant. If you sell butter tarts from a bakery in Arthur, Ontario, and your audience is mostly Canadian, you might as well be as Canadian as possible. Colour, neighbour and centre out the wazoo.
    
2. Get used to the idea of American English
   If you’re only targeting prospects in Canada, the UK or Australia, then by all means, use those forms of English. But if you’re like us—an online business, with clients on both sides of the border and beyond—keep in mind that the lingua franca of the internet is American English. Sorry, Canucks. Too bad, Brits. That’s the way it is. If your business is mainly online, and you hope to appeal to a wide international client base, get accustomed to -ize and -er endings on words.
    
3. Be consistent
   No matter which English you choose, use it consistently. Spelling a word differently on the same page is distracting to your readers, which means more friction—and less attention paid to the awesomeness of your offering.
    
4. Become familiar with your local variants
   Don’t take for granted that the English terms you know and love mean the same thing to everyone. Phrases whose meanings seem crystal clear to us are met with quizzical looks—or blushes— elsewhere in the world. In the UK, a play that’s a "bomb" is a huge success, "STD" stands for "subscriber trunk dialing" (and means direct-dial long distance) and "fanny"—well, let’s just say the term is a lot more vulgar in the UK than it is here. (Curious about other terms? Check out more British/American phrases.)
    
5. For videos, podcasts and other spoken media, keep it neutral
   Here’s where Canadians get to shine. ESL students throughout the world prefer Canadian English teachers because their accent is, aside from some regional variations in pronunciation, neutral. Same goes for English speakers from the Midwest and Northeast US. Regional accents can carry strong positive and negative connotations—so if you’re smart, you won’t use voice talent with a Texan accent if you’re trying to appeal to Democrats. And if you sell used cars, the Queen’s English just doesn’t fit. Know your audience when you pick your voice talent.

Remember: friction—any friction—distracts your prospects from your message.

So it’s worth paying attention to all these little details—because your audience certainly is.

Have you had language issues with your website? Leave a comment and let us know. Start a debate. Join the discussion!

Tags: copywriting, language, localization, usability